Written by Dr Craig Hansen, New Zealand’s leading AI educator, digital specialist, and founder of the Summit Institute.
More than 1,000 schools across New Zealand trust Craig and the Summit Institute—a New Zealand private training provider—to navigate safe and responsible AI in schools, professional development, and strategic roadmaps. As we enter the next phase of this global shift, we must address the ultimate paradigm: “AI is the biggest equity move we can make in our generation.”
In this video, I’m going to show you how you can create an exceptionally powerful and efficient grading assistant using Gemini Gems. If you’re a New Zealand educator, this is a game-changer! We will build a ‘Gemini Gem’ specifically for grading writing based on the Refreshed NZ Curriculum, and it can be set up to use any progress descriptors from Year 0 to Year 10.
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In the video, I say that I’ll share the chat from Gemini with you in this description, but unfortunately Gemini wouldn’t let me share the chat, so I can’t. Sorry.
By copying and pasting the direct language from the Ministry of Education’s assessment matrices—available from the official website—into your Gem’s system instructions, you are effectively “programming” the AI with your exact professional standard. It will not only grade work consistently but also reference the exact criteria from the curriculum to show you why it reached its conclusion.
We’ll walk through:
1. Defining the ‘Gem’: Why creating a specialized, mini-AI (a ‘Gem’) is superior to using a general chatbot for grading.
2. Setting Up System Instructions: How to effectively “hard-code” the rubric criteria into the Gem’s foundational instructions, anchoring its analysis in official curriculum language.
3. Running the Grading Process: A simple prompt allows you to paste student work and receive immediate, high-quality, rubric-aligned feedback.
Iterating and Refining: I’ll show you how a school that I am working with uses this workflow as a powerful moderation partner. The human is always in the loop; we use the Gem to check our own professional judgment and confirm that we are on track.
This simple workflow dramatically accelerates the grading process while ensuring your feedback is accurate and focused entirely on student progress, directly supporting the goals of the Refreshed NZ Curriculum.
Start building your custom Gemini Gems today and redefine your assessment workflow! Here is the instruction set for your GEM:
“You are an expert primary and secondary school teaching assistant specializing in New Zealand English curriculum writing assessments. Your sole purpose is to analyze student writing samples against the official New Zealand Ministry of Education writing rubrics provided in the attached file “Rubric-Writing-Years-1-10-10-04-2026.pdf”.
CRITICAL INSTRUCTION:
The user will provide a student’s Year Level (from 6 Months up to Year 10) and an image or text transcript of a writing sample. You must carefully locate the exact corresponding page/year level rubric in “Rubric-Writing-Years-1-10-10-04-2026.pdf” and grade the student strictly against those criteria. Do not use outside rubrics or generalized grading standards.
When a sample is submitted, structure your response exactly like this:
1. Literal Transcript
Provide a clean, word-for-word text transcription of the student’s writing sample so the teacher can see what you are analyzing. Maintain the student’s original spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes.
2. Element-by-Element Rubric Assessment
Evaluate the student against the specific categories required for their year level (Transcription, Composition, and Writing Processes for 6mo-Year 8; or Crafting Texts for Years 9-10).
For each element, assign a sub-placement (Emerging, Developing, Consolidating, Proficient, Exceeding) based on the column definitions in the PDF. Provide specific, quoted examples from the student’s text to justify your decision.
- [Element 1 Name]: [Sub-Placement] – [Detailed justification referencing the rubric text and student text]
- [Element 2 Name]: [Sub-Placement] – [Detailed justification referencing the rubric text and student text]
- [Element 3 Name]: [Sub-Placement] – [Detailed justification referencing the rubric text and student text]
3. Overall Progress Descriptor Recommendation
Provide a final summary matrix table and an overall recommended progress descriptor placement (Emerging, Developing, Consolidating, Proficient, or Exceeding) for that year level.
4. Next Steps for Teaching
Provide 2-3 highly actionable, bulleted teaching recommendations based on the gaps identified in the rubric to help the teacher plan their next lessons for this student.
TONE & STYLE:
Be professional, supportive, objective, and clear. Avoid overly dense walls of text; use bolding and bullet points to ensure the analysis is scannable at a glance for a busy teacher.”
🔗 Resources & Links
🌐 Summit Institute Website: https://summitinstitute.ac.nz
The Rubrics https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O9KPO28aD9gR2SezRo40LRSpSafqUwyb/view?usp=sharing
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#NZEd #PrimaryTeaching #MathsNZ #AIEducation #GeminiAI #SummitInstitute #NewZealandCurriculum
To avoid systemic irrelevance, the first action for school boards and intermediate, secondary, and tertiary principals is to remove blanket bans. Banning a tool that is now ubiquitous only hides student usage while depriving them of prompt literacy and critical thinking. Craig argues that we must position AI as an assistant, not a replacement. Re-framing these environments allows Kiwi teachers and school leaders to navigate assessment workloads, lesson planning, and bicultural alignment efficiently, without compromising academic rigor.
💬 What New Zealand Educators Are Saying:
“AI has significantly improved my workflow by helping me plan lessons quickly, provide targeted feedback using e-asTTle rubrics, and create culturally responsive content. It saves time, allowing me to focus on active student interaction.”
— Primary School Digital Tech Lead, Auckland
Responsible AI Governance & Implementation
Developing a robust school AI policy that is safe, responsible, and culturally responsive is the cornerstone of strategy. Leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand must align school policy to support digital fluency, ensure data privacy, and protect critical assessment integrity under the NCEA. By integrating localized legislation directly into our curriculum and Te Mātaiaho framework maps, schools can build an environment that fosters innovative, self-directed learning.
For deep, step-by-step guidance, explore our complete list of educational strategies and workshops on our official YouTube Channel Masterclass.
