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Developing Extensive Reading Materials with Bloom and AI
This workshop presents Bloom, a free, open-source software that enables users to easily create multilingual, leveled books for language learners. Originally developed to address the global shortage of reading materials in underserved languages, Bloom has supported the creation of over 19,000 books in more than 830 languages. Participants will receive hands-on training in using Bloom to develop open-access ER materials—whether to address resource scarcity or support educators interested in authoring their own texts. The session also introduces AI image tools (i.e., Leonardo AI, MidJourney, and Apple’s Image Playground) to generate illustrations for the texts. The workshop addresses both the possibilities and limitations of these tools. Bloom’s intuitive interface makes it ideal for local authors and educators, while AI-generated images raise occasional image distortion or inaccuracy concerns. By the end of the session, participants will be able to create open-source and level-appropriate ER materials.
Orlyn is a licensed professional teacher and a PhD student in the Linguistics Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her research primarily focuses on the documentation and acquisition of Ayta Magbukun, an endangered Philippine Negrito language, with a particular emphasis on its syntactic structure. She also examines Tagalog within the frameworks of second language acquisition (SLA), psycholinguistics, and interactional linguistics. Her broader research interests include language documentation, child/adult language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and interactional linguistics (discourse particles).
Brett Mohar (MA) is a doctoral student and Japanese instructor (Graduate Assistant) in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His research interests include areas such as extensive reading, language socialization, and pragmatics. In particular, he is currently investigating how social interactions emerge during shared reading in extracurricular Extensive Reading clubs.