10 Practical Ways to Use ChatGPT to Make Your Teaching Life Easier (Even if You’re Afraid of AI)

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10 Practical Ways to Use ChatGPT to Make Your Teaching Life Easier (Even if You’re Afraid of AI)

You can use ChatGPT to quickly create lesson plans, assignments, discussion questions, learning objectives, powerpoints, grading rubrics, and more, making you a more effective and efficient educator.

For many educators, the idea of incorporating AI into their teaching practices might seem daunting and unfamiliar – but it doesn’t have to be. As with any new skill, it can take some time to get used to using ChatGPT, but ultimately you’re using the same process that you use to input keywords into a search engine: choosing what language to put in and then continuing to refine your language based on the results that are returned, until you’ve gotten specific enough to get ChatGPT to deliver what you need. Once you know what kinds of things you can ask ChatGPT to do for you, it won’t take long to get the hang of asking for them.

In this blog post, we’ll show you some practical ways to integrate ChatGPT into your teaching routine and demonstrate its potential to enhance your classroom experience. From lesson and course planning to assignment creation and administrative tasks, this AI tool can simplify your workload and support your creativity without the need for extensive technological expertise.

If you are worried that students will use ChatGPT to plagiarize, you are not alone. Click through to read about strategies for heading off artificial intelligence-based plagiarism: Beyond Ctrl+C: 7 Best Practices to Prevent ChatGPT Plagiarism in the Classroom.

Learning Objectives and Scaffolding

ChatGPT can be used for foundational planning, such as writing learning objectives for a course, unit, lesson, or assignment. One starting prompt for this is:

Generate a list of learning objectives for a unit [or lesson] on ______.

If you want to scaffold the material to build learners’ skills and work towards mastering the learning objectives, you could add:

Generate a list of learning objectives for a unit on _____. Use Bloom’s taxonomy to scaffold the material.

Here is an example of using this prompt to create learning objectives for an annotated bibliography assignment. Click here to see how ChatGPT responded.

Generate a list of possible learning objectives for a unit on creating an annotated bibliography for a researched argument essay. The unit will take one week (three 50-minute class periods) of a college freshman composition class. Use bloom’s taxonomy and scaffold the learning objectives to break up the material and build toward learners ultimately creating their own bibliography. ChatGPT’s response: Sure! Here’s a list of possible learning objectives for a unit on creating an annotated bibliography for a researched argument essay, scaffolded using Bloom’s taxonomy. The image cuts off before the rest of ChatGPT’s response.

Assignment Creation

In previous posts, we’ve covered how use ChatGPT to create worksheets, handouts, quizzes, and tests and how to elevate your assessments with ChatGPT. In addition to these, ChatGPT can also create grading rubrics, scaffolded assignments, and even unit schedules.

Rubrics

A starting prompt for generating a rubric is:

Create a grading rubric for a/an [assignment] for a [course subject and level].

Then, add more details. Are there specific skills learners should demonstrate? Is there more information about the assignment that would help make the response more specific? Include those details as well.

Here, I’ve used ChatGPT to create a grading rubric for a personal narrative essay. Click here to see ChatGPT’s response.

Create a grading rubric for personal narrative essays in a college composition class. The essay topic is to write about an experience that changed the writer’s understanding of how the world works. For an A, the essay must include a well-told true story in first person, vivid details and descriptions, and a greater significance to the narrative beyond just the events of the story, and include minimal grammatical, punctuation, and surface errors.

Scaffolded Assignments from Learning Objectives

ChatGPT can build on your learning objectives to create assignments and lesson plans. If you used ChatGPT to create your learning objectives, you can do this in the same chat by adding onto the conversation – something like this:

Create a [type of assignment] to meet these learning objectives.

Or, in a new chat, you can create an assignment by inputting this prompt, plus your learning objectives.

Create a [type of assignment] for a [course subject and level] class to meet these learning objectives:

Then, paste in your learning objectives and let ChatGPT do its thing. I used this prompt to create an annotated bibliography worksheet:

Generate a worksheet or worksheets for students in a college freshman composition class to help them build an annotated bibliography for a researched essay, using at least 5 academically sound sources. They must use the university library databases to find three of the sources. Here are the learning objectives this worksheet should meet. The image is cut off before the rest of the prompt.

Click through to read ChatGPT’s response.

Lesson Planning

This is an area in which ChatGPT can save educators a lot of time and energy. You can use ChatGPT as a tool for creating the materials you’ll use to deliver course content to learners – from schedules to powerpoint presentations, discussion questions, activities, and more.

Lesson Schedules

Just as with the worksheet above, you can continue your learning objectives chat to create a class-by-class schedule for delivering lessons to those learning objectives, or you can paste your learning objectives into a new chat and do the same thing. A starting point to do this would be something like these prompts:

Using the learning objectives above, create a lesson schedule for [number] classes that are ___ minutes long.

Create a lesson schedule for a unit on [topic] in a [course subject and level] class, for [number] classes that are ___ minutes long. The unit should meet these learning objectives: [paste in learning objectives here].

Here is an example of a lesson plan created using the latter prompt – view the whole conversation here:

Create a unit schedule for a unit on creating an annotated bibliography for a researched argument essay in a college freshman composition class. The unit will take two weeks (six 50-minute class periods). The goal is for the learners to create their own annotated bibliography, which they will use in writing their researched argument essay later in the course. The learning objectives for this unit are as follows:

Next, I want to show you a whole set of class materials that I generated in one extended conversation with ChatGPT.

You can see the whole conversation here.

Powerpoint Slides

I started by asking ChatGPT to create slides. The prompt I used for this was:

Create a __-slide PowerPoint presentation for a lesson on [topic] in a [course subject and level].

Create a 10-slide PowerPoint presentation for a university Victorian Poetry and prose class about the concept of the “angel in the house.” Provide examples from relevant literature (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as appropriate) and include discussion of how the angel in the house has had long-reaching ramifications for how we understand gender roles.
ChatGPT’s response:
Title: The concept of the “Angel in the house” in Victorian Literature. The image cuts off before the rest of the response.

Discussion Questions

Next, I created questions for a small group assignment. I included a lot of information in my prompt, and as a result, the response generated by ChatGPT was very thorough; but a basic starting point for this would be:

Provide a list of [number] discussion questions for this lesson.

Next, provide a list of 4 small-group discussion questions. Students will work together in groups of 3-4 students each to work through the questions and jot notes, and then we will follow the group with a whole-class discussion of their responses. They do not need to write a full response to the questions; it’s enough that they work together to develop their ideas and are able to articulate their ideas to the class. Include individual roles for each group member and/or instructions for equal division of labor.

Of note here – I was particularly impressed that ChatGPT created not only a list of questions but also instructions for how to organize the learners in each group as they worked through the questions.

Pop Quizzes

I continued my conversation with ChatGPT to create a pop quiz for the next class. One effective prompt for this would be:

Provide ___ questions for a short pop quiz on this topic.

As always, though, the more information you enter into your prompt, the more tailored the response will be.

Can you provide 5 questions for a short pop quiz on this topic? Students will take the quiz at the beginning of the next class. It’s purpose is to recall information from the discussion, ensure that students understand the material, hold students accountable for paying attention, and prime students for a class discussion on gothic romance. Questions should require about 1 sentence in response.

Lecture Starters

Next, I used ChatGPT to help me script the beginning of the next class – recapping the material from the previous day, then segueing into the next topic.

A possible prompt for this could be:

How can I introduce a lesson on [topic] for a [class subject and level] course? The lesson will include [any elements you plan to include, like a lecture, discussion questions, etc.].

How can I segue from yesterday’s class discussion of the angel in the house into today’s discussion of gothic romance and gothic literature? The literature we will touch on in class includes Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, and Louise May Alcott’s “A long fatal love chase”. This lesson will introduce students to “A long fatal love chase”, which they will be assigned to read in full.

Creative Ideas

Finally, I used ChatGPT to come up with some ideas for engaging learners and reinforcing the material. You could prompt ChatGPT to do this by entering:

What are some creative ways to teach [material or concept]?

What are some creative ways to highlight the features of gothic romance, particularly the elements of suspense, extreme weather tumultuous romantic relationships, mental instability, and architectural ruins? I’d like to avoid lecturing on this and instead create a lasting impression for learners.

Here are a few excerpts from ChatGPT’s response:

A portion of ChatGPT’s response that reads:
2. Dramatic Readings:
Assign students various gothic scenes or excerpts from the literature you mentioned, such as intense confrontations, eerie descriptions of architectural ruins, or emotionally charged moments.
Encourage students to collaborate and creatively plan dramatic readings, considering voice modulation, body language, and emphasis on the gothic elements within their assigned passages.
Provide time for groups to rehearse their readings and then perform them in front of the class.
Engage the class in a discussion afterward, focusing on the impact of the gothic elements and the emotions evoked by the performances.

A portion of a ChatGPT response that says: 4 Architectural ruins Photo Collage. Assign each student or small group a specific gothic architectural ruin from the literature you’ve mentioned. Instruct students to find or take photographs that represent the atmosphere, decay, and haunting beauty associated with their assigned ruin.
Ask students to create a collage or visual display using their photos, including brief descriptions of the ruin’s significante within its respective story.
Arrange the collages around the classroom, inviting students to explore and reflect on the visual impact and symbolism of the architectural ruins.

Click here to read through the entire conversation with ChatGPT and see its responses to these prompts.

Here is a similar conversation with ChatGPT in which I generated a PowerPoint slide show and a group assignment for an 8th grade unit on the Harlem Renaissance.

Can you generate a 10-slide PowerPoint explaining the poems “I Hear America Singing” and “I, Too, Sing America” to an 8th grade English-Language Arts class? The unit topic is the Harlem Renaissance.

Excellent. The assignment for this class will be to draft a poem in small groups representing how they and their peers also sing America. Generate a worksheet that breaks this assignment down into steps. Include individual assigned roles for small groups of 4 learners each.

Emails

Finally, ChatGPT can draft emails in whatever tone you ask it to take. On the surface, this may not seem like a time-saving application – by the time you’ve written the prompt, you might as well have just written the actual email, right? – but something unique that ChatGPT brings to these tasks is neutrality. You can ask ChatGPT to write the emails that have you feeling agitated or emotionally charged rather than expending the energy on setting aside your emotional response before doing the task yourself. Here are some examples:

Write an email to a student from a college history professor who suspects that the student has used ChatGPT to write her essay. The purpose of the email is to ask the student to come in for a meeting. Include questions about whether the student wrote the essay herself in full or if she relied on AI, which is against syllabus policy for this class.

See ChatGPT’s response here.

I am an adjunct instructor in the school of communications of a large university. Write a very polite email to my department head explaining that no, I cannot join another committee, because I am barely paid anything as an adjunct and I am teaching at three other universities and barely holding it together emotionally. This academic year I have been closely involved with the committee to approve new reading materials for the Intro to Public Speaking classes and the committee to provide direction for the department on how to support students who speak minority dialects, particularly African American English. If I have to join another committee I will scream, and I do not actually care how good this looks on my CV since it’s clear that full-time positions are never going to come available and I will never rise in academia beyond adjuncting. Anyway, please write an email responding to her very strong suggestion that I should join this committee, politely declining her invitation. You probably don’t need to include most of the above information.

See ChatGPT’s response here.

We’ll write more about using ChatGPT to handle some of your executive function-intensive tasks in a future post.

Who’s Afraid of ChatGPT?

If you haven’t tried using ChatGPT before, I hope this has given you a starting point for playing with it; or if you have been using it, I hope this provides some new ideas. The bottom line is that because ChatGPT can maintain an extended conversation, you can keep iterating on your prompts, refining language, and providing instructions as you triangulate what to tell ChatGPT to get what you want – and saving yourself valuable time and effort in the process.

Abi Bechtel

Abi Bechtel is a writer, educator, and ChatGPT enthusiast. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Northeast Ohio MFA program through the University of Akron, and she just thinks generative AI is neat.

Abi Bechtel

Abi Bechtel is a writer, educator, and ChatGPT enthusiast. They have an MFA in Creative Writing from the Northeast Ohio MFA program through the University of Akron, and they just think generative AI is neat.

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