Artificial intelligence offers many opportunities to make our work more efficient and effective. The days of spending hours creating many of our own resources (or searching for the perfect resource), are over. You can use AI to generate lesson resources in minutes to streamline your planning while also providing meaningful, relevant, and engaging activities for students.
After playing around with prompts and ideas related specifically to lesson planning, I discovered how ChatGPT can be used for planning literacy tasks that integrate content with reading and writing.
For this example, I was looking for an essential question with a reading passage, a writing prompt, a writing checklist aligned to narrative reading and writing standards for 4th grade, and recommended scaffolds to support English learners.
Below are the steps I followed using ChatGPT.
Step 1: The Essential Question
First, I prompted AI to provide me with an essential question that aligns with learning about narrative texts and writing narrative texts for a 4th-grade student.
Here’s what AI provided: "How can we craft engaging narrative texts by applying storytelling techniques and understanding story structures?”
Step 2: The Reading Passage
Next, I prompted AI to provide me with a narrative passage aligned to 4th grade Common Core State Standards connected to 4th grade Next Generation Science Standards. By aligning this narrative with these standards, students are not only captivated by the story but are also reinforcing their understanding of key scientific concepts and enhancing their literacy skills. Not only did AI provide a reading passage, but it also provided the ELA and NGSS 4th grade standards it aligns with.
Step 3: The Writing Prompt
For the third step, I prompted AI to provide a writing prompt that aligns with this passage (linked above) and the essential question “How can we craft engaging narrative texts by applying storytelling techniques and understanding story structures?” Again, AI did not disappoint. Not only was a thorough writing prompt provided, but it also included a “Writing Focus” with “Writing Tips” for students.
Here is the writing prompt AI generated:
Imagine you are one of the characters in the enchanted rainforest adventure. Reflecting on your journey, craft a captivating narrative that brings the rainforest to life for your readers. Use vivid storytelling techniques, describing the lush surroundings, the diverse plants and animals, and the magical experiences you encountered. Think about the challenges you faced, the friendships you formed, and the lessons you learned about the interconnectedness of nature. As you write, consider the story structure - the beginning, middle, and end. Ensure your narrative has a clear introduction, builds up the plot with engaging details, and concludes with a meaningful reflection or message. Your goal is to transport your readers into the heart of the rainforest, evoking a sense of wonder and excitement.
Step 4: Provide a Writing Checklist
Next, I prompted AI to create a writing checklist to support students as they write to the prompt. Again, the response was thorough and aligned with standards.
Step 5: Provide Scaffolding Strategies to Support English Learners
Finally, I took the prompt one step further and asked AI to provide a writing scaffold for the writing activity that would support English learners. After reviewing the recommendations for scaffolds, many of the recommended scaffolds could be used for all students, not just English learners.
The Results
The time it took me to put this blog post together took me more time than prompting AI to generate each of the above steps. How much time exactly? It took me 4 minutes in total to provide all of the prompts and retrieve the information from ChatGPT. Now, in teaching it is important that we always use our knowledge of content, students, and best practices. While the resources are relevant and aligned to standards, you may need to make modifications to ensure that the vocabulary is appropriate, the content accurately aligns with all standards, and the checklist aligns with the rubric you will use to score students' work. In order to make modifications using AI, you will revise your prompts to be as specific as possible.
If you prefer to make it a digital resource for students, consider adding a rainforest video to support students in visualizing and building background knowledge about the rainforest.
Check it out for yourself! You can always regenerate the prompt to make it work for you, your standards, the content you are teaching, and of course, your students.
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