Teaching with ChatGPT: 19 Creative and Practical Ways to Use ChatGPT in Your Classroom

As technology continues to evolve, educators continue to find new and innovative ways to incorporate it into their classrooms. We are always exploring what the classroom of tomorrow will look like and have articles on AR (augmented reality) VR (Virtual Reality) and even MR (Mixed Reality) but the speed which Ai Chat generators evolved took even us by surprise. There has been a lot of press about AI and its implications in education and we take a look at the most famous of them Chat GPT and its potential in an Education Setting.

ChatGPT, a language model developed by OpenAI, can generate human-like responses to natural language queries. While there have been concerns about the potential misuse of this technology, there are many ways that elementary and primary school teachers can use ChatGPT to enhance their teaching and improve student learning outcomes with out worrying to much about all the negativielty surroundint the possibility of ChatGPT being used for cheating.

A. Explanation of ChatGPT:

ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool that uses a neural network to generate responses to text-based prompts. The current free model ( 3.5) has been trained on a massive dataset of text from the internet and is capable of generating coherent and contextually appropriate responses to a wide range of questions and you can test this out for yourself.

As of today, ( March 16 2023) there is an even more sophisticated version available for release. (ChatGPT 4.0) This is not free however, but we will be trying it out with a view to its implications for teaching. Current estimates ( although very early) are it may be up to 100 times more effective.

We actually have an article, well quite a few, on how to use ChatGPT in the classroom with a focus on the prompts to use. If you are planning on at least giving it a go in your classroom then you should check out Our ChatGpt prompts for English teachers right after this article. We have included downloadable information sheets as well.

Ideas on how to use Chat Gpt In a Classroom

Idea 1: Writing Prompts

If making and creating writing prompts is not one of the most common uses of ChatGPT in Education then it should be! It can be used either to write whole stories ( or books but lets not go there) just by inputting a simple sentence or phrase, like “Write a story about a superhero who eats baked beans”. (we did this one and it totally didn’t include the aftereffects of baked beans – missed opportunity there we think)!

You can check out its ideas on our Chat GPT for an ESL classroom Article in the link

ChatGPT will then generate a range of responses that can inspire and challenge (and give ideas to those who left their creativity at home that morning) students in their writing practice, or reading for that matter.

However what it does is give ideas to students of all levels on either an idea for writing or a text to expand from into something that is their own and not just the ChatGPT AI’s output.

These prompts can be customized to fit the interests and skill levels of individual students, and can be used across a range of genres and writing styles.

Activities that use ChatGPT for writing prompts:

• Daily Writing Practice: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate a daily writing prompt for students to complete as part of their morning routine or independent work time.
• Creative Writing Exercises: ChatGPT can be used to generate prompts for a range of creative writing exercises, such as poetry, short stories, and personal narratives.
• Collaborative Writing Projects: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate a collaborative writing prompt for students to work on in pairs or small groups. Each group can then share their finished product with the class.

Examples of writing prompts to use in ChatGPT.

For those of you unsure what exactly you should type into ChatGPT to get it to do what you want we have some examples below. ( should save you some time)

1. “Generate a creative writing prompt.”
2. “Give me an idea for a story.”
3. “Suggest a topic for a descriptive essay.”
4. “Provide a prompt for a persuasive essay.”
5. “Generate a writing exercise for me.”

Idea 2: Story Creation

If the number one use should be writing prompts it should also have a close challenger with Storytelling and story creation and we will explain why.

Reading resources are expensive, its why we created so many of our own which we have here on the site for free, and some workbooks with hundreds for a small charge here. However, to do us out of a sale chat GPT has taken all that hard work and made it instant and tailored.

You can ask the AI to write a story based on a level, grammar point, using adjectives, with a gap fill activity and way more and it can do it in seconds. Now the story may or not be up there with the gruffalo in terms of creativity but it isn’t half bad and you will need to add images ( especially if it is for younger learners.

Now the thing we really, and i mean REALLY love about it is the ability to make the story more complex or simpler depending on the requirement of not just your class of students but individual students as well! we have some prompt examples of the idea below as well but also some ideas and examples to show you first.

Examples of Story creation prompts to use in ChatGPT.

We put very similar information into ChatGPT and just changed the level and length of the story. You can see in the table below the reading resources that ChatGPT came up with, which considering it took 3 mins is pretty good!

You can try it yourself asking it to do present tense, or past tense, or focus on adjective, or nouns.

Table 1: Examples of ChatGPT creative writing for differentiated students English levels.

Chat GPT Prompt	Output ChatGPT Example
Can you write a story of about 150 words on a mouse called Burt who lives in an expensive house for a grade 2 esl student of about reading recovery level 7	Burt the mouse lived in an expensive house. It was big and shiny, with tall pillars and fancy curtains. Burt loved living there because he had everything he needed. He had a soft bed made of cotton and a big bowl of cheese every day. One day, Burt heard a loud noise. He looked outside and saw a big truck coming up the driveway. A family was moving in! Burt was worried. What if they didn’t like mice? What if they tried to catch him? But the family was friendly, and they didn’t mind Burt living in the house. In fact, they thought he was cute! Burt felt relieved and happy. From then on, Burt had new friends to play with. He showed them all his favorite hiding spots and shared his cheese with them. He felt grateful for his new home and his new friends.
Can you write a story of about 110 words on a mouse called Burt who lives in an expensive house for a grade 6 esl student of about reading recovery level 17	Burt the mouse lived in an enormous mansion. The house was filled with beautiful paintings, chandeliers, and expensive furniture. Burt loved his home, and he felt proud to live there. One day, while exploring the house, Burt found a secret room behind a bookshelf. Inside the room, he found a treasure chest filled with sparkling jewels and gold coins. Burt couldn’t believe his luck! He had never seen so much treasure in his life. But as he was admiring the treasure, Burt heard footsteps approaching. He quickly hid in the chest, hoping not to be caught. The footsteps grew louder, and the door to the secret room opened. Burt peeked out and saw a man dressed in black. The man was a thief! Burt knew he had to do something. He jumped out of the chest and startled the thief, causing him to drop his loot. Burt quickly scurried away with the treasure, leaving the thief behind. Burt knew that he couldn’t keep the treasure for himself, so he decided to donate it to a local charity. The charity was grateful for Burt’s generous donation and even named their new building after him. From that day on, Burt felt like a hero. He may have been a small mouse, but he had a big heart and a brave spirit.
can you write a story about burt the mouse who lives in an expensive house for a non native kindergarten age student	Burt the mouse lived in a big house. He liked to run around and play, but he had to be careful because people didn’t like mice. One day, Burt found a yummy piece of cheese in the kitchen. He was so happy! But just as he was about to take a bite, a person came into the room. Burt was scared, so he ran away. From then on, Burt made sure to only eat cheese when no one was watching. He loved his big house, but he knew he had to be careful too.

Idea 3: Vocabulary Building

ChatGPT can be used as a tool for vocabulary building, allowing students to develop their language skills and their vocabulary range. By inputting a word or phrase, ChatGPT can generate a definition and examples of the word being used in a sentence. it can also, to be honest similar to most Microsoft products, offer synonyms and antonyms. However there are still a few activities and use cases you can explore. which we look at below.

Activities using ChatGPT for vocabulary building:

Daily Vocabulary Practice: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate a daily vocabulary word for students to learn and use in a sentence.

Word Games: ChatGPT can be used to generate words for games such as hangman, crossword puzzles, or word searches. Although it does do this in a code format for us so we will keep looking at this to make it more user friendly. The Hangman option is a nice touch ( see example above) as although you will still play on the board it does generate clues for you to help students who are struggling. The only thing we noticed was the letter spaces were not the correct number. you could ask it to do it again or sort it yourself of course.

Contextual Understanding: ChatGPT can be used to generate examples of how words are used in different contexts, helping students to better understand their meanings and usage. This is especially useful for homographic words like bat, wind fine, and the hundreds more. We asked it to give examples of these in sentence to show the difference and it did a great job.

You can try it yourself but the picture below is when we did put bat, wind, and fine into Chat GPT.

Idea 4: Research and Information Gathering

ChatGPT can be used as a tool for students to gather information and conduct research on a range of topics. By inputting a question or keyword, ChatGPT can generate a range of responses and links to online resources. This can help students to develop their research skills and learn how to evaluate sources of information.

Activities that use ChatGPT for research and information gathering:

• Research Projects: Teachers can use ChatGPT to help students identify reliable sources of information for research projects on a variety of topics. By asking it where to look for information on XYZ. However as default it will lead you towards high level publications and sites and will need to be aimed at the level of your students ( i give an example image below)
• Personal Interests: Teachers can encourage students to use ChatGPT to explore their personal interests and hobbies, such as music or sports, by generating articles and videos related to these topics.
• Point to note: ChatGPT is smarter than your average bear ( apologies if you don’t get the reference – ask chat GPT!) but its current information is only to April 2021 and it has been known to make a mistake. While this is fine if you are the teacher and can spot it, it might be a problem if you are the student and cant! Check the information it gives you!

Idea 5: Language Learning and Translation

ChatGPT also can be used as tool for language learning and even translation, allowing students to practice their language skills and even being able to translate paragraphs of text. While pretty good, its not quite at 100% just yet however.

By inputting a phrase or sentence in one language, ChatGPT can generate a translation in another language that is mostly accurate. All translation software can have trouble with Asian languages to European languages. How this super simple example worked out pretty good!

Activities that use ChatGPT for language learning and translation:

• Language Practice: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate practice exercises for students to improve their language skills in different languages, such as vocabulary quizzes or conversation starters. It could even be used to create match the word exercises between students native language and the target language ( see below)
• Cultural Exchange: ChatGPT can be used to facilitate cultural exchange between students from different language backgrounds, allowing them to communicate and learn from each other in a safe and supportive environment. Though it may be quicker it might not be as useful to language learn.
• Translation Assistance: Teachers can use ChatGPT to help students who are learning a new language to translate texts or documents in order to better understand the material.

Idea 6: Personalized Learning and Differentiated Instruction and Resources

ChatGPT can be used to personalize learning experiences for students, tailoring content to their interests and abilities. This is one of the ways to use ChatGpt that we absolutely love. As teachers we all know the important of differentiating resources and instruction to cater for learner diversity, but we also know the time it can take.

ChatGPT can generate customized learning resources such as reading materials, videos, and quizzes freeing up hours upon hours of time to focus on your students not your computer screen.

Activities that use ChatGPT for personalized learning:

• Interest-Based Learning: Teachers can use ChatGPT to identify the interests of individual students and generate learning materials that are relevant to those interests.
• Differentiated Instruction: ChatGPT can be used to differentiate instruction for students with different learning styles and abilities, by generating materials and exercises that are tailored to their needs. we give an example in the images below in a passage written for beginner english learners and more advanced
• Self-Paced Learning and additional support: ChatGPT can be used to create self-paced learning opportunities for students, allowing them to work at their own pace and focus on areas where they need additional support.
• Individualized Learning Plans: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate resources and activities tailored to individual student needs and learning goals, helping students to work at their own pace and level.
• Self-Directed Learning: ChatGPT can be used, with teacher input of course, to support self-directed learning, by providing students with resources and activities that are tailored to their interests and learning styles.

Idea 7: Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

ChatGPT can be used to promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students by presenting them with real-world problems and scenarios.

Using a question, article or scenario, ChatGPT can generate responses and solutions that students can analyze and evaluate, helping them to develop their critical thinking skills and helping the teacher to think of questions (especially before that Monday morning coffee. )

Activities that use ChatGPT for critical thinking and problem-solving:

• Debates and Discussions: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate questions and scenarios for class debates and discussions, encouraging students to analyze and evaluate different perspectives.
• Case Studies: ChatGPT can be used to generate case studies or scenarios for students to analyze and solve, helping them to develop their problem-solving skills.
• Reflection and Analysis: ChatGPT can be used to help students reflect on and analyze their own thinking processes, by generating questions and prompts that encourage self-reflection and self-evaluation. You can check out some of our ChatGPT prompts ideas for this in the article on the link and below.

100+ Chat Gpt Prompts for English Teachers

Be aware there may be accuracy issues if using ChatGPT for the actual materials, especially on topical events, and if you want to be sure you can input the materials and ask it to generate just higher level questions (reading comprehension skills for example)

Idea 8: Creative Writing

ChatGPT can be used to inspire and support creative writing activities for students, providing them with writing prompts, story starters, and character ideas. This can be done with multiple levels even in the same classroom as we highlighted in the Differentiated section just above this.

By inputting a few ideas related to a particular topic or theme, it can generate a range of creative writing ideas that students can use as a starting point for their own writing. The results are really really impressive.

Activities that use ChatGPT for creative writing:

• Writing Prompts: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate writing prompts for students, encouraging them to write creatively and explore different genres and styles.
• Character Development: ChatGPT can be used to generate character ideas and profiles for students to use in their writing, helping them to develop their character development skills.
• We will be creating an article on this as a stand alone in due course.

Idea 9: Reading Comprehension Questions with ChatGPT

ChatGPT can be used to support reading comprehension activities by generating questions and prompts related to a particular text or topic you can cut and paste the text into ChatGPT and it can generate questions that test students’ comprehension and practice and teaching higher order thinking skills.

Activities that use ChatGPT for reading comprehension:

• Reading Response Questions: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate reading response questions that encourage students to think critically about a particular text or topic. You can do this with a chatGPT created text from the Idea number 2 above, or by pasting in a reading text then asking ChatGPT to come up with questions on the text. which leads us to…
• Differentiated Instruction: ChatGPT can be used to provide differentiated instruction for students with different reading levels, by generating questions and prompts at different levels of difficulty. we have examples of this below.
• Close Reading Analysis: ChatGPT can be used to support close reading analysis, by generating questions and prompts that help students to analyze and interpret a particular text and also gap fill activities to help them learn the actual mechanics of reading.

Prompt examples for reading Comprehension and ChatGPT

• can you make 5 comprehension questions from the above text
• can you write a selection of reading comprehension questions for the text above for beginner english
• can you summarize the story for a grade 1 students
• can you make a cloze activity from the text
• Create 5 reading comprehension questions about the following passage

Idea 10: Creative Problem Solving

ChatGPT can help teach creative problem solving activities by generating questions and prompts that encourage students to think outside the box and explore different solutions to a particular problem or challenge.

ChatGPT can generate a range of creative and innovative ideas that students can use to develop their problem-solving skills. We used the example in the image below on making the world a better place with a set of questions to get them started. Of course you can level these up or down as you need to.

Activities that use ChatGPT for creative problem solving:

• Brainstorming / Mind Mapping Sessions: you can use ChatGPT to help with brainstorming sessions, by generating prompts and questions that encourage students to think creatively and generate new ideas.
• Design Thinking Challenges: ChatGPT can be used to support design thinking challenges, using questions that encourage students to explore different solutions to problems or challenges.
• Innovation Challenges: ChatGPT can be used to support innovation or inventive challenges, by generating prompts and questions that encourage students to think outside the box and develop creative and innovative solutions to real-world problems.

Idea 11: Writing Prompts Again

Although we covered in section 1, we think its such a insanely useful tool we have some more ideas for you if you made it this far down the page !

Activities that use ChatGPT for writing prompts again!

• Writing Exercises: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate writing prompts for in-class writing exercises or homework assignments these are quick and easy to use and you can make the focus on what ever you like.
• Storytelling Prompts: ChatGPT can be used to generate prompts and ideas for creative writing and storytelling activities, helping students to develop their imagination and creativity, as we mentioned above it can also be used to create reading materials for levelled or guided reading.
• Genre-Specific Prompts: ChatGPT can be used to generate prompts and ideas for specific writing genres, such as persuasive writing, descriptive writing, or narrative writing, it can do so with a reminder text at the beginning so students can keep their focus on the features that that particular style of writing has. ( example from our prompt below. )

Idea 12: Historical Simulations

Being an English Site, like we are, we have a natural focus on seeing most things though the English Learning lens. however ChatGPT uses in Education stretch far beyond our little corner of the education world and other subjects have as much to gain.

While we will leave most of that to sites who specialized in those subjects we did want to show you the variety so the next two sections on History and Science aim to do just that.

ChatGPT can help to create ( fictional but for an idea) historical simulations by generating responses and dialogue based on different historical figures and events. By inputting a historical figure or event, ChatGPT can generate responses that simulate a conversation or interaction with that figure or event. The key word of course is simulated, see an idea below.

Activities that use ChatGPT for historical simulations:

• Historical Role-Playing: Teachers can use ChatGPT to simulate historical conversations or interactions, helping students to understand the perspectives and motivations of different historical figures. Although of course it is a simulation, it can be engaging we asked it to be Isaac Newton and then asked if Neil Degrasse Tyson knows more about space. ( he does for the record its 400 years later!)
• Historical Debates: ChatGPT can be used to generate responses and arguments for historical debates, encouraging students to explore different perspectives and viewpoints on historical events and issues. As we have mentioned though, check facts!
• Historical Interviews: ChatGPT can be used to simulate historical interviews with different figures, helping students to develop their research and interview skills. Even if the answers are simulated it actually teach and allows students to practice how to question

Idea 13: Science Experiments

we love a bit of science on our website and even have collections of science experiments to use in class as downloads here. (see link) Although we created these years before ChatGPT came to be.

ChatGPT can be used to guide students through science experiments by providing step-by-step instructions and guidance. By inputting a topic or experiment question, ChatGPT can generate a range of resources, diagrams, and written instructions, to help students conduct the experiment and understand the scientific principles behind it.

Activities that use ChatGPT to facilitate science experiments:

• Inquiry-Based Experiments: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate inquiry-based experiments that allow students to explore and experiment with different scientific concepts and principles.
• Virtual Lab Simulations: ChatGPT can be used to provide students with virtual lab simulations, allowing them to explore and experiment with scientific concepts and principles in a safe and controlled environment.
• Interactive Experiment Guides: Science can be challenging to understand sometimes and the ability to explain scientific concepts in easier terms is what teachers are for! However ChatGPT can do this as well. See the image below as a very basic example.

Idea 14: Story Starter

Although we have covered creative writing and will also do so it its own article, there are so many aspects that we have decided to split them up in this MEGA Article on ChatGPT and teachers as well.

ChatGPT can be used to brainstorm and create ideas for stories, for students. Encouraging them to write their own, or finish what the AI Model started. Teachers can input a prompt or a starting sentence, and ChatGPT can create a range of resources that students can use to start writing their own stories.

Possible prompts for ChatGPT Story Starting could be

• Please write a 50 word introduction for a scary story set in XYZ highschool and featuring bob, rita and their teacher Mr Potatohead from class 6b.
• Please write a 50 word beginning of a story that will focus on triumph over adversity for a student to expand and finish
• Can you create 5 characters that would be suitable for a murder mystery story with a little of their background included.

Idea 15: Cultural Learning

ChatGPT can be used to expose students to different cultures by generating information about customs, traditions, beliefs, and histories of various cultures. Input a culture or country, and ChatGPT can generate a range of resources that students can use to learn about that culture and its people.

Activities that use ChatGPT to teach students about different cultures:

• Cultural Presentations: Teachers can assign students to research and present on different cultures using resources generated by ChatGPT. ( check this before presenting though.
• Virtual Travel: Teachers can use ChatGPT to generate information about different countries and cultures, and students can “virtually” travel to these places through online resources. Works really well if you have access to VR headsets o other ‘visual’ technologies.
• it is possible to generate comparisons between cultures, holidays, foods, beliefs etc though of course handle this delicately.

16: Career Exploration

ChatGPT can be used to help students explore different careers by generating information about various industries, job requirements, salaries, and education paths. Teachers can input a career or industry, and ChatGPT can generate a range of resources that students can use to learn about that career and its opportunities.

Activities that use ChatGPT to facilitate career exploration:

• Career Presentations: Teachers can assign students to research and present on different careers using resources generated by ChatGPT.
• Interview Rolplay: With the use of prompts, perhaps set up beforehand, it is possible to ask the AI to hold a virtual job interview, in text of course, and to even judge how well the student performed. I did it for teaching, i did quite well lol!
• Ask about Roles of different jobs: Although there is always a wariness with facts in ChatGPT 3.5 something like the roles and responsibilities of different jobs should be fairly straight forward.

Idea 17: Games

ChatGPT can be utilized to create educational games, although simple, they can still engage and motivate students to learn. By leveraging its ability to generate realistic scenarios and dialogue, teachers can create games that simulate real-life situations and challenge students to apply their knowledge and problem-solving skills.

Teachers can use ChatGPT to gamify learning by creating

• interactive quizzes, ( or mormal quizzes)
• treasure hunts,
• Cloze exercises
• word searches (kinda)

For example, teachers can use ChatGPT to generate clues for a scavenger hunt that requires students to search for items related to a particular topic or subject.

Alternatively, teachers can create an interactive quiz that asks students to answer questions related to a story generated by ChatGPT.

Idea 19: Q and A with Chat Gpt

One of the most straightforward ways to use ChatGPT in the classroom is to facilitate Q&A sessions. Instead of spending hours researching topics to answer students’ questions, teachers can use ChatGPT to quickly generate answers to student queries. This can save teachers time and help them provide accurate and informative answers to their students.

To use ChatGPT for Q&A sessions, teachers can set up a system where students submit their questions through a platform or software that integrates with the ChatGPT model.

The model can then generate responses in real-time, providing students with accurate (usually) and detailed answers to their queries. This can help students gain a better understanding of the subject matter and enable them to ask more in-depth questions.

ChatGPT can help students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills by allowing them to ask more complex questions and receive thoughtful responses. This type of engagement can encourage students to participate more actively in class discussions and become more engaged in their learning overall.

Further ChatGpt in Education links

• How to use ChatGPT in an English Classroom
• 100 ChatGPT prompts for English Teachers
• 19 ways to use ChatGPT in a Classroom
• Ethics and ChatGPT in Education
• Chat GPT as a Learning Companion
• The future of AI in Education

Benefits of using ChatGPT in the classroom:

The use of ChatGPT in the classroom can provide several benefits for students, such as improved engagement, enhanced critical thinking skills, and personalized learning experiences.

ChatGPT can assist teachers in a variety of ways, from generating prompts for creative writing exercises to answering student questions about complex topics. The above sections outlined ideas for how elementary and primary school teachers can use ChatGPT to improve students learning outcomes.

Drawbacks of using Chat GPT in the Classroom

While there are many potential benefits to using ChatGPT in the classroom, there are also some potential drawbacks. One major concern is the possibility of students using ChatGPT to cheat on assignments or exams.

Additionally, there may be some ethical concerns around using AI-generated content in the classroom, particularly if it is not properly sourced or credited. However, with proper guidance and supervision, the benefits of using ChatGPT in the classroom can outweigh these potential drawbacks.

Conclusion

So despite the majority of news article covering on the opportunities for cheating that chatGPT affords students there are precious few concentrating on the benefits it is likely to bring. That is why we wrote this article.

Teachers have seen technology advances hit classrooms for decades and all with the same warnings of cheating and replacing of teachers.

Well here we still are!, embracing these changes and continuing to make our classrooms a great place for learning with each new advancement.

ChatGPT is just a another in the line of valuable tools that can enhance the learning experience in elementary, primary and high school school classrooms. It has the potential to provide a range of benefits, including improving vocabulary acquisition, inspiring creativity, facilitating science experiments, exposing students to different cultures, and more.

As the technology behind ChatGPT continues to improve, its potential in the classroom will only grow. It is important for educators to explore its full range of capabilities and find new ways to incorporate it into their teaching methods. By doing so, they can create a more dynamic and engaging learning environment that benefits both themselves and their students.

References

• https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt
• https://www.entrepreneur.com/science-technology/how-will-chatgpt-change-education-and-teaching/445018
• https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/chatgpt-schools-teachers.html
• https://elearningindustry.com/a-new-buzz-in-teaching-and-learning-chatgpt