Today I’m going to show you how you can plan lessons with ChatGPT for any of your students in no time. When I’m teaching anybody, I always try to make the classes for them. So, that’s why I always try to find out what their likes and interests are in the very first class. When I’ve done that, I can then build lessons and a course that is based around their interests so that they enjoy the classes more.
I’ve got a student called Pedro, and the one thing that he said he liked the most was Fortnite. Now, if you haven’t heard of it, Fortnite is a video game that’s really popular with young people. There’s not a lot of lesson material out there for games like Fortnite, and a lot of the time I’m having to make the material myself, but I don’t get very far, and we usually have to move on to different topics. And that’s when Pedro gets upset again. So, you can imagine when I heard about this new AI software called ChatGPT, I thought, well, maybe I can use this to build lessons that are perfect for Pedro. Let me show you what I did.
Building the reading text
So, here I am on the ChatGPT website, and I’ve just entered a prompt, which is “Write a text about Fortnite and how popular it is.”
Fortnite is a battle royale style game that has gained a huge following since its release in 2017. It is available on a variety of platforms, including PC, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and iOS and Android devices.
The game has become incredibly popular due to its unique blend of gameplay elements, including building, shooting, and exploration. Players are dropped onto an island and must scavenge for weapons and resources while fighting against other players to be the last one standing.
One of the reasons Fortnite has become so popular is its free-to-play model. Players can download and play the game for free, with the option to purchase in-game items and cosmetics. This has helped it attract a large and diverse player base from all over the world.
In addition to its popularity as a video game, Fortnite has also become a cultural phenomenon. It has been featured in mainstream media and has even inspired its own line of merchandise.
Overall, Fortnite is a highly popular game that has captured the attention of players of all ages and backgrounds.
Okay, so now I have my text that is all about Fortnite, and Pedro is gonna love this. In this particular case, I can ask it to make it more complex or more simple, depending on the level of your student. And this text is going to form the basis of a lesson that I’m going to do with Pedro.
Questions for the text
Now, I’ll ask ChatGPT to make four comprehension questions and one gist question. So, a question that’s going to test the overall understanding of the text.
GIST:
What is Fortnite and how has it gained popularity?
COMPREHENSION:
On which platforms is Fortnite available?
What gameplay elements does Fortnite combine?
Is Fortnite a paid game or is it free-to-play?
In what ways has Fortnite become a cultural phenomenon?
Oh, I forgot, I need an answer key as well. Let’s ask ChatGPT to give me an answer key. I’ve now got my five answers to the five questions we’re gonna set Pedro for this reading activity.
If you like this idea, then you should really go check out my tutorial right here on ChatGPT on four other ways you can use it in your classroom.
Designing grammar tasks
Now, with most English lessons, I’d like to spend a little bit of time focusing on an aspect of grammar with Pedro. And by reading this text, I’ve noticed there are lots of examples of the present perfect. What I’ve asked ChatGPT to do is to take five sentences from the text and include examples of the present perfect.
Fortnite has gained a huge following since its release in 2017.
Players are dropped onto an island and must scavenge for weapons and resources.
The game has become incredibly popular due to its unique blend of gameplay elements.
Players can download and play the game for free, with the option to purchase in-game items.
Fortnite has also become a cultural phenomenon and has been featured in mainstream media.
So, number one, three, and five contain the present perfect. So, what I’ll do in class is ask Pedro to identify the sentences that contain the present perfect.
Now that Pedro has shown me that he recognizes the present perfect when compared to other sentences, I’m gonna ask him to complete a short gap-fill activity. What I did here was I said,
“Rewrite these five sentences with the verbs missing and a gap for the students to fill.”
- ____________ a huge following since its release in 2017.
- Players ____________ onto an island and must ____________ for weapons and resources.
- The game ____________ incredibly popular due to its unique blend of gameplay elements.
- Players ____________ and play the game for free, with the option to purchase in-game items.
- Fortnite ____________ a cultural phenomenon and ____________ in mainstream media.
Including speaking questions
So, we’ve done a reading task, a grammar task, and now I want to do some speaking activities with Pedro about Fortnite. I’m gonna ask ChatGPT to write five conversation questions about Fortnite.
- Have you played Fortnite before?
- What is your favorite aspect of the game?
- Who is your favorite character or skin in Fortnite?
- Have you ever won a match in Fortnite?
- Do you prefer playing Fortnite on a console or on a mobile device?
So, there are five questions I can use to get Pedro talking about Fortnite. Then we can take it in turn, so I’m going to ask him a question, and then he can ask me a question. I don’t know anything about Fortnite, but I’m just going to make something up.
Giving homework
So now, I’ve finished a speaking task, and I think I’m going to give Pedro some homework. I’m gonna ask ChatGPT to write two prompts for a writing piece on Fortnite.
- Write an essay discussing the cultural impact of Fortnite and how it has become a phenomenon.
- Imagine you are a new player trying Fortnite for the first time. Write a short story about your experience in your first match.
There are two writing prompts for Pedro for his homework. And before we go home, I’m going to ask Pedro to choose one question that’s going to be good. I’m looking forward to what Pedro writes me if he does his homework. Now, if you’re worried that Pedro is going to use exactly the same software to answer my homework question, then you’d be right. I’d be worried too.
But that’s why I made another video right here on how to detect AI text, especially if you’re worried that you have students that are going to submit work used or produced by ChatGPT.
Now you’re probably wondering, how do I get that material out of ChatGPT and into my lesson? Well, it’s very simple. All I’m going to do is open a Google Doc document and just copy and paste the reading text, the questions, and so on so that they are in order of how we’re going to do them in the lesson. So, I’ve just opened a Google Doc document, and I’ve got my ChatGPT history. So, I’m just going to find the whole chat history and copy it into a Google Doc.
Thank you for reading on how to plan Lessons with ChatGPT. I think this software is really exciting, and I think there’s a lot of potential for teachers to use this to make their jobs a lot easier.