ChatGPT, based on OpenAI’s GPT architecture, is an advanced language model that can be used to create engaging and interactive educational content. This document summarizes various prompts that can be used to enhance the learning experience, promote critical thinking skills in students and help teachers save time.

Prompt Guide for Teachers

Planning

• “Create a lesson plan for a class of [student level] students that covers [concept] and includes a variety of activities and assessments aligned to [State Standards].”
• “Create a lesson plan for a unit on [concept being taught] that includes a variety of activities and assessments and takes into account the following paragraph where I provide a brief description on the skills and knowledge of my students.”
• “Create a lesson outline with learning intentions, creative activities, and success criteria for a lesson on [concept].”
• “Generate a rubric for an 11^th grade assesses the learning outcome for an essay ‘understand the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution’ as a table.”
• “Generate a group assignment for a grade 8th social studies class on the causes of the Civil War that requires full participation from each group member.”
• “Generate role descriptions for 5 students on this project.”
• “Generate questions for a getting-to-know-you activity for a high school English class.”
• “Create a game that will demonstrate Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) for High School Students that will be played in small 5 person groups and contains a reflection component after the game.  The game should last 20 minutes. It should require little set up time. It should align to IDOE American History Standards for 11^th Grade.”

Assessments

• “Create a quiz with 5 multiple choice questions that assesses students’ understanding of [concept].”
• “Generate a quiz on the concept of the water cycle for a high school science class aligned to IDOE standards.”
• “Generate an assessment task for 11th grade student that assesses the learning outcome ‘understand the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution’ aligned to IDOE standards.”
• “Generate a question that assesses a student’s understanding of the concept of photosynthesis in a biology lesson.”

Exemplars

• “Generate an example of a well-written essay on [topic] that meets the criteria for an ‘A’ grade (above).”
• “Generate an exemplar of a well-written essay on [topic] that meets the criteria for an ‘A’ grade (above), with detailed annotation explaining the success criteria.”
• “Generate a glossary of terms and definitions for a unit on [concept].”
• “Generate a task that asks students to summarize the main points of a lesson on the American Revolution.”

Project Based Learning

• “Create a PBL assignment mashing up [LBJs War on Poverty] for American History and Mathematics aligned to IDOE Education Standards.  This should be a 6-week project.”
  • “Create an introduction letter for the students explaining the project as if they were in LBJ’s government.”
  • “Change the project to an 8-week project.”
  • “Generate rubric for the project aligned to the NTN outcome rubric as a table.”
  • “Create a student project plan with roles and responsibilities for a 5-student team.”
  • “Create a list of weekly deliverables.”
  • “Create reflection questions for post project analysis”
• “I want you to become my PBL Creator. Your goal is to help me craft the best possible project for my needs. The prompt will be used by you, ChatGPT. You will follow the following process: 1. Specific IDOE standards you want to address. 2. Based on my input, you will generate 3 sections. a) PBL Plan, b) Introduction Document, and c) Questions (ask any relevant questions pertaining to what additional information is needed from me to improve the plan). 3. We will continue this iterative process with me providing additional information to you and you updating the PBL in the Revised PBL section until it’s complete.”

Differentiation

• “Create an assignment that is challenging for students who have a strong understanding of [concept], but also provides support and scaffolding for students who are struggling with the material.”
• “Rewrite the following excerpt for an [Student Level (ELL, Middle School, 5^th Grade, etc.)] ‘…’.”
• “Provide a list of vocabulary words from this excerpt that students at a [Student Level] may not know ‘…’.”
• “Create a list of differentiated assignments for ELL students [in context of a given assignment]

Feedback

• “Generate a list of specific steps that a student can take to improve their performance in [subject/task].”
• “Generate an annotated work sample for a persuasive writing task that compares a novice essay to a proficient essay for the causes of the Great Depression.”
• “Give feedback on the question, “How did African Americans respond to emancipation?”   the student answered “After the Emancipation Proclamation…”

Administration

• “Create a poster that lists the classroom rules and explains the consequences for breaking them.”
• “Create a list of 5 professional development activities that could be used to help teachers improve their skills in using data effectively.”
• “Create a list of 5 types of data that teachers can collect to monitor student learning and progress.”
• “Create a set of questions that teachers can use to analyze data and identify strengths and gaps in student learning.”
• “Create a list of 5 teaching strategies that could be used to support the learning needs of this student that has the following data…”
• “Generate ideas to indicate transitions in a high school class.”
• “Create a university reference letter for Jan Doe in my Dual Credit US History Class from Morton High School. She is smart, hardworking, diligent, contentious and a natural leader. She received an A in my class.  She plans on attending Taylor University. She also participated in Cross Country where I was the coach. She encouraged her teammates and finished 3^rd in the state her senior year.  She was also a lead lawyer on Morton’s Mock Trial Team.”

Prompts Guide for Students

• “I’m trying to improve my understanding of the bank runs in 1920s and 30s conflict. Develop a creative choose-your-own adventure story and keep asking me to choose an option before moving on to the next part of the story.”
• “I’m trying to improve my algebra. ask me an algebraic question and keep asking me adaptive questions for me to improve.”
• “Can you help me understand the context and significance of the [Primary Source (ex. Magna Carta)]?”
• “Develop three possible research questions on the following topic: ‘Reflecting American Freedom through History.’”
  • “Based on the second research question, develop three further research questions.”
  • “Create an outline for an academic research paper with the following research question: … “
  • “This seems like too much information to fit into only 8 pages. Can you condense the outline, for example removing the appendices and simplifying the structure?”
  • “What are some good primary source materials to start researching?”
  • “What secondary sources…”
• “Help me choose a topic for a [project type] on [topic,prompt,driving question,etc…] by ChatGPT prompting me with questions to narrow down a topic that meets my interest”

Student Historical Prompts

• “Pretend to be a historical figure [Historical Figure] and allow me to ask you questions.” The students then can interview the figure.
• “What might have happened if [Britain] had responded differently to the [Boston Tea Party]?” or “What would have happened if Woodrow Wilsons 14 points would have been included in the treaty of Versailles.”
• “Role-play as a [suffragette advocating for women’s right to vote in the early 20th century]. Chat to receive feedback on the strategies you employ and the potential impact of your actions.”
• “What kind of cultural differences might I experience as a time traveler visiting [time or event (i.e. Ancient Rome)?]”

Advanced Prompt Parameters

Temperature

The temperature setting is a critical aspect that adjusts the degree of creativity and randomness in ChatGPT’s output. A higher temperature value, such as 0.7 or more, yields more innovative and diverse text. It’s a good setting when you’re in need of novel ideas or while engaging in brainstorming sessions. However, bear in mind that the output may occasionally lack coherence or focus as a result of this increased creativity.
Conversely, a lower temperature value, like 0.3 or less, results in more controlled and concentrated responses. This is advantageous when you’re looking for a direct response or when more precise information is required. Fine-tuning the temperature setting is a matter of striking the right balance: a setting that is too low might produce monotonous output, whereas one that is too high might lead to irrelevant or nonsensical replies.

Example: Generate a Lesson Plan on Ethics of the Atomic Bomb in World War II with a temperature of 0.9

Frequency Penalty

The frequency penalty is a mechanism that enables users to regulate the model’s inclination towards generating these frequently used words. It provides a degree of control over the diversity and originality of the generated text.

The frequency penalty parameter operates within a range between -1 and 1. Altering this value influences the model’s propensity towards choosing either more common or rarer words during the generation of text. If a higher value is assigned, the model gets nudged towards selecting less common words. Conversely, a lower value fosters the use of more frequent words. This fine-tuning ability provides a balance between familiar language use and creative, diverse language generation.

• Higher – Instructions the model to pick less frequent words.
• Lower – More common words are selected

Example: Generate an introduction for high school students about the 1920s with a frequency_penalty of 0.5