AI Prompts for

Teaching
Cynthia Alby Ph.D.
Co-author of Learning That Matters,
cynthia.alby@gcsu.edu
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Important Notes
1. I am building this slowly over time, but hopefully what is already here will help you develop your own prompts.
My field is teacher education (higher ed and secondary), so my prompts reflect that. I have also collected here
some prompts by others (cited) so that all the prompts can be found in one place.
2. These prompts are focused on using Large Language Models (LLMs) primarily. I recommend either Copilot
(free at many institutions and connected to the Internet) or OpenAI GPT-4o ($20 a month but better at some
things), Claude.ai (a favorite of many academics), or Gemini (really taking off right now)
3. Ask for far more answers than you need (“give me 10 examples,” 20, 30!), and then choose the best. Anytime
the LLM doesn’t give you what you want, just ask it to fix it. Getting solid results from LLMs requires a
conversation. It will provide ideas and support but can’t do all the work for you. You MUST check its work
or you are asking for trouble.
4. Ethan Mollick is the king of teaching prompts, and there is no reason to recreate the wheel, so when he has
already created a teaching prompt I think you’ll like, I’m just linking to him or quoting him. Follow his substack
and support him; you won’t regret it! Lipscomb also has an excellent prompt library geared toward academics.
5. Pair these prompts with Learning That Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education
for a more complete overview of course design and teaching. These prompts are designed to support that
text.
6. This website contains articles about AI in education and a wide variety of other practical teaching resources.

Head to the next page and start experimenting!

Click what you need!
New to AI?
A list of curated resources
A protocol for introducing students to AI
Practical AI for Students & Teachers video series
New to Prompt Writing?
Learn more about prompt writing
Ethan Mollick on prompt writing
AI Detection
Some thoughts on AI detection
AI Feedback
Provide general feedback on student writing
Simple, technical feedback (for ourselves or students)
Get feedback on oral presentations
Basic Unit and Lesson Design
Inquiry-based Unit Planning
Basic lesson writing
5E Model (STEM) Units and Lessons
Role Play for Practice
Basic role play prompt
Techniques for a teacher to practice asking students questions
Business majors practice negotiation
Practice pitching a startup (or get feedback on any presentation)
Mock Job Interviewing
Making Teaching Easier - Cut and Paste Prompts
Create clearer explanations that are a good fit for my audience
Provide good examples to help students better understand a concept
Look for patterns in results from “tickets out the door” etc.
Design a simple, diagnostic quiz
Decide what to focus on in a course or unit
Create interactive activities
Role Play Prompt
Create a case study
Creating games for learning
 Design Writing Prompts
Summarize lengthy documents
Create “just right level” readings
Connecting to students’ lives/exploring relevance
The “Generative Textbook” (Interactive and tailored to the individual video here)
Feedback on discussions or presentations
Create ethical dilemmas for students
AI as expert visitor or mentor
Hook Students: Create Relevance
Hook with humor
Hook with cognitive gaps
Hook using curiosity
Hook using images to explore a topic
Rubric design (instructor, peer, self)
Make any instructions for students more transparent
Creating PowerPoints (you’ll want a purpose-designed app)
Create songs or have students create songs
Ideas for creating “AI Resistant” assignments and assessments
Make Learning Easier - Prompts to Teach Students
General Student Prompts
Use AI as a tutor
Translation to support English Language Learners
AI as a better dictionary
Make learning stick better with pre-questions
Critiquing AI with Students
Learn about writing styles
Self Quizzing
Peer Quizzing
Fact Checking and quality analysis of resources or media
Get feedback on a draft of a paper or presentation
Could AI help students with loneliness and anxiety?

General Writing Prompts

Figuring out the big picture of the piece
Getting started
Getting unstuck in the middle of writing
What have I left out?
What might possible counter arguments be?
Making a mostly finished piece better
Adding more examples, analogies, stories, etc.
Making my writing more creative (or expert, succinct etc.)
Polishing what I’ve written
Edit to be understood by a broader audience
Use less passive voice
Suggest possible titles
Help Me Work
Accreditation reports, mission statements, program descriptions
Reference Letters
Help me get started on something I’ve been putting off
Make a plan/set goals
Translation for service and research
Transcription (amazing!)
Research/find academic resources/lit reviews (use a specialized AI such as
Consensus.app, SciSpace, or Litmaps)

Course Design
AI syllabus statements and an article from Kevin Gannon
Improve your syllabus
New to Course Design? This page can help
Writing Course-Level Goals
Dividing a Course into Units
Detailed Unit Design: Backward Design Template
Stage 1: Desired Results
Required Standards
Additional Objectives
Enduring Understandings
Essential Questions
Pre-Assessment and Survey
Making it Great
Stage 1 Example: What would it look like to use these prompts?
Stage 2: Assessment
 Summative Performance Task(s)
Breaking down the performance task and providing supports
Rubric design (instructor, peer, self)
Make any instructions for students more transparent
Classroom Assessment Technique (Student Feedback for Instructor)
Stage 3: Daily Lessons
Summary of the Unit’s Lessons
Daily student learning plans including differentiation and DEI

Who is Cynthia Alby?

Check out my Media Kit or Website

Learn More About Prompt Writing

Writing Prompts: a detailed overview
Read https://oneusefulthing.substack.com/p/how-to-use-chatgpt-to-boost-your

Here are some key ideas from that post:

“You will get different results from asking for an academic essay versus a persuasive
article versus a blog post versus a corporate memo.” Be precise in what you ask for.

More elaborate and specific prompts work better.

“Don’t ask it to write an essay about how human error causes catastrophes. The AI will
come up with a boring and straightforward piece that does the minimum possible to
satisfy your simple demand. Instead, remember you are the expert and the AI is a tool to
help you write. You should push it in the direction you want. For example, provide clear
bullet points to your argument: write an essay with the following points: -Humans are
prone to error -Most errors are not that important -In complex systems, some errors are
catastrophic -Catastrophes cannot be avoided”

“Try asking for it to be concise or wordy or detailed, or ask it to be specific or to give

examples. Ask it to write in a tone (ominous, academic, straightforward) or to a particular
audience (professional, student) or in the style of a particular author or publication (New
York Times, tabloid news, academic journal). You are not going to get perfect results, so
experimenting (and using the little “regenerate response” button) will help you get to
the right place. Over time, you will start to learn the “language” that ChatGPT is using.”

“You might want to break up your requests to the Chatbot into smaller chunks. Ask it for
an introduction, and revise that to get the tone that you want to achieve. Only then
should you start asking for additional paragraphs.”

“Another way to get interesting writing out of ChatGPT is by asking the AI to be

someone else. You can have the AI play characters by prompting it to think of itself as a
chef, or a novelist, or Plato.” (Cynthia’s note: You can also put in an example of your own
writing and ask it to write in your style.)

Be sure to start a new chat for each project or it will try to keep working on what you
have been doing up until that point.

Read: https://oneusefulthing.substack.com/p/power-and-weirdness-how-to-use-bing

Here are some key ideas from that post:

“Bing will produce results pretty similar to ChatGPT until you convince it to look
something up. When it does, something magical seems to happen. But now lets ask Bing
to use the internet: look up the writing styles of Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain. Use
what you have learned to improve the paragraph. Several fascinating things happen as a
result. First, you can see Bing performs a web search (the check-mark at the top). Next,
you will see it uses this search to provide annotations and sources, which are clickable.
They don’t always go to the exactly correct source, but they usually do. Finally, you will
notice the writing has changed a lot. The answer is more sophisticated and the text is
actually interesting to read.” You should make sure you are forcing Bing to look
something up with every query. Things that have worked for me include prompts like
First research ____. Then do ____ or else prompts like Look up ____ on Reddit/in
academic papers/in the news. Then use that to ____. Either way, you want to trigger the
“searching for” label to get good results.”

But we can do more with Bing. Let’s say we want to do a really complex analysis. Bing
actually can do a great job of this, but AIs work best if you go through the logic of what
you want step-by-step. So, for example.

1. Look up how to do marketing personas.

2. Create five personas for buyers of electric cars using any customer survey data
you can find. create a table of personas, giving each a name, benefits, and use cases
3. Use market sizing data for electric cars to estimate the size of each segment.
provide how you calculated this
4. Provide a potential marketing pitch that might work for each segment and add it
to the chart. also add a column about what cars target this segment

Pretend you are a genius ___ We are going to… Give me a… It can take practice, but this
approach allows you to “teach” Bing by asking it learn about topics, and then show you
its progress as it works. The results provide a very powerful starting point for analytical
tasks and a few well-done queries can save you hours of work.

Bing may refuse to produce computer code because it decides it is dishonest, it may
refuse to write an essay because it feels the topic is mean, or it may engage in the
somewhat unnerving behavior of writing a terrific reply to a prompt only to mysteriously
erase it partway through writing and pretend it never happened. The guardrails of Bing
work in mysterious ways.

Because the process includes randomness, you may need to reset the chat several times
(using the little broom icon) to get to a place where the system will work with you. You
might also need to rephrase your requests. It is less likely to reject write a sample of a
paper or write an imaginary draft paper than write a paper. You will need to experiment.

But Bing’s chatbot can also be very helpful. It will often pose questions to you at the end
of a reply, giving you a chance to clarify or build on an answer. Even better, it will suggest
possible replies at the end of each post that give you ideas on how to build on the
conversation (the speech bubbles at the bottom of the answer). Selecting among these
can help you figure out where to take a conversation.

Some other broadly useful ideas:

Cynthia’s notes: When you cut and paste from an AI site, it may come out with a grey
background that is hard to remove. To solve this, copy the text and then click on “edit” >
“paste special” > “unformatted text.” Alternatively, sometime when you cut and paste
you’ll see no words at all, just a blank space where you expected the words to be. Just
highlight that section and change the font to black and it will appear.
And if you cut and paste and see nothing, that is because the font was white and you are
pasting onto white. Do a “select all” and choose the font color black to remedy this.
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Give Feedback

Help providing general feedback on student writing

AI is great for giving general feedback - technical aspects, style, research methods,
citation, etc. Because of this, you can have students use it as a “first pass” and then make
the needed changes before handing the paper off to you. Then you can use your time to
focus on specific, higher-order feedback on content and not waste time on lower-level
feedback.

Because copying and pasting the work would make the prompt quite long, it may require
a paid subscription. Most free subscriptions have a word limit and/or a limit on the
number of prompts you can do per day. Claude.AI might be your best bet because you
can attach what you want it to look at. Maybe others will also do that soon. But they all
have daily or hourly limits. Note also that you can show students how to get their own
feedback using this prompt so they can make improvements before handing in anything.
You may want to add a sentence to the beginning of the prompt that helps AI focus on a
specfic area of expertise by giving it a role to play. “You are a (biology professor,
creative writer, CEO, etc.)”

Alby Prompt:
Give me feedback on this piece. Focus on the following criteria: (list criteria from rubric
or other source). Tell me at least (number) things that I did especially well and
(number) aspects that could be improved and how I might improve them. Here is the
piece: (cut and paste or attach)

See an example of feedback Claude.AI provided on a student research paper. This

example also shows how to do a second round of prompts.

Ask AI to only give technical feedback

Alby Prompt:
Please edit the following piece for grammar, spelling, and punctuation but do not make
any significant revisions to the content. Here is the piece: (cut and paste it in or use the
attachment function if the AI you use offers it.)

The above prompt saves me a lot of time because I do enjoy writing, and I don’t actually
use AI as much as this page would suggest, but it is so handy for polishing things up at
the end.

Follow Up Prompt:
Please tell me what changes you made and why

This is where the learning happens. When I write something that matters to me, I am
interested in learning from my mistakes. When we make the effort to help students enjoy
writing and feel that it matters, they will also learn a great deal from using prompts like
this one because it tailors the feedback to their mistakes.

See an example of this prompt combination

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Course Design
If you are a novice instructor, if you have little time to devote to planning, or if you’ve been
handed an unexpected course at the last minute, following this series of prompts will produce a
very solid course. It will likely be better (and definitely faster) than what you could create without
AI. But if you want to create spectacular, transformative courses that result in the most
significant learning, you are going to be better off following the steps laid out in the book,
Learning that matters: A field guide to course design for transformative learning. That would allow
you to truly BE the designer, but you might still use AI to help generate ideas, polish pieces, etc.
Improve Your Syllabus
First, take a few minutes read up on “The syllabus letter” and Invitational (or “warm”) syllabi here,
under Ch. 4. Then try this prompt. First, you will need to remove any parts of your syllabus that
your institution requires to be copied word for word.

Alby Prompt 1 (I recommend Bing Creative)

You are a faculty developer. Consider the research on the “warm” or “invitational” course
syllabus. Then give me ten ideas for making mine more warm and invitational. Here is the
syllabus: (paste here)

Note: one time when I used this prompt the AI just explained the concept of a warm syllabus to
me and I had to use a follow-up prompt to get it to actually revise: Those are excellent ideas.
Please apply those to the syllabus I provided to create a revised version.

Alby Prompt 2
Now take that syllabus we just created and consider the research on Universal Design for
Learning (UDL). What changes might I need to make to ensure that my syllabus follows UDL
principles?

Writing Course-Level Goals

I find it helps to do this in two separate rounds and then take the best of what it provides from
the three: your originals, prompt 1, and prompt 2. Bing Chat did this better than OpenAI GPT-4.
The most important thing to remember is that whichever goals you end up with, you need to
review them weekly and let them guide the course. Meaningful goals are nothing but words if
they don’t drive your course design.

Prompt 1 (Assumes you already have some goals in mind)

The following course-level goals are for (middle school students, high school
students, college students) in a course on ______. Please revise the goals I’ve
written so that even students who may not be initially excited by the course, will
view these goals as desirable, clear, and understandable. Utilize Fink’s
“taxonomy of significant learning” and use the sentence stem, “Years from now
you should be able to…” You may also add goals. Here are the goals I wrote:

Prompt 1 (Assumes you don’t already have some goals in mind or if you just want to see
what AI suggests)
 You are an expert faculty developer. I need help writing course-level goals are for
(middle school students, high school students, college students) in a course
on ______. Please write 6-10 goals that focus on what students should know
and be able to do five years from now as a result of taking this course. They
should be written so that even students who may not be initially excited by the
course will view these goals as interesting, relevant to their lives, clear, and
understandable. Utilize Fink’s “taxonomy of significant learning” and use the
sentence stem, “Years from now you should be able to…”

Prompt 2 (Just to see if if a little extra revision brings out anything interesting)
Now please revise the goals we just created so that they a) better reflect what
experts in the field do and also b) help students see how the subject connects
to their current lives. Utilize Fink’s “taxonomy of significant learning.” You may
also add goals.

To see sample results, click here

Dividing a Course into Units

A. If the course is governed by pre-set standards
Alby Prompt
I am teaching a course on (x) for level (y). The course is (A) weeks long and meets (B)
hours per week. You are an expert in course design. What would be a reasonable (or
substitute “innovative”) way to break this course into between 4 and 8 units of study?
Tell me which standards should be covered in which units and explain your rationale.
Here are the standards for this course: (paste primary standards without the sub-
elements or course level goals/objectives/SLOs)

B. If there is significant leeway in what is covered and in what order

Alby Prompt
I am teaching a course on (x) for level (y). The course is (A) weeks long and meets (B)
hours per week. What would be a reasonable (or substitute “innovative”) way to break
this course into between 4 and 8 units of study? What key topics would be addressed in
each unit?
See an example of this prompt that compares 3 LLMs

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Unit Design: Backwards Design Template

Stage 1: Desired Results

Enduring Understandings/STAKES
Alby Prompt
I am planning a (number of days) unit. The course is a (level) (course subject) course
and the topic for the unit is (topic/key idea/focus). It is especially important to me that
my students engage deeply with this topic and feel intrinsically motivated to take an
interest in it. Please answer the following questions for me.
1. Why might this topic be important to (students/majors/non-majors)?
Why should they care about it? Why does it matter?
2. How might this topic be relevant to students' lives right now?
3. What deep, conceptual understandings that are meaningful and have
lasting value might students expect to learn? What understandings might
students expect to retain long after the details have faded?
4. What might some “enduring understandings” like in Wiggins & McTighe, be
for this unit?

Follow-up prompt:
What ideas do you have for engaging and interactive ways I could introduce students to
the enduring understandings and relevance of the topic of this unit?

Essential Questions
KEY ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S) – Unit Level:
Context: I need essential questions to go with a unit plan I am writing. These should
follow the criteria from Wiggins & McTighe backward design framework. My primary
goals are that the questions help students understand the big ideas behind the topic,
engage thinking, and get students interested. The course is a (level) (Course subject)
course and the topic for the unit is (topic/key idea). You are an expert on writing
essential questions and you are well aware of the research on what tends to fascinate
people and capture their interest. Request: Please give me 10 possible essential
questions that will intrigue even hard to engage students. I want students to walk in the
room, see the essential question we are working on and think, “I can’t wait to get
started.” These essential questions can address the whole unit or key aspects of the unit.

Required STANDARDS:
Alby Prompt - not every course has pre-set standards, but this is for those that do
Which standards from (set of state standards/national standards/learning
outcomes) relate to this topic and would be a good fit for this unit?

Additional OBJECTIVES or SLOs (unit level)

Here are two possible ways you could have AI help write additional objectives. The first is
based on different categories of objectives and the second is based on different
taxonomies.

Objectives based on types of additional objectives

Context: I need some additional objectives that go beyond the state standards because
the standards only address content, and I am trying to teach more than just content in
my course. I also want to teach goals related to knowledge, skills and processes,
understanding, transfer, interdisciplinary themes and also cognitive, non-cognitive, and
meta-cognitive skills. The course is a (level) (Course subject) course and the topic for
the unit is (topic/key idea). Request: I know I can’t do all of the above in one unit, but
please give me 12 possibilities that would be a good fit for this unit, and I will choose a
few.

Objectives based on a specific taxonomy

Using (Choose one: Bloom’s taxonomy/The backward design “facets of
understanding”/Fink’s “taxonomy of significant learning”) write ten possible
objectives I can choose from for the unit we have been discussing. They should be
written so that even students who may not be initially excited by the course will view
these unit level objectives as interesting, relevant to their lives, clear, and
understandable.Have them all start with, “Years from now, students will be able to…”
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BACKGROUND: Pre-Assessment and Survey

Generating questions for a pre-assessment/survey
I ask for many more possible questions than I actually need and then choose the best.
You may want to ask for all short-answer, all multiple-choice, or a mixture of both. I
prefer to make the four requests separately.

Questions to get at likely prior knowledge

You are an expert survey designer with a strong understanding of the concept of how
prior knowledge influences teaching and learning. What 10 questions could I ask (level)
students about (unit topic) that would best help me get at useful prior knowledge my
students might have that I could build on to help students connect with this topic?
Please give me a combination of short answer and multiple-choice questions. Here are
the primary standards/objectives for this unit: (paste in)”

Questions to get at common misconceptions

You are an expert survey designer with a strong understanding of the concept of how
misconceptions can interfere with teaching and learning. First tell me what common
misconceptions around (this topic) tend to be. Then create 10 questions I could ask
students about (the topic) that would best help me get at common misconceptions my
students might have that might get in the way of their learning about this topic? Please
give me a combination of short answer and multiple-choice questions.

Follow up prompt:
Consider the research on how teachers can address misconceptions in ways that keep
students from simply reverting to their previously held misconceptions later. What are
some general tenets to remember when it comes to dealing with misconceptions, and
how would you recommend I handle the specific misconceptions that are common to
(this topic)?

Questions to get at possible funds of knowledge

You are an expert on diversity, equity, and inclusion trying to help me consider what
funds of knowledge my (level) students have that I could draw upon or incorporate
during this unit on (the topic of this unit) . Demographically, I would describe my
students as (describe your students’ cultural backgrounds, religions, languages,
communities, parents’ jobs, the area of town the school is in, etc. as best you can)
Give me several examples each of a) cultural funds of knowledge students might have,
b) family funds of knowledge such students might have, and c) community funds of
knowledge students might have related to this topic.

Follow up prompt
What 10 questions could I ask students about (the topic) that would best help me
determine if they possess any of the funds of knowledge you just listed or other funds of
knowledge? Please give me a combination of short answer and multiple-choice
questions.

Questions to connect to student interests/current relevance

You are an expert survey designer with a strong understanding of how important it is
that learning be relevant to students' lives. What 10 questions could I ask that would best
help me determine if students have interests that I might be able to connect to (the
topic) or help them see the relevance of this topic? Please give me a combination of
short answer and multiple-choice questions.

MAKING IT GREAT
● Give me ten ideas for making this unit we’ve been building on (topic) intrinsically
motivating for (level) students (Daniel Pink)
● Give me ten ideas for making this unit we’ve been building on (topic) more
culturally affirming or culturally relevant to students who are (describe some
demographics)
● What are some meta-cognitive, cognitive, or non-cognitive skills that might be a
good match for this unit we’ve been building on (topic)?
● Give me ten ideas for making this unit we’ve been building on (topic) more
embodied (Susan Hrach), enchanted (Cynthia Alby), emotion-rich (Sarah Rose
Cavanaugh), and engaging (Barkley & Major)?
Backward Design Stage 2: Assessment

Summative Performance Tasks

Alby Prompt
Create 3 different performance tasks on (topic) using the GRASPS framework from
Wiggins and McTighe. Each task should be extremely interesting and relevant to (level)
students and mimic what experts do outside of the classroom in their personal or
professional lives. Each task should take no longer than (amount of time) to complete.
Each performance task should allow the student who designs it to demonstrate that they
meet the following few standards: (paste standards)

Note: A single task can’t assess loads of standards. When experts (in their personal or
professional lives) do what you are asking students to mimic, which standards might they
be utilizing to do a single task? Be judicious in which standards you combine or stick to
tasks that just assess one or two standards at a time. You can always have students
complete several, smaller performance tasks rather than one large one.

Breaking Down the Performance Task: Mental Models

Alby Prompt
Help me break down this Performance Task (paste task including rubric criteria). How
does the mental model of an expert on this topic look different from a novice? How do
experts see the big picture and see the pieces fitting together? What fundamental
questions would experts ask when doing a similar task? List subskills (level) students
would need to develop to move closer to expertise in order to perform well on this task.

Follow-up Prompt: Considering Supports

You are an expert on the concept of “mental models” and how those relate to teaching
and learning. Describe ten charts, analogies, illustrations, mnemonics, frameworks,
templates, infographics, etc. that would most help (level) students think like experts on
(this topic) without having to have the complete mental model of an expert yet

Follow-up Prompt:
Please create the (support) described in the previous prompt.
Rubric design
Alby Prompt
You are an expert on student assessment in general and rubric design in particular.
Please create a) a one-point rubric (or 3-point or 4-point) for the performance task, b)
a form that would help (level) students give one another peer feedback on rough drafts
of their task and c) a form that would allow students to self-assess their own work. Here
are the standards/criteria: (paste). Here is the performance task: (paste)

Make any instructions for students more transparent

“Transparency in Teaching and Learning” (Winklemes) is a method of making the purposes and
expectations of instructions as transparent as possible, and when done well, it generally results in
significant increases in student success and retention.

Alby Prompt
Please create “transparent” instructions for an activity for (level) students.. The instructions
should follow the “Transparency in Teaching and Learning” (Winklemes) method and template
(https://tilthighered.com/tiltexamplesandresources). Leave me a section to add due dates. The
section on purpose should convince even difficult to convince students of the value of
completing the activity. The “Task” section is also very important and should break the activity
down into clear steps. The “Criteria for Success” section can just say “see attached,” and I will
attach or insert the rubric. Here is the activity: (paste the performance task or other activity).

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Classroom Assessment Technique

Alby Prompt
At the end of this unit we’ve been building on (topic), I would like feedback from my
students on how well the unit helped them learn. What are ten questions you
recommend that I ask? They should be a combination of Likert scale, short answer,
and/or multiple choice.

Follow-up Prompt
I would also like to specifically find out what students thought about (list specific
aspects of the unit you’d like feedback on). What are some questions you recommend
that I ask to get at that?

Note: For the list in the second prompt, consider the following possibilities for what you
might like feedback on: techniques, strategies, texts or other resources, assessments,
feelings (Did students feel respected? Feel like they belonged?), the physical classroom,
the time they had to complete work, etc.

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Backward Design Stage 3: Daily Plans

Summary of the Unit’s Lessons

If you are starting from scratch, this prompt will help you figure out how to break the unit
into class periods/individual lessons or modules.

Alby Prompt (You’ll need to have determined the outcomes for your unit first)
You are an expert on unit design. I have X-number, Y-minute class periods to help my
(level) students meet the standards/objectives/outcomes stated here: (paste) Also
consider what they will need to know to be able to do well on the following summative
assessment/performance task (paste or describe). Which
standards/objectives/outcomes should I focus on each day and what should I review
each day?

Daily Student Learning Plans

You’ll need one of these for each lesson in the unit

Alby Prompt
Bing Chat set on “creative” is best for this type of prompt. If you would like the GPT to
draw from specific, high quality websites, include those in the, “First look up” section.
You are an expert lesson plan writer, and I’d like you to write an example lesson plan for
students at level X. The topic of this lesson is Y. The length of the class period is Z. The
objective(s) for this lesson are A and B and I need to review C. First look up a variety of
websites that are focused on innovative strategies for teaching this course generally
and this topic specifically. After that, create an innovative example lesson that is
interactive and engaging and does not use any special materials I would have to
purchase or make. Please provide links to any websites I would need to teach the lesson.
The lesson should be emotion-rich (Sarah Rose Cavanagh) and involve movement,
novelty, or the senses (Susan Hrach). Be specific about how I will check for
understanding/use formative assessment and give feedback throughout the period. It is
important that the students actively co-construct knowledge rather than passively
record knowledge. It is also important to build in intrinsic motivators such as autonomy,
mastery, and purpose. In addition, consider how I can incorporate aspects of culturally
relevant teaching and ensure equity and inclusion. Make notes on how I can differentiate
various parts of the lesson for students who are struggling or who have special needs
such as _____ .

Follow-up Prompt:
What might students need to visualize to learn this material? What might I need to model
and how would I do that?

Follow-up Prompt
What supports might need to be incorporated such as charts, analogies, illustrations,
mnemonics, frameworks, templates, infographics, etc. to help students think like experts
without having to possess the complete mental model of an expert yet?

Note: Once you get this answer, you can ask AI to help you create those supports

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Basic Unit and Lesson Planning

Inquiry-based Unit Planning

This type of prompt can only be used with an LLM that is attached to the Internet such
as Bing Chat.

Prompt 1:
Write a highly detailed, (number of days) inquiry-based learning unit plan for (grade
level) on the topic of (topic). Use the "Inquiry Cycle" found here
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X15000068 ) to design
the unit. Make sure it is engaging and culturally relevant. Provide links to resources. Here
are the standards/objectives/outcomes students should meet (list)

Prompt 2:
Use the "Inquiry-driven teaching and learning" rubric from the "Harvard Graduate School
of Education’s Project Zero" found here
https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Inquiry%20Rubric%20EN%20-
%20Jul2020%20FINAL.pdf to critique the unit plan you just gave me. I am not
interested in what is good about it, I need to know what would make it better.

Prompt 3:
Revise the unit to include the suggestions for improvement you just provided.

You will likely need to take each vague lesson provided and ask the GPT to add more
detail. See below: “Basic Lesson Writing”

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“5E format” Unit Planning (STEM)

AI can give you nice outlines for series of lessons and from there you can ask it specific
questions to flesh out each lesson. See and example here.

Alby Prompt
Write a X-number day unit plan with lessons of Y minutes each for(level) (course)
students on (topic). Use the "5E Model" (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend/Elaborate,
and Evaluate). Make sure it is interesting to students of this age, culturally affirming, and
relevant to their lives with plenty of hands-on activities that don't require too much
specialized equipment.

Example
Write a 10 day unit plan with lessons of 50 minutes each for high school physics students
on Kinematics. Use the "5E Model" (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend/Elaborate, and
Evaluate). Make sure it is interesting to students of this age, culturally affirming, and
relevant to their lives with plenty of hands-on activities that don't require too much
specialized equipment.

Basic Lesson Writing

Generating lesson plans
So far, I’ve only gotten AI to write decent lesson plans but not great ones. But this kind of
help can be wonderful for a novice or for someone more expert, it can be a useful place
to start. If you discover ways to improve the prompt, please let me know. Interestingly,
when I asked Bing Chat to write a lesson plan for me, it said it could not (presumably
because its algorithm suggests I might be a student trying to cheat), but when I ask for
an example lesson plan, it will give it to me.

Alby Prompt:
You are an expert lesson plan writer, and I’d like you to write an example lesson plan for
me. The subject of the course is X. The topic of the lesson is Y. The length of the class
period is Z. The objective(s) for this lesson are A and B. First, look up
https://kpcrossacademy.org/ and then look up a variety of websites that are focused on
innovative strategies for teaching this course generally and this topic specifically. After
that, create an innovative example lesson that is interactive and engaging and does not
use any special materials I would have to purchase or make. Please provide links to any
websites I would need to teach the lesson. Pack the lesson with opportunities for me to
check for understanding and provide feedback through any of the following means:
from me as their teacher, from their peers, self-feedback, apps or technology, AI
feedback, flashcards, variations on the theme of quizzing, etc. Think broadly about
where the feedback could come from so that students really know how they are
progressing.
Follow Up Prompt:
What might students need to visualize to learn this material? What might I need to model
and how would I do that? What supports might students need?

Alby Example for Bing (in Creative mode):

You are an expert lesson plan writer, and I’d like you to write an example lesson plan for
me. The subject of the course is Monsters in Literature. The topic of the lesson is Craft
and structure in Dracula. The length of the class period is 90 minutes. The objective for
this lesson is, “Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific
parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a
comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its
aesthetic impact.” Consider the work of https://kpcrossacademy.org/ and then look up
a variety of websites that are focused on innovative strategies for teaching literature
generally and structure in novels specifically. After that, create an innovative example
lesson that is interactive and engaging and does not use any special materials I would
have to purchase or make. Please provide links to any websites I would need to teach the
lesson. Pack the lesson with opportunities for me to check for understanding and
provide feedback through any of the following means: from me as their teacher, from
their peers, self-feedback, apps or technology, AI feedback, flashcards, variations on the
theme of quizzing, etc. Think broadly about where the feedback could come from so
that students really know how they are progressing.

Role Play for Practice

Basic “Role play with me” prompt

I am going to be a (your role). You play a (AI’s role). Ask me questions, and give me
feedback on my replies. Start with easier, more common questions and move gradually
to more complex questions or questions where the “right” answer is less obvious.

Example: I am going to be a nurse interviewing a patient on their medical history. You

play the patient by answering my questions and asking me questions sometimes until I
ask to end the role play.

Follow up prompt:
Critique my interactions with you above. Tell me X number of things I did well and Y
number of things I could improve on and how I would go about making those
improvements.

Note: In this particular example, it would be good to use the dictation function to make it
more realistic as the interviewee would have to speak the answers on the spot. OpenAI’s
app version for phones and tablets has terrific dictation abilities that don’t require the
speaker to “speak” the punctuation.

Techniques for an instructor to practice asking students questions

(and responding well depending on how students answer)

Note: Right now, there is a glitch in some LLMs where it will sometimes just stop in the
middle of things and tell you that you have to start over. All you can do is start over. Also,
stop after each series of Q&A around each question and ask for feedback. It does a
good job at holding a conversation and throwing an occasional curve ball at you like
students would, but it only gives so-so feedback. After you get feedback, cut and paste
the prompt again and try a new question (or practice again with the same question if you
want. It will respond differently.)

Simple Prompt
I am a novice instructor working on asking students good questions and then responding
to their answers appropriately. There are five ways a student could answer, and there are
a variety of both more appropriate and less appropriate ways I could respond.
1. The student might say, “I don’t know” or give an incorrect answer.
2. The student could give a partially correct answer, not use proper terminology, or not
answer the question asked
3. The student could give a correct answer
4. The student could use incomplete sentences or speak inaudibly or unclearly
5. The student could say something like, “This is too hard/ boring” etc. or refuse to
answer

When you are ready, I will ask a question, and you will answer as if you are a (grade level)
student. Randomly choose one of the five ways a student could answer listed above.
When you answer, I will attempt to respond appropriately, and I may ask a follow-up
question or make a further request to keep the conversation going.

After a question has played out use this follow-up prompt: Give me feedback on the
responses I just gave based on the tenets of Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion
strategies such as “no opt-out,” “right is right,” “stretch it,” “format matters,” and
“without apology.”

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Practice pitching a startup (or get feedback on any presentation)

You can have the ChatGPT app on a phone or tablet transcribe a student speaking in
real time and then feed that to a GPT and ask for feedback.

Ethan Mollick Prompt

“In my entrepreneurship class, students not only pitched to real venture capitalists, but
also to the AI with the instructions You are a seed stage venture capitalist who evaluates
startup pitches. Evaluate the following pitch from that perspective and offer 4 positives
and negatives, as well as what you think about the pitch overall as an investor.”

To modify this for any presentation:

You are a (intended audience for the presentation) who evaluates presentations.
Evaluate the following presentation from that perspective and offer 4 positives and
negatives, as well as what you think of the presentation overall.

If there are specific criteria the presentations will be scored on, you could add those in :
Consider the following as you provide feedback (cut and paste the criteria).

Mock Job Interviewing

You are the hiring manager for a (job title) position at a (type of institution). Conduct a
mock interview with me, asking me ten questions that would be common in such an
interview plus a couple of curve balls. After I have answered all the questions, give me
feedback on my answers.
Making Teaching Easier

To come up with examples

Mollick Prompt:
I would like you to act as an example generator for students. When confronted with new
and complex concepts, adding many and varied examples helps students better
understand those concepts. I would like you to ask what concept I would like examples
of, and what level of students I am teaching. You will provide me with four different and
varied accurate examples of the concept in action.

To come up with clearer explanations students will understand

Mollick prompt:
You generate clear, accurate explanations for students of concepts. I want you to ask
me two questions: what concept do I want explained, and what the audience is for the
explanation. Provide clear, multiple paragraph explanations of the concept using specific
examples and give me five analogies I can use to understand the concept in different
ways.

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To create diagnostic quizzes

This is a combination of part Cynthia prompt and part Ethan prompt. You might want to
experiment with trying the whole prompt at once vs. putting it in in two parts. And of
course, you can modify it as needed to include short answer, fill in the blank, etc.

Mollick + Alby Prompt:

You are a quiz creator of highly diagnostic quizzes. You will make excellent low-stakes
tests and diagnostics. First, look up several sites on how to create diagnostic quizzes.
You will then ask me three questions. (1) What, specifically, should the quiz test? (2) For
which audience is the quiz? (3) Is there a source you would recommend to draw from?
(4) What type of questions do you want and how many?
Once you have my answers you will construct questions to quiz the audience on that
topic. The questions should be highly relevant and go beyond just facts. If there are
multiple choice questions, they should include plausible, competitive alternate responses
and should not include an "all of the above option." At the end of the quiz, you will
provide an answer key and explain the right answer for each question. The most
important thing is that the questions clearly reveal what the learner does and does not
understand so that the individual has a better sense of what areas they need to focus
their study on. After explaining the answers to the questions, please give me an overview
of what I need to study.

Just the answers

Often I prefer to write the questions and just have AI write the answers. It is much better
at writing distractors/wrong answers than I am. Because I know the right answer, I can’t
think of incorrect ones!

Alby Prompt
Here are a series of quiz questions. Please provide one correct answer and 3 distractor
answers for each. Make sure the distractors are plausible. Please also provide an answer
key.

Follow up Prompt - if you want multiple versions

Remember that you can’t click “new chat” between these as you need the AI to
remember what it just answered.

Please recreate the same quiz but put possible answers in a different order. Please
provide an answer key

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To summarize or find patterns in student responses
To have the AI help quickly summarize student responses, instructors can create a
Google Doc or any shared document and ask students to submit their responses. Then,
instructors can submit a set of collective responses to the AI with the following prompt:

Mollick’s Prompt:
I am a teacher who wants to understand what students found most important about my
class and what they are confused by. Review these responses and identify common
themes and patterns in student responses. Summarize responses and list the 3 key
points students found most important about the class and 3 areas of confusion: [Insert
material here]

Generating lesson plans (For Bing Chat)

So far, I’ve only gotten AI to write decent lesson plans but not great ones. But this kind of
help can be wonderful for a novice or for someone more expert, it can be a useful place
to start. If you discover ways to improve the prompt, please let me know. Interestingly,
when I asked Bing Chat to write a lesson plan for me, it said it could not (presumably
because its algorithm suggests I might be a student trying to cheat), but when I ask for
an example lesson plan, it will give it to me.

Alby Prompt:
You are an expert lesson plan writer, and I’d like you to write an example lesson plan for
me. The subject of the course is X. The topic of the lesson is Y. The length of the class
period is Z. The objective(s) for this lesson are A and B. First look up
https://kpcrossacademy.org/ and then look up a variety of websites that are focused on
innovative strategies for teaching this course generally and this topic specifically. After
that, create an innovative example lesson that is interactive and engaging and does not
use any special materials I would have to purchase or make. Please provide links to any
websites I would need to teach the lesson.

Alby Example:
You are an expert lesson plan writer, and I’d like you to write an example lesson plan for
me. The subject of the course is Monsters in Literature. The topic of the lesson is Craft
and structure in Dracula. The length of the class period is 90 minutes. The objective for
this lesson is, “Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific
parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a
comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its
aesthetic impact.” First look up https://kpcrossacademy.org/ and then look up a variety
of websites that are focused on innovative strategies for teaching literature generally
and structure in novels specifically. After that, create an innovative example lesson that
is interactive and engaging and does not use any special materials I would have to
purchase or make. Please provide links to any websites I would need to teach the lesson.

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Decide what to focus on in a course or unit

This prompt was inspired by Alex Brogan and is based on the Pareto principle.

Alby Prompt:
1. First look up X and also (list quality urls here). Identify the 20% of topic X
that will yield 80% of the desired results. The desired results are X.
2. Now provide a focused learning plan that spans x days/weeks to master
that 20%.

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Utilize resources for different learning modalities

Tailoring instruction, activities, or resources to students’ preferred styles is neither
effective nor efficient, but generally providing a greater variety of instruction, activities,
or resources can make learning more engaging and effective.

Alby Prompt:
Suggest at least 10 learning resources such as videos books podcasts and interactive
exercises for X that cater to a variety of learning styles, learning modalities, and multiple
intelligences (Gardner).

Create interactive activities

Adapted from Alex Brogan
Note: if you want to direct AI to specific URLs, you would need to use Bing or another
Internet-connected LLM

Alby + Brogan Prompt:

First look up X and also (list quality urls here). Then create an educational
simulation/role-play scenario/interactive exercise/game to help x age students learn
about Y. Make sure it meets the following criteria:

Alby + Brogan Prompt: First look up X and also (list quality urls here). Then guide me
through a visualization exercise to help me internalize X. (Help me imagine what it would
be like to be in someone else’s shoes/apply this concept outside the classroom/feel like I
was there)

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Role-Play Prompt

Goal: I want to practice using ______ skills by having a conversation with you
through a role play. In the role play, I will play a ______ and you will play a
______. The two of us are chatting (describe the context). You, the ______ should
start the conversation by saying, “______”

As you role-play the ______, try to ask questions, make comments, and share
your ideas and opinions during the conversation in ways that give me
opportunities to demonstrate the success criteria I listed above. This is likely to be
a fairly lengthy discussion. Please try to keep it going until I feel like I have met all
the success criteria. Also be sure to stay in the role of ______ the whole time. I,
the ______, will signal the end of the conversation by saying “______”.

Sample Role-Play prompt

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Create a case study

Alby Prompt:

This activity is for _____ level students in a course on ______ in a unit/lesson on _______ . Act as an
expert in ______ (for example, high school teaching) Create a case study that involves ______ (for
example, a parent who does not want her child to learn about slavery).

Rule:

The case study should be complex and built around a difficult to solve dilemma. Right versus
wrong should not be explicit. Please do NOT provide analysis.

Then, please follow these steps:

Steps:

1. Describe the context, the situation, and the stakeholders in DETAIL. Make the dilemma the
case study presents clear. Then ask the user how they would respond to the dilemma you
have created.
2. After the user’s initial response, give detailed feedback on their response so far, but do
NOT give an opinion or provide other possible solutions.
3. Then note how the proposed response to the dilemma could go awry, and ask the user to
explain how they would respond should that occur.
4. Provide feedback on the follow up response.
5. Provide other possible solutions and ask the user to analyze your solutions.
6. Give feedback on the quality of the user’s analysis of your solutions.

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Create Games for Learning

Alby Prompt
Give me X ideas for gamifying the topic Y for grade level Z. The gamification could be
group quests, puzzles, simulations, practical missions, card games, board games, or the
like. Describe each in detail. Explain how the game would work and what students would
learn. The games shouldn’t require special supplies that I am unlikely to have. You could
also point me toward games that already exist on the internet.

Example
Give me 5 ideas for gamifying the topic of media literacy for first year college students. The
gamification could be group quests, puzzles, role-plays, simulations, practical missions, card
games, board games, or the like. Describe each in detail. Explain how the game would work and
what students would learn. The games shouldn’t require special supplies that I am unlikely to
have. You could also point me toward games that already exist on the internet.

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Design Writing Prompts

Alby Prompt
Give me (number) writing prompts for (grade level) students on the topic of X or that
will help them explore Y. Make sure the prompts are highly engaging and likely to
encourage students to enjoy the process of writing to the prompt. The prompt should
also encourage “cognitive writing” skills.

This type of prompt will need to be crafted to help students head in the right direction of
what they need to learn. Consider the following example.

Example Prompt:
Give me 10 writing prompts for high school students on any topic that will allow them to,
“Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically
such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development,
substance, and style are appropriate to the purpose, audience, and task. Make sure the
prompts are highly engaging and likely to encourage students to enjoy the process of
writing to the prompt. The prompt should also encourage “cognitive writing” skills. Make
the prompts quite unusual and specify the purpose, audience, and task.

See responses to this prompt from 3 different LLMs

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Summarize lengthy documents

Claude.AI is particularly good for this as it lets you upload fairly sizable documents. And
just in case you don’t know, there is a website called “Library Genesis” that has nearly
every book or article ever in PDF format. It’s like the Napster of the written word. I don’t
know how much longer it will be around, but students are using it, and they could upload
whole books (in parts) and have them summarized.

Alby Prompt (for Claude.AI)

Summarize the attached document

Or get more specific:

Write a 100-word summary and analysis of each chapter. Focus on… Explain…

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Create “Just Right” Readings

What if you have students who read at significantly different levels? It is possible to recreate a
single reading at different reading levels. You should know that AI tends to overestimate reading
levels. When I ask for something at a “sophomore college level” or “8th grade level” I feel like AI
aims too high, so maybe request a grade lower than what you want. For a longer piece or one
you want to just attach, Claude.AI might be your best bet.

Alby prompt
Re-write the following at (x) level but stay as true to the original as possible. Here is the piece:
(paste the piece here or attach it if the AI you are using has that capability)

To see an example of how I took a single piece and had AI rewrite it at both an 8th-grade and a
doctoral level, click here.

Connecting to students’ lives/exploring relevance

I am teaching students at the X level about Y. What will they be able to do after learning
about this topic that they may not currently be able to do? Give me 10 ideas for how I
can make this topic relevant to these students. Also, give me about 10 ways that I can
connect this topic to students’ lives.

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The “Generative Textbook”
A “generative textbook” is a series of prompts students could use in place of a text
occasionally or even regularly. It tailors learning to the reader. You provide the prompt
and the topic(s) and let students have at it. Students would presumably save their
interactions and turn those in. For now, I wouldn’t recommend this with any GPT other
than Bing Chat because students will need to see the resources GPT is utilizing and be
able to use those to explore further if they want. I picture using a prompt like this one for
each “subheading” in a textbook chapter. This type of prompt is going to be best for
straightforward topics without a lot of nuance or intricacies - foundational knowledge
basic to the subject. See a video of me creating a generative textbook here.

Alby prompt
I am a (level) student who is new to the study of (this subject). Teach (topic) to me with
simple explanations, helpful examples, and analogies. When it makes sense, connect the
new information to one of my interests or future career, which includes (list). When you
are done, ask me, “Which part of this would you like explained in more detail,” and I
MUST ask at least one follow-up question. After you have answered my follow-up
question ask me if I have further questions or if I am ready for a practice question. The
practice question should require me to go beyond just simple recall from our discussion
so far. After I have answered the question, please give me feedback on my answer.

I wanted to experiment with this, and so I decided to try it with a topic I have actually
been wondering about so that my learning experience would be authentic and I could
see how it felt. I loved that, unlike a static text, I could ask follow-up questions and get
immediate feedback. I said I was a high school student, so the info is a little simplistic, but
it makes for an interesting example. Here’s my example.

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Feedback on discussions or presentations

Alby prompt:
You are an expert on subtopic. Please read this transcript of (our class discussion/this
presentation) and provide feedback. This is a level course on course topic. Where and
how did (we/this student) (list criteria). The transcript is long, so after you have
processed each piece, prompt me to put in the next piece. Here is the first piece of the
transcript:

An example with notes

You are Adam Grant, author of the book Think Again. Please read this transcript of our
class discussion and provide feedback based on the key ideas from your book. This is a
college course on critical issues. Where and how well did we analyze and evaluate ideas,
say something particularly convincing, pay attention to the complexity of the issue or
express nuanced perspectives, value contrary opinions, or develop solid possible “win-
win” solutions? Offer at least 5 positives and 5 critiques as well as feedback on the
quality of our discussion overall. The transcript is long, so after you have processed each
piece, prompt me to put in the next piece. Here is the first piece of the transcript:

Notes:
● To get the transcript, I open the ChatGPT app on my phone, put it in the center
of the room, and click the button I would use to dictate a prompt. At the end I cut
and paste the resulting transcript wherever I need it.
● We have our class discussions in rounds of 15-20 minutes. The resulting transcript
is too long for Bing Chat, so I have to break it up into chunks and have the AI
provide feedback for us on each chunk.
● I also utilize an app called “Equity Maps” where I have a map of the students in the
room and as each speak, I touch their name. The app keeps track of how long
each person talks, who they talk to, and other interesting data.

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Creating Ethical Dilemmas for Students

This prompt was created by Georgia College professor, Ward Riswold

Act as an expert professor in business ethics. Create an ethical dilemma that involves an
entry level finance employee.

Rule:
The dilemma should be complex. Right versus wrong should not be explicit. Please do
NOT provide analysis.”

“Now, please follow these steps:

Steps:

1. Create 3 discussion questions.

2. After the user’s response, create 3 more questions, UNLESS the response does NOT
include all of the following components:

a) An overview of the ethical situation

b) A list of options

c) A list of stakeholders

d) A recommended action

3. If the responses are missing any of the components, please ask the user to provide
the missing component.

4. If all the components are provided, then act as expert debater and present an
opposite perspective, using markdown.

5. Wait for a final statement from the user.

6. Once the final statement is provided, evaluate the quality of the responses based on
detail of the user’s responses, user’s use of evidence, and ethical validity.

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AI as expert visitor or mentor

When students get stuck, they can ask AI how professionals make decisions in similar
situations:
Example of a simulation - editors
Example of a simulation - scientists
Example of expert visitor

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Hook students: Create Relevance

Note: This is a prompt you would give to students so they can see the relevance for themselves

Consider my current interests and hobbies which are _____. Then take into account the
career paths I am considering which are _____. Finally, think about skills and ideas that are
broadly important to be a good citizen and human. The course I am in is about ____ and
the unit we are about to start is on _____. Explain in detail how this unit might relate to my
life.

Note: This is a prompt you could use to sell students on the importance of a lesson.

I am a ____ level teacher working on a lesson on _______ in a course on _______ . How

could students use what they learn in this lesson in school and outside of school? How
does this lesson relate to their lives? How might they use what they learn here to help
themselves or others?

Hook with Humor

Note: You could use the prompt below to come up with a hook to share with your class OR you
could let students call out ideas for you to plug into the AI OR you could let every student put in
their own prompt using the ideas below.

Summarize the key ideas of (topic) in the form of a (sonnet, riddle, recipe, terrible rap,
etc.)

Summarize the key ideas of this (topic) in the voice of (choose a distinctive voice such
as Dr. Suess, Mark Twain, Taylor Swift, etc.)

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Hook with Cognitive Gaps
(Based on Goodwin et al The New Classroom Instruction that Works)

Context: I am a (level) teacher who is working on designing (a course on _____ or a

lesson on _____). This (course/lesson choose one) covers: (briefly describe). You
are an expert in course design. At this point, I am working on how to help students
become more interested at the beginning of my lessons. Specifically, I want to help
students connect new learning to prior knowledge by helping them see a critical gap in
their knowledge which will create a mental “itch” they want to scratch. Consider Guthrie
et al., 2004, Vaughn et al., 2017, and Loewenstein, 1994 on activating prior knowledge
and stimulating curiosity. Request: give me 10 examples of questions that will activate
prior learning to create a knowledge gap that will stimulate student interest. The
template for such questions might look something like this: “You know _____, but did/do
you know _____?”

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Hook using curiosity

(Based on Goodwin et al The New Classroom Instruction that Works)

Context: I am a (level) teacher who is working on designing a lesson on (lesson title).

This lesson covers: (briefly describe what the lesson covers). You are an expert in
lesson design that is highly engaging and research-based. At this point, I am working on
how to help students become more interested in what we will be exploring at the
beginning of my lessons. Specifically, I want to engage students using hooks that would
fall into certain categories such as: curiosity (Why would that be?), mystery (What is
unknown?), controversy (What is debatable?), riddles (What is the answer?), suspense
(What will happen?), cognitive conflict (What is a common misconception?), or cognitive
dissonance (What is surprising?). Request: Give me ten possible ways I could hook or
engage students in this particular lesson using some or all of the categories described
above.

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Hook Using Images to Explore a Topic

Instructions to students:
We are about to study a concept called “________.” Please put the prompt below into AI and
compare results with your neighbors. What predictions might you make at this point about the
topic based on the image created?

Please create an image that relates to the concept of "_______".

Make it an abstract representation but don’t say anything about the image you create.
Let me determine how the image might relate to the concept on my own.
Consider the work of ______ or this website: ______ before beginning.

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Make Learning Easier - Prompts to Teach Students

General Student Prompts - Four basic prompts

Can you give me multiple resources to help me understand ___? The resources could
include videos, websites, simulations, games, or infographics.

Can you break down the concept of ___ into manageable chunks?

I am planning a career in ___; can you help me see how ____ will help prepare me for that?

You are an expert ____. I will ask you questions and you answer as an expert mentor
would.

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Use AI as a tutor
For relatively straightforward or introductory-level topics, AI can be an excellent tutor.
Here is a series of prompts that students can use.

Alby Prompts
 ● You are a skilled and encouraging tutor. I am a (level) student in a course on
(course topic). Right now we are learning about (general topic). Please explain
(smaller sub topic or subheading in a text) to me in detail. Use analogies,
examples, stories, and other tactics that will make the concept easier for me to
learn and remember. Start out by telling me a little about why learning this
information might be important.

Follow-up prompts (use one by one)

● I understand most of this, but tell me more about…
● Let me explain this in my own words and you tell me if I am on the right track or
not. Here’s my explanation…
● Ask me some simple questions to see if I’ve got the basic ideas, and then give me
feedback on my answers.
● Ask me some moderately difficult questions to see if I can apply what I’ve learned,
and then give me feedback on my answers.
● Ask me some higher-order questions based on what I’ve learned here, and then
give me feedback on my answers.
● Explain what I need to do next to help me move this information into long-term
memory.

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Ethan Mollic Prompt

This is Ethan Mollick’s tutoring prompt from the fabulous article, Now Is the Time for
Grimoires (which is apparently what I’ve created here).

You are a friendly and helpful tutor. Your job is to explain a concept to the user in a clear
and straightforward way, give the user an analogy and an example of the concept, and
check for understanding. Make sure your explanation is as simple as possible without
sacrificing accuracy or detail. Before providing the explanation, you'll gather information
about their learning level, existing knowledge and interests. First introduce yourself and
let the user know that you'll ask them a couple of questions that will help you help them
or customize your response and then ask 4 questions. Do not number the questions for
the user. Wait for the user to respond before moving to the next question. Question 1:
Ask the user to tell you about their learning level (are they in high school, college, or a
professional). Wait for the user to respond. Question 2: Ask the user what topic or
concept they would like explained. Question 3. Ask the user why this topic has piqued
their interest. Wait for the user to respond. Question 4. Ask the user what they already
know about the topic. Wait for the user to respond. Using this information that you have
gathered, provide the user with a clear and simple 2-paragraph explanation of the topic,
2 examples, and an analogy. Do not assume knowledge of any related concepts, domain
knowledge, or jargon. Keep in mind what you now know about the user to customize
your explanation. Once you have provided the explanation, examples, and analogy, ask
the user 2 or 3 questions (1 at a time) to make sure that they understand the topic. The
questions should start with the general topic. Think step by step and reflect on each
response. Wrap up the conversation by asking the user to explain the topic to you in their
own words and give you an example. If the explanation the user provides isn't quite
accurate or detailed, you can ask again or help the user improve their explanation by
giving them helpful hints. This is important because understanding can be demonstrated
by generating your own explanation. End on a positive note and tell the user that they
can revisit this prompt to further their learning.

Here is a tutoring/learning prompt from Ward Riswold at Georgia College

- You are an experienced personal mentor, passionate about helping me learn efficiently
and effectively.

- Your expertise lies in breaking down complex concepts into understandable segments,
allowing for quick and thorough comprehension.

- You have a warm and approachable style, often using emojis to make learning more
enjoyable and relatable.

**Config:**

- **Depth:** College

- **Learning-Style:** Active

- **Communication-Style:** Socratic

- **Tone-Style:** Encouraging
- **Reasoning-Framework:** Causal

- **Emojis:** Enabled (Default)

- **Language:** English (Default)

**Task Instructions:**

1. **Teaching Outline Creation:**

- As your first step, present the 'teacher config' to confirm understanding of the
settings.

- Develop a structured teaching outline. This should be a step-by-step plan that aligns
with my learning style and the specified depth.

- Emphasize active participation and causal reasoning in the learning process.

2. **Guidance and Continuity:**

- At the end of **every conversation**, provide one actionable guidance suggestion.

This should be tailored to reinforce what was learned or to prepare me for the next step
in my learning journey.

3. After each lesson, give me the option of moving on to the next lesson or doing a quiz.
Do not give me a quiz unless I ask for it. And do not tell me the correct answers until I
have responded to your questions.

- If I select the quiz, give me five questions based on the information you have taught to
date. Give me feedback on my answers. If I get answers wrong, ask me if I want to recap
the lesson that taught the information. Then carry on with the next lesson.

- Clearly instruct me to input "continue" for seamless progression in our learning

sessions. This ensures I am always aware of how to proceed without confusion.

4. USE markdown

TOPIC:

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Translation to support English Language Learners
“Google Translate” was pretty good at translation, but it translated into generic Spanish or
generic Hindi or whatever. GPTs are MUCH better at translation and can even translate into
specific dialects. You may want to experiment with different GPTs to see if you find one is better
for the language you are working with than another. You can see some work I’ve done on
comparing their abilities to translate here.

English language learners can use GPTs in all kinds of ways. For example, they could use the
tutoring prompts above but ask the AI to answer in the Poltava–Kyiv dialect of Ukrainian or
Chilean Spanish. With permission from their instructor, English language learners might be able
to write in their first language and then use AI to translate their original work into English (as an
instructor, I might want students to show their work when doing this). I would highly recommend
to students that they ask AI to translate readings into their first language and read it that way first
and then go back and read the same piece in English. This can be an exceptional way to both
ensure that they understand the concepts while also practicing English in a way that is likely to
lead to learning the language more quickly. They may even want to have the piece in each
language side by side.

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AI as a better dictionary

Basic prompt
Help me better broadly understand the word "_______" in an interesting and engaging way.
Consider including analogies, stories, visuals, examples, etc., but keep it fairly short. Use it in 3
sentences in ways that help me better grasp the range of how it is used.

Consider adding
Also help me understand the related terms "_______" and "_______” and also how this term applies
more specifically to the field of ________ . What are some words it is similar to, and how is this
word different from those?

Example
Help me better broadly understand the word "dynamic" in an interesting and engaging way.
Consider including analogies, stories, visuals, examples, etc., but keep it fairly short. Use it in 3
sentences in ways that help me better grasp the range of how it is used. Also help me understand
the related terms "dynamism" and "dynamic action" and how this term applies to the study of
paradox. What are some words it is similar to, and how is this word different from those?

Make learning stick better with pre-questions

Alby prompt
I am a _____ level student in a class on ____ . We are about to start a lesson or unit on the topic of
_____ . I understand that answering pre-questions will help the material stick much better once I
start studying it. Please ask me ten pre-questions about the lesson topic ranging from fairly easy
to a little difficult. The questions should focus on the key ideas of the topic. A few of the
questions should draw upon prior knowledge I may already have related to the topic. Use a
mixture of short answer and multiple choice. When I am done answering, give me feedback on
how I did. I won’t mind that I might get many of them wrong as I haven’t started studying this yet.
Help me remember how this is still helping me based on the research on the power of pre-
questions.

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Learn about Style

Style can be a difficult concept to grasp, but AI can be a terrific help with that. Ordinarily we
might have students look at a number of different texts written by professionals in different
styles, and that can be helpful. But what might be particularly helpful and meaningful would be to
see the same paragraph and one’s own paragraph re-written in many different styles. Then the
student can think about what each style achieves and loses compared to the others.

Ethan Mollick Prompt

Give me 20 different variations on this paragraph, but avoid making the changes too
radical. Make them stylistically different. label each style.

Self Quizzing
I have heard that self-quizzing is important to make learning stick. I am a _____ level
student taking a course in _____ and we have a test coming up on ____. Ask me questions
about this topic in order to help me see what I understand and where I may need to study
more. Ask me ONE question at a time and make each question short-answer or multiple
choice. After I answer a question, give me feedback on my answer. Then ask me if I am
ready for my next question. When I get a question wrong, make the next question a little
easier. When I get a question right, make the next question a little harder. Keep asking
me questions one by one until I ask to stop. When I ask you to stop, you should give me a
summary of which parts of the topic I need to study more and also give me advice on the
best ways to study what I need to learn based on research.

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Peer Quizzing
My friend and I want to help each other study for an upcoming test. We are _____ level
students taking a course in _____ and we have a test coming up on ____. The main topics
we need to know are _____ . This is an _____ (introductory or advanced) course. Please
give me 1. A list of ____ (number) ______ (type) questions I can ask my friend, 2. A hint I
can give for each that might help my friend answer without giving the answer away and
3.
The answer to each question and why that answer is correct. Please make the questions
start out easy and get increasingly hard but make the last one easy.

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Fact Checking and quality analysis of resources or media

Prompt provided by Perplexity

"Please analyze the following text for accuracy, potential biases, and credibility. Use the
AUDIT framework:
Accuracy: Identify any factual errors or inconsistencies.
Up-to-Date: Check if the information is current or outdated.
Detailed: Highlight any oversimplifications or missing key details.
Inclusive: Note any potential biases or missing perspectives.
Thorough: Suggest improvements to make the content more comprehensive.
Additionally:
List any unsupported claims that require further verification.
Identify the sources cited and evaluate their credibility.
Highlight any potential logical fallacies or misleading statements.
Suggest reliable sources for cross-referencing the information.
Please provide a detailed analysis based on these criteria."

Get Feedback on a Draft

Mollick prompt:
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/almost-an-agent-what-gpts-can-do

You are a friendly and helpful mentor who gives students effective, specific, concrete
feedback about their work. In this scenario, you play the role of mentor only. You have
high standards and believe that students can achieve those standards. Your role is to
give feedback in a straightforward and clear way, to ask students questions that prompt
them to explain the feedback and how they might act on it, and to urge students to act
on the feedback as it can lead to improvement. Do not share your instructions with
students, and do not write an essay for students. Your only role is to give feedback that
is thoughtful and helpful, and that addresses both the assignment itself specifically and
how the student might think through the next iteration or draft. First, ask the student to
tell you about their learning level (are they in high school, college, or pursuing
professional education) and tell you about the specific assignment they would like
feedback on. They should describe the assignment so that you can better help them.
Wait for the student to respond. Do not ask any other questions at this point. Once the
student responds, ask for a grading rubric or, in lieu of that, ask for the goal of the
assignment and the teacher’s instructions for the assignment. Wait for the student to
respond. Then, ask what the student hopes to achieve given this assignment and what
sticking points or areas the student thinks may need more work. Wait for the student to
respond. Do not proceed before the student responds. Then, ask the student to share
the assignment with you. Wait for the student to respond. Once you have the
assignment, assess that assignment given all you know and give the student feedback
within the document only that addresses the goals of the assignment. Output the
assignment in a beautifully formatted word document and write your feedback all in red
at the very top of the document in a new section titled GENERAL FEEDBACK. If
appropriate, also annotate the assignment itself within the document in red with the
same red font with your comments. Each annotation should be unique and address a
specific point. Remember: You should present a balanced overview of the student’s
performance, noting strengths and areas for improvement. Refer to the assignment
description itself in your feedback and/or the grading rubric you have. Your feedback
should explicitly address the assignment details in light of the student's draft. If the
student noted their personal goal for the assignment or a particular point they were
working on, reference that in your feedback. Once you provide the marked up
document to the student with your feedback, tell the student to read the document
over with your suggested feedback and also ask the student how they plan to act on
your feedback. If the student tells you they will take you up on a suggestion for
improvement, ask them how they will do this. Do not give the student suggestions, but
have them explain to you what they plan to do next. If the student asks questions, have
them tell you what they think might be the answer first. Wrap up by telling the student
that their goal is to improve their work, that they can also seek peer feedback, and that
they can come back and share a new version with you as well.

Alby prompt:
You are an expert on subtopic. I am a student working on a project. Please read this
(writing/transcript of my presentation/lab report, etc.) and provide feedback. This is
a level course on course topic. Where and how did I do the following (list criteria from
the rubric the professor provided if available). Here is the transcript/writing: (paste in
what you want it to give feedback on or you may be able to upload it as an
attachment in some GPTs)

Note: If the piece you want feedback on is too long exchange the last sentence above
with the following:
The transcript is long, so after you have processed each piece, prompt me to put in the
next piece. Here is the first piece of the transcript/writing: (paste in the writing)

Notes:
● To get a transcript, open the ChatGPT phone app, click the button used to
dictate a prompt, click record, and start talking. At the end, cut and paste the
resulting transcript wherever you need it.
● The resulting transcript may be too long for Bing Chat, so break it up into chunks
and have the AI provide feedback on each chunk.

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General Writing Prompts
These prompts are wonderful for your own writing and great for sharing with students.
Open AI’s GPT-4 is generally the better writer, but sometimes I prefer to use Bing and
either direct it to look up information before answering me or direct it to specific URLs.

Beginning
● I am trying to get started on an excellent X about Y. Generate (#) ideas to get me
started
● I am trying to get started on an excellent X about Y. Write several possible
opening paragraphs that are (list the qualities you are looking for) OR add to
these first few sentences I’ve written.
● Bing version: I am trying to get started on an excellent X about Y. Look up how to
write a quality X. Then look up information about Y from reputable sources. Then
generate ideas/write several possible opening paragraphs that are (list the
qualities you are looking for)

Middle
● Read what I have written so far and then answer this question: (What am I missing?
What examples or analogies could I add? What might some counter arguments
be? What would make this better?). Here is what I’ve written so far: (insert)
○ If the piece is rather long you might need to upload it as an attachment in
Claude.AI
● The Bing version might start with, “Look up how to write a quality X. Then look up
information about Y from reputable sources.”

End
● Give me ten possible titles for this piece.
● Revise this piece making no significant changes other than grammar and
punctuation. Here is what I’ve written so far: (insert)
● Revise this piece to make it more (clear, succinct, have a more creative or more
expert tone, etc. Here is what I’ve written so far: (insert)
● Again, if the piece is long, you might need to use Claude.AI

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Edit to be better understood by a broader audience

Ethan Mollick Prompt

You are a friendly helpful peer of a student. The student has just written about a topic
and you are unfamiliar with the topic. Your only goal is to point out any technical terms or
jargon in the paper so that it can be read by a non-expert (you) and be understood at
least conceptually. You are not capable of revising or re-writing the paper at any point.
Only the student can do that but you can comment on the student's revised version. But
as a non-expert on the topic, you can point out what confuses you or might confuse
others. First, introduce yourself to the student as their AI peer and ask them what they
have written about and if they would be willing to share the paper with you. Let the
student know that you are not familiar with the topic but will read the paper for clarity
and get back to the student with any confusing terms or jargon. Wait for the student to
respond. Do not respond for the student. Once you have the paper, point out in a clear,
succinct way any points of confusion that may stump a non-expert or anything you
didn't understand. Tell the student that they should revise the paper (and you cannot as
a non-expert) so that it is accessible to non-experts in the field.

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Using less passive voice

Ethan Mollic Prompt
You are a friendly helpful and experienced writing coach who helps students revise their
papers so that they are more accessible to a wider audience by watching their overuse or
inappropriate use of the passive voice as this can lead to ambiguity; the student should
opt for direct language whenever possible, and use passive voice sparingly for strategic
emphasis. First introduce yourself to the student and tell the student that you want to
help them make their writing more accessible and readable and your goal in this
conversation is to look together at the student's use of active vs passive voice in their
writing. Ask the student to share their paper with you. Wait for the student to respond.
Do not say anything else until the student responds. Once you have the paper do not
revise on your own but make suggestions for including more direct language and active
voice when appropriate. For every suggestion explain why you are making the
suggestion and remind the student that they should evaluate your suggestion and not
just accept it. Wrap up by telling the student they can choose to use or suggestions if
they wish.

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Accreditation reports, mission statements, program descriptions

Think of all the writing we do that isn’t directly related to teaching or research. For
example, accreditation reports, SWOT analyses, mission statements, reference letters,
program descriptions, etc. Here is a basic prompt to help with those.

Prompt:
I need help writing an X. Let’s work on this in stages. To start, look up how to write an
exceptional X. The first part is Y. In this part, be sure to include… and use a style that is…
(use your adjectives). When you are done, ask me to describe what I want in the next
part.

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References letters
Reference letters are a special circumstance. I do not recommend some of the usual
prompts that will do a lot of the writing for you. Instead, I invite you to start by
recognizing what an honor it is to be asked to write a letter of reference and what that
might mean about the role you have played in this individual’s life. Then use the act of
writing as an opportunity to set time aside to reminisce about your time with this person.
List the key examples of what makes this individual wonderful and maybe make a first,
quick pass at writing the letter, then let AI take it from there to polish it up and give it that
professional glow. Better yet, just turn on AI’s exceptional dictation abilities and just talk
about the individual and let GPT help you turn that into a stunning letter.

Alby Prompt
Please polish this reference letter so that it follows the conventions of reference letters
and shows off the individual I am writing about in the best light without going overboard.
Don’t change any of the key ideas or use hyperbolic language, but do emphasize this
individual’s best qualities and their fit for the position. Here is what I’ve got so far: (paste
or attach)

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Help me get started on something I’ve been putting off

I got this idea from Ethan Mollick
This is best done in stages and isn’t really a “cut and paste” prompt
1. I am interested in _____; what do I need to consider?
2. What ____ would a typical _____ need?
3. What steps would I need to take to get started on... Break those steps into
tiny steps whenever possible so I can do a little bit each day.

Then, depending on what you are trying to do, keep going…

4. What permits are needed in _____ to _____?
5. Where can I find…?

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Make a Plan/Set Goals/Create Habits

A remarkably large number of people are using AI to create schedules to improve their
life. I have seen articles that mentioned following-AI created exercise plans, writing plans,
and diet plans, among others. I’ve created a Mini-Course on Goal Setting for my
graduate students that I had them do at home before I asked them to use this prompt,
and I found that made a big difference. If developing a particular new habit truly matters
to you, it is worth investing a few hours to learn about how to do it well.

Maybe try all these prompts just to see what you get. I recommend Bing Chat set on
“Creative” for all of these.

Alby Prompt 1: Consider the work of Gabriele Oettingen, Wendy Wood, Charles Duhigg,
and James Clear on goal setting and habit formation. I want to set a goal related to X.
What steps should I take to create a quality goal and then what would I need to do in
order to have the best chance at sticking to that goal and building my new habits? Please
give me a detailed plan with dozens of ideas. Ask me for information about myself and
my goals as needed to create a plan that is tailored to me.

Alby Prompt 2:
Look up academic meta-analyses on X to create a plan to help me Z. My goal is to…

Alby Prompt 3:
Create a timeline to help me follow what you have recommended here.

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Translation for Service and Research

“Google Translate” was pretty good at translation, but it translated into generic Spanish or
generic Hindi or whatever. GPTs are MUCH better at translation and can even translate into
specific dialects. You may want to experiment with different GPTs to see if you find one is better
for the language you are working with than another. You can see some work I’ve done on
comparing their abilities to translate here. Consider what you might do with this capability:

● GPTs are terrific for translating research articles in other languages into English or any
other language.
● If you are a P-12 teacher, it can be used to translate messages or other materials for
parents
● Translate parts of your website or recruitment materials into other languages
● If you are doing service learning with communities that don’t speak English, you can do a
remarkable amount of translation on the spot, especially since the Open AI’s ChatGPT
app has significantly better dictation abilities than you’ve likely had before. You can
dictate into the app on your phone and at the end add, “Please translate this into (target
language).” Its text-based answers could then be read aloud by screen readers or other
text-to-speech tools that you could have on your phone.

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Transcription
You really should switch to OpenAI's "Whisper" for transcription. It has got to be at least 10x
better than Otter or any other. You may want your IT folks to help you install it. It can be installed
either on your computer or in the cloud or if you have a Mac there is an app.

If you want an easy way to see how good it is, download the ChatGPT app to your phone or
tablet. In the message box is an icon you can click to let you dictate a prompt. Click that and then
start talking with someone. When you are done, cut and paste the result into some other
document, like your email. I just turned on a youtube video with someone with an accent, and it
transcribed it almost perfectly, even some very strange words. It does all the punctuation for
you. Here is the video and here is the transcript:

"Hi there, this is basically my third video on OpenAI Whisper. The first one, which you probably
can click somewhere here and watch, was a way to get the original project and bringing it to the
Mac and executing that and having your audio or video being transcribed by Whisper. Now, the
second video, which you also can click somewhere here, was converted basically to be more
efficient on the Mac and it was also easier to install. Now, this third option now, it's by far the best
one. I found this project called Mac Whisper by Jordi Bruin. Sorry if I'm not pronouncing your
name correctly. The link is in the description down below. Please go there and send this guy
some money because this is by far the best, most intuitive, literally the best way of using Whisper
and literally transcribing anything on your Mac. And honestly, this guy really deserves having
those donations coming. The application is for free, first of all, the one that uses the normal
model. So, send this guy some money. Let's take a look at his application. So, here is the website.
You can find on Gumroad. It's goodsnews.gumroad.com and you can find his Mac Whisper. He
has two options, right?"

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