A Look Back: My God! I Can’t Believe How Much Time ChatGPT Is Now Going To Save Me In Creating One Of My Favorite Teaching Resources!

(I’m republishing my best posts from the second half of 2024. You can see the entire list of them here)

Earlier this year, I posted about a new strategy I was using to help teach English sentence structure to my ELL Newcomer students (see How I’m Adding A Twist To The Sentence Expansion Strategy In My ELL Newcomers Class).

Basically, they’re sheets of five groups of sentences, and they are all expanding sentences that gradually incorporate additional words.

Here’s a downloadable example.

They are extremely effective, especially combined with the use of Sentence Navigators.

They haven’t taken me very long to create, but they do take some time.  I also have peer tutors create them when the students they are tutoring are absent, but I have to then spend time double-checking their work.

I couldn’t believe, though, that I hadn’t thought until tonight about the possibility of teaching ChatGPT to create them!

Duh!

It took a few tries, but it ended up creating one just like I wanted!

Here’s the final version it created, and here are the different prompts I used:

FIRST PROMPT:

I have attached a document I use in my English Language Learner Beginners class. It it a series of “expanding sentences” about describing things and using words about the body. The first page is the answer sheet. The second page are those sentences scrambled. Can you create a similar sheet using simple adjectives in sentences.

SECOND PROMPT:

You have created three groups of three sentences each. I would like five groups of three sentences each. Also, can you create sentences that do not require the use of commas? Also, in the scrambled versions, do not capitalize any letters, and put the periods in a different place than the end.

THIRD PROMPT:

This is better. I need two more adjustments. First, in the scrambled versions, please include periods – just don’t put them at the end. Secondly, in the answers, please include ALL versions of correct answers. For example, in the sentence “The pretty flower is pink and tall” include another correct version in parenthesis “The pretty flower is tall and pink.”

FOURTH PROMPT:

This is excellent. I will want to create more like this. Will you remember these specific instructions, or will I have to repeat them?

I’m adding this info to The “Best” Resources For Teaching Sentence Structure and to THE BEST POSTS ABOUT USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WITH ELLS.

ADDENDUM:  I went back and asked ChatGPT what prompt I should use with it the next time I wanted to create more of these sheets.  Here is what it told me:

To get this type of worksheet again, you can use a prompt like this:

“Please create a sentence-expansion worksheet with three levels of sentences (basic, intermediate, expanded). Scramble the sentences for the second part of the exercise, ensuring no capital letters and periods placed randomly, but not at the end. Include three long blank lines after each set of scrambled sentences for students to write the correct sentence. The answer sheet should include alternative correct versions of the sentences in parentheses, and avoid using commas.”

This will ensure that I follow the format and preferences we’ve established!