Using ChatGPT as an Educational PA

If you've read my most recent articles, you'll know that the recent release of ChatGPT from open.ai has got many in education talking.

Whether it's the fear of machine written essays or AI stopping students from thinking for themselves, there is cause for concern.

However, it only takes a small shift in thinking for us to start seeing AI tools like ChatGPT as a support for both teachers and students. If we think of it as our own personal assistant, we can then begin to understand its value and use it to our advantage.

The first thing to mention is that, as a language model, ChatGPT can be trained to act in certain ways. At its most simple, you can ask it to complete a task, such as 'write me a 2000 word essay on the rise of Fascism in 1930s Weimar Republic'. Do that, and it will churn out a pretty decent essay. Not too exciting, but decent enough.

It is only when you see it as an intelligent system that you're able to train, that it begins to show its true potential.

If you begin any series of prompts with the initial command 'You're going to act as...' and then follow it up with 'Your task is to...', you will get far better results. You should already begin to see how you can train it like a PA.

For example, say you want to plan a scheme of work for teaching Year 3 Literacy. You could simply write 'plan a ten week course in literacy, suitable for year 3 students.'

This is what it generates:

Week 1: Introduction to the alphabet and letter sounds

Week 2: Blending sounds to read words

Week 3: Sight word recognition and vocabulary building

Week 4: Sentence structure and punctuation

Week 5: Reading comprehension and story analysis

Week 6: Writing simple sentences and paragraphs

Week 7: Spelling and word choice

Week 8: Reading and writing narratives

Week 9: Reading and writing persuasive texts

Week 10: Review and assessment of literacy skills.

Throughout the course, students will engage in a variety of activities including whole class and small group instruction, independent reading and writing, and assessments to check for understanding. It is important to incorporate fun and interactive activities such as games, group discussions, and hands-on projects to keep students engaged and motivated. Additionally, it is important to provide individualized support and differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all students.

However, if you rephrase, again seeing it like a personal assistant, you can get far better results.

You can say something like this: 'You're going to act as a year 3 teacher. Your task is to plan a ten week course for year 3 students, covering age appropriate literacy learning. The course should be mapped against UK national curriculum standards.'

Note the difference in output:

Sure, here is a ten-week course plan for Year 3 students covering age-appropriate literacy learning, mapped against UK national curriculum standards:

Week 1: Introduction to Reading Comprehension - Students will learn how to identify the main idea of a text and distinguish between fact and opinion.

Week 2-3: Phonics - Students will learn how to read and write common vowel and consonant sounds, including digraphs and blends.

Week 4-5: Grammar and Punctuation - Students will learn about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, as well as how to use punctuation marks correctly.

Week 6-7: Writing Skills - Students will learn how to write a variety of text types, such as narratives, descriptions, and explanations.

Week 8-9: Spelling and Vocabulary - Students will learn how to spell common words and improve their vocabulary through word study and word games.

Week 10: Review and Assessment - Students will review all concepts covered throughout the course and complete an assessment to evaluate their progress.

Activities throughout the course will include: reading and discussing texts, independent and group writing, phonics and spelling games, grammar exercises and vocabulary building activities.

Please note that this is just an example and could be modified accordingly. Additionally, it's important to note that the curriculum standards vary from school to school and region to region. Therefore, it's important to check the specific curriculum standards for the school in question before planning the course.

You can then take any of the items above and ask it to expand. 'Expand on week one, giving a lesson by lesson overview based on there being 5 lessons in the week.' Here's what it gives you:

Week 1: Introduction to Reading Comprehension

Lesson 1: Identifying the main idea of a text - Students will read a short text and identify the main idea by answering questions about the text. They will also learn how to distinguish between fact and opinion.

Activities:

• Whole class reading of a short text
• Discussion of the text to identify main idea
• Classifying statements in text as fact or opinion

Lesson 2: Understanding character's feelings and actions - Students will read a short story and identify the feelings and actions of the characters.

Activities:

• Whole class reading of a short story
• Discussion of the characters' feelings and actions
• Identifying and labeling the characters' feelings and actions in the story

Lesson 3: Identifying cause and effect - Students will read a short text and identify the cause and effect relationships in the text.

Activities:

• Whole class reading of a short text
• Discussion of cause and effect relationships in the text
• Identifying and labeling cause and effect in the text

Lesson 4: Identifying the main idea in nonfiction texts - Students will read a short nonfiction text and identify the main idea by answering questions about the text.

Activities:

• Whole class reading of a short nonfiction text
• Discussion of the text to identify main idea
• Classifying statements in text as fact or opinion

Lesson 5: Review and Assessment - Students will review all concepts covered throughout the week and complete an assessment to evaluate their progress.

Activities:

• Whole class review of main idea, fact and opinion, character's feelings and actions, cause and effect
• Individual or group assessment on the concepts covered during the week.

Of course, it isn't fully formed, but you can go deeper, asking it to suggest stories that would work for reading comprehension and so on.

If you look at it in this way, you can also see how useful this could be for students. Take revision for example. Students can ask it to give them ten key points from any subject. Let's say they're revising Lord of the Flies for their GCSE. They can ask ChatGPT to give them the main areas to focus on for their revision, structuring their work so they can focus on revising content rather than organising their ideas.

'You're going to act as a GCSE student. Summarise Lord of the Flies into its ten most important points. Give quotes and analysis for each of these points, indicating which chapter in the novel we find these quotes.'

Here's what it gives you. It's a great start to help structure further study:

1. The loss of civilization and the descent into savagery: "The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness" (Chapter 1).
2. The power struggle between Ralph and Jack: "Ralph shouted. 'I'm chief! I was chosen. I can't help it' (Chapter 2).
3. The manipulation and brainwashing of the choir into becoming the "hunters": "Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them" (Chapter 3).
4. The fear of a mythical beast: "Maybe there is a beast... maybe it's only us" (Chapter 4).
5. The importance of a signal fire: "This fire is the most important thing we've got" (Chapter 5).
6. The theme of loss of innocence: "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart" (Chapter 6).
7. The consequences of mob mentality: "They were savages" (Chapter 7).
8. The theme of power and control: "You're talking too much. Shut up" (Chapter 8).
9. The theme of the end of civilization: "The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away" (Chapter 9).
10. The theme of the inherent evil in human nature: "I'm chief. I was chosen. I can't help it" (Chapter 10).

In the same way that they might expand on ideas in class, students can ask the AI to expand on any of the points above: 'Expand on point one, bringing in 4 more quotes and analysis, and showing where in the novel these quotes are found.'

1. The loss of civilization and the descent into savagery:

• "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything" (Chapter 1). This quote highlights the boys' belief in their inherent superiority and their initial resistance to the idea of losing their civilized ways.
• "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling" (Chapter 2). This quote illustrates the gradual transformation of the boys as they embrace their savage instincts and abandon their civilized behavior.
• "The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness" (Chapter 3). This quote shows how the mask symbolizes the boys' loss of identity and individuality as they give in to their primal instincts.
• "The tribe had no need for him" (Chapter 4). This quote highlights how the boys have fully rejected Ralph and his attempts to maintain order and civilization, instead fully embracing their savage ways.

And so on.

By reframing our approach to ChatGPT, seeing it as an assistant that we can have dialogue with, we can move away from any notion of it being an AI that is limited to quick fixes, and instead use it to organise us, enabling us to focus on higher order thinking skills.