ChatGPT and Language Arts – Do’s, Don'ts, and Teacher Tips

In the fast-changing world of technology today, it's important to use new and creative teaching tools to foster creativity and engage young minds. ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, is an amazing language model that has completely transformed the way students learn in the classroom. It can help you with your Language Arts lessons and make the teaching process even better. 

To help you and your students make the most of ChatGPT and integrate it seamlessly into your curriculum, here’s a list of Do’s, Don’ts, and Teacher Tips to get you started.  

Do's 

• Use ChatGPT to spark creativity and enhance student engagement. Instead of the traditional Know-Want to Know-Learn chart, ask ChatGPT to list 5 answers to a concept/topic question and decide as a class which answer to pursue. For example, when prompted “Please list 5 short answers to the question, ‘What contributes to air pollution?’”, ChatGPT generated this list: 

1. 1. 1. Vehicle emissions.
      2. Industrial activities.
      3. Power plant emissions.
      4. Burning fossil fuels.
      5. Agricultural practices.

• Ask ChatGPT for clarification on a topic. This includes showing your students how to do this so that they can do this when working on assignments on their own, in groups, or at home. For example, when asked to clarify the difference between an adverb and adjective, as well as provide 3 examples, ChatGPT provided: 

An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb, providing information about how, when, where, or to what extent something is happening. An adjective, on the other hand, describes or modifies a noun or pronoun, giving more details about its quality, size, appearance, etc. Here are three examples of each: 

Adverbs: 

1. 1. She ran quickly to catch the bus.
   2. The dog barks loudly every night.
   3. He spoke softly to avoid waking the baby.

Adjectives: 

1. 1. The tall tree provided shade on a hot day.
   2. I bought a beautiful dress for the party.
   3. The old car broke down on the highway.

• Encourage students to ask open-ended questions and explore different writing styles. This is especially helpful when starting a new writing assignment such as writing a first-person POV short story, persuasive essay, biography, etc. When the student can read and compare styles, this can spark ideas for them. 
• Use it as a quicker, smarter search engine. While Google is great for generating quick facts and lists of information to a question, ChatGPT can provide more complex information without having to wade through lots of information. This is a great time-saver when you're planning lessons, PBL activities, and tests. Do note that ChatGPT does not provide sources for any responses so fact-checking is important! 

Don'ts 

• Don't solely rely on ChatGPT for all writing assignments. ChatGPT should be used as a supplement, especially when considering the levels, experience, and learning styles of your students. While ChatGPT is great to provide ideas, save time, and offer multiple options, ultimately your class's needs are different and unique. 
• Don’t neglect the importance of teacher guidance and feedback. While ChatGPT can provide basic feedback for writing assignments, it cannot replace the tailored, personal feedback you can give. You understand your students better than an Ai tool and can better assess what each student needs to progress and improve – your personal touch. 
• Don't expect every response is correct. ChatGPT pulls information from many places on the internet, including sites that may have misinformation. Always check information to ensure its accuracy and validity. 
  

Now that we’ve talked about some things to Do and Don’t Do when using ChatGPT, let's explore some ways to make the most of its capabilities in your classroom. Its user-friendly design and prompt responses can help you save time and energy while creating engaging Language Arts lessons, activities, and assessments. 

Teacher Tips 

• Teach vocabulary. Teach new words by using different sentences and have your students figure out their meanings by looking at the context. It's a cool and interactive way to help students understand new words. 
• Get ideas. Brainstorming is an important part of writing, and ChatGPT can help generate ideas in class. Keep what you want and toss out what you don’t. 
• Make writing prompts. Students can use ChatGPT to create prompts based on what they're interested in. This saves you time and gets students more engaged by giving them choices. 
• Outline important concepts. ChatGPT can generate outlines for specific questions about key concepts in a text. Students can read, analyze, and evaluate the outlines to find the one that matches their own understanding and real-life experiences. 
• Translate thoughts for English language learners. English learners can enter their thoughts in their native language, and ChatGPT can turn them into polished academic English. This helps them connect with you, classmates, other school personnel, and the world before doing their own writing. 
• Turn ideas into essays. Students can enter their ideas in a simple format and ask ChatGPT to turn them into proper essays. This lets students analyze and evaluate multiple responses, developing their ideas and understanding of academic writing. This should start as a whole class process and your modeling is critical at this stage.
• Use writing samples for revision. Students can improve ChatGPT-generated responses by playing around with sentence structure, tone, and their own writing style. They can add evidence, more ideas, or reorganize the structure, thinking about why they made those changes. Help guide that thinking. 
• Practice scoring. Students can score samples created by ChatGPT and have discussions about writing instead of just focusing on the scores. Of course, model this process first and repeatedly. The more that students understand what is expected of their writing, the less you will need to reteach. 
• Create reading check quizzes. ChatGPT can help make personalized quizzes to check understanding. These quizzes can boost readers' confidence or show when students need help. 

ChatGPT is a fantastic tool for classrooms and that helps teachers save time and engages students. Enjoy using ChatGPT to enhance your Language Arts lessons and make learning more exciting for students!