Part 3 On Your Own

I used ChatGPT and asked it initially for "give me a lesson plan on how to locate a central idea in a short piece of fiction".  It immediately prompted me with grade level or reading level.  I appreciate that! 

I typed in 11th grade and It gave me a very basic lesson plan.  Here it is:
Lesson Plan: Locating the Central Idea in FictionObjective: Students will identify and analyze the central idea in a short piece of fiction.Materials:

• Short fiction piece (e.g., a short story or excerpt)
• Whiteboard/markers
• Handouts with guided questions

Introduction (10 minutes):

1. Briefly explain the concept of a central idea.
2. Discuss how the central idea reflects the author’s ultimate message or theme.

Activity (20 minutes):

1. Distribute the short fiction piece.
2. Read the text aloud or have students read silently.
3. Use guided questions to help students delve into the text:
   • What is the main conflict or problem?
   • How do the characters’ actions contribute to this conflict?
   • What is the resolution?
4. Have students discuss in pairs or small groups.

Discussion (15 minutes):

1. Share findings as a class.
2. Analyze how the central idea ties together the characters, setting, and plot.
3. Write the central idea on the board and connect it to specific examples from the text.

Conclusion (5 minutes):

1. Summarize the key points of identifying a central idea.
2. Assign a brief reflection or write-up on how the central idea enhances their understanding of the text.

Assessment: Evaluate students’ participation in discussions and their written reflections to gauge their grasp of identifying the central idea.


Then I asked it to give me an example of a short piece of fiction.  It immediately suggested "The Lottery".  Very basic piece - and used at younger grade levels.  So I asked it to give me one with a higher reading level.  

It provided three typical 11th grade responses:  "The Yellow Wallpaper", "A Good Man is Hard to Find", and "The Most Dangerous Game".  I then typed in "any minority authors?"  It returned with "The Necklace" (another over used short story!), an Edgar Allan Poe story, a Stephen King story (he is a minority????? but then ChatGPT explained that the story is about minorities - aaaahhhhh I see what it is doing!), and a few other authors I would need to read but I appreciate the diversity.  

All in all a successful launching point for me!

So I started with Chat GPT and kind of stayed there as I too noticed Bard in now Gemini and Bing in now Copilot.
Regarding Chat GPT- I tried an email to a parent for their student who was not completing the recordings / speaking assignments.  I liked what was produced but will need more time to play around with it.  What it did produce was pretty good but obviously I would need to keep adding in information to make it sound better and include more personal observations of the student in class. It didn't sound as impersonal as I expected though.  I also tried a pre thematic lesson plan I wanted to try with my students for the seal of biliteracy.  That too was pretty good,  Again I would like to play around with it a little more but as I added more information, it did get better. The content that was provided was in French (not English) which was a plus. I was also pleasantly surprised that when I tried asking it to write questions for the unit, the questions appeared in French and not English. I think that it Chat GPT might be a good starting point for a new topic but I am not convinced that it will save that much time as I will need to read through and check the content it provided both for level appropriateness and availability of student access.  Finally I wanted to create a new  image to go along with that but did not have much success so I will likely go back to just a goolge search in images to find that.  Yes, lots to learn! I didn't post the lesson plan below as I feel it is very similar model to the others. 

I used Chat GPT to draft an email to a parent about a child struggling with some specific areas in their literacy development.  After the initial draft I added some requests to add how hard the student worked, and specific interventions that have been used as well.  This will be a great tool to be a starting point for me throughout the year.  Even if I don't use the exact words I can quickly edit to make it exactly what I want. (Screenshot in separate post)

Google Bard, now Gemini, was a new tool that I have never used so I decided to give it some practice. Fourth and fifth grade students do research projects each trimester, so this was a perfect plan to try out. I asked Gemini to develop a lesson plan for a fourth grade research project about Duke Ellington for jazz history month. It created a result, and then I prompted for formative assessment and a provided rubric. I was impressed with the ideas, and the layout was better than when I have tried to use this ability in Chat GPT.

See images for evidence.