ChatGPT for Educators: Lesson Plans

Posted on February 13, 2023 by barrydahl

I’m continuing to compile a list of ways that ChatGPT and similar LLMs can be used productively by educators. This is the second post of several on the plus side for ChatGPT. The first post was about writing letters of reference for students.

Writing a lesson plan (and then sticking to it) was not one of my best skills as an educator. I tended to do about half the planning that you might expect, and things usually worked out pretty well. One downside of that approach is that it is difficult to share your info with others. It’s hard to tell them how you do what you do when you’re basically just winging it.

Formal lesson plans can have lots of advantages:

  • Lesson plans help you think explicitly about the required student learning outcomes and larger goals to be achieved.
  • Articulating what your students should be able to do will help you identify how you can help them get there.
  • Helps identify gaps where you need to provide more support or maybe where you don’t need to do so.
  • Reminds yourself about what is important for students when it comes to learning.
  • These are great time management tools for the classroom.
  • If shared with students it can help those who are struggling.
  • It’s a great a backup plan in case you’re unavailable and someone else has to take over your classroom.
  • It is one way to provide evidence of professional performance.

Here’s a prompt I fed into ChatGPT: Write a lesson plan for classroom discussion about the Enron scandal where students will then complete an assignment of writing a 4-page paper. This is for an auditing class for senior accounting students in a bachelor’s degree program.

That’s not a great deal of detail. I could have provided more info, but this was a test of how well ChatGPT could guess what an educator might want in this sort of plan. The results were pretty good, IMO, as shown below.

Lesson Plan by ChatGPT: The Enron Scandal

Objective: Students will write a 4-page paper analyzing the events of the Enron scandal and its impact on the field of auditing.

Materials:

  • Information on the Enron scandal
  • Grading rubric for the paper

Introduction (10 minutes):

  • Introduce the topic of the Enron scandal and its significance in the field of auditing
  • Provide background information on the company and the events leading up to its collapse

Direct Instruction (30 minutes):

  • Discuss the key players and their roles in the scandal
  • Explain the accounting and auditing practices that contributed to the scandal
  • Highlight the regulatory changes that were made in response to the scandal

Guided Practice (30 minutes):

  • Divide students into small groups and assign each group a specific aspect of the scandal to research and present to the class
  • Provide support and guidance as needed

Independent Practice (60 minutes):

  • Assign the 4-page paper on the Enron scandal and its impact on the field of auditing
  • Provide a deadline for submission
  • Offer opportunities for students to receive feedback on their work

Closure (10 minutes):

  • Review key points from the lesson
  • Encourage students to continue researching and learning about the Enron scandal and its impact on the field of auditing

Assessment:

  • Use the provided grading rubric to evaluate the 4-page papers
  • Provide feedback to students on their work

Note: The time duration mentioned here may vary based on the class duration and student’s pace, and this is just an estimate.

Tweak it. Check the timings. Put in your own voice if needed (not sure this type of thing needs too much of an authentic voice, but YMMV). Done!

Filed under: AI & Chatbots, Read/WriteWeb | 1 Comment »