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Session 1. Prompts for Lesson Resources
Objective. Write and refine prompts that give a usable draft resource for your class, and prepare a no-AI fallback for the same task.
A prompt is the only thing the tool knows about your lesson. Teachers who get useful drafts are not cleverer with words; they simply tell the tool what a colleague would need to know: the grade, the textbook unit, the language of instruction, the time and what must be avoided. This session goes beyond the five parts and shows how to describe your real classroom, ask for output you can check quickly, and work in small steps instead of one giant request.
Key ideas
A prompt is a written brief
- The tool does not know your class, your textbook or your 45 minutes. Whatever you leave out, it guesses.
- Think of briefing a substitute teacher who has never met your pupils: you would say grade, topic, time and what to avoid.
- A vague prompt gives a generic resource, and fixing it can cost more time than writing it yourself.
Five parts of a good prompt
- Context (grade, language of instruction, textbook unit, level), Task (what exactly to make), Limits (minutes, paper only, word count).
- Format (table, numbered steps, key at the end) and Check (ask the tool to list its assumptions and what you must verify).
- Never put pupils' names or personal details into the prompt. Write 'a class of 32 pupils', not who they are.
Refine, then keep what works
- Treat the first output as a draft. Two or three short follow-ups ('shorter', 'use local examples', 'add a key') usually help more than a new long prompt.
- When the change moves the numbers or facts, check them again: a follow-up can break something that was right.
- Save prompts that worked on a card or in a shared school notebook (a prompt bank) so colleagues need not start from zero.
Try it in your next lessons
- Pick one resource for next week (a starter, a worksheet or a set of questions). Write a five-part prompt, edit the draft, use it in one lesson, and write on paper the fallback you would use without AI.
- Evidence: keep the prompt, the raw draft and your edited version, and count how many things you changed.
- Evidence: end the lesson with a one-question exit ticket on the objective and sort the slips into got it, nearly, not yet.
Weak prompt to strong prompt
| Part | Weak | Strong |
|---|---|---|
| Context | (nothing) | Grade 5, Uzbek-medium, unit on fractions |
| Limits | (nothing) | 15 minutes, paper only, simple words |
| Check | (nothing) | List your assumptions and what I must verify |
The prompt cycle
Describe the classroom you really have
Most tools are trained on text from many countries, so their default example is often a supermarket, a snowy hill or a dollar price. Say what is real for your pupils: prices in so'm, the bazaar, the school garden, the textbook's own terms, the language of instruction. If your class has 38 pupils and one printed sheet per pair, say that too.
Name the constraints that shape a lesson in your school: no projector, a board only, a 45-minute period with a bell, mixed reading levels. A draft that fits these limits needs minutes of editing, not an evening of rewriting.
Ask for output that is quick to check
Shape the answer so that checking is easy. Ask for a numbered list instead of an essay, an answer key as a separate block, and a short list titled 'facts and numbers used' that you can verify one by one. Ask the tool to say what it assumed about your pupils, because a wrong assumption is the quickest error to spot.
Work in small steps. First ask for an outline, read it, correct it, and only then ask for the questions or the examples. One task per prompt gives you control, and when something breaks you know exactly which step caused it.
Examples from the classroom
Prices in so'm
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 3 in Samarkand. Her first prompt for word problems returned dollars and supermarkets. She added: 'prices in so'm, bazaar setting, numbers up to 1 000, one-step problems, 6 items, key at the end.' The second draft needed two edits to a price. She saved the prompt on a card for next term's units.
Insight. Local context in the prompt removes the most common editing job before it starts.
Outline first
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 8 physics in Fergana in a Russian-medium school. He asked for a full lesson and got a long text he could not trust. Next time he asked only for a five-step outline for 45 minutes, corrected two steps, and then asked for three practice questions on step three. The whole job took about twenty minutes.
Insight. Small steps keep the teacher in charge and make errors easy to locate.
No printer in the village
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 5 in a village school near Nukus with one printer in the staff room. Her prompt says: 'the task must be copied from the board in 5 minutes, six lines at most, no tables.' The draft fits the board, and her pupils start working at minute 12 instead of waiting for handouts.
Insight. Stating a practical limit in the prompt gives a draft you can really use.
Common pitfalls
- Writing a very long prompt that still leaves out the grade, the unit and the time.
- Pasting the first output into a handout without reading the numbers.
- Changing three things in one follow-up so you cannot tell which change helped.
- Putting pupils' names or details into the prompt to 'make it fit the class'.
Rewrite the Weak Prompt
- Alone (5 min): take one of the four weak prompts from the Activity Kit and underline what the tool would have to guess.
- In pairs (15 min): rewrite it on the five-part grid for a class you really teach. Do not use any pupil names.
- Swap with another pair (10 min). Read their prompt and write what could still go wrong in the answer (a wrong number, a foreign example, a too-long text). If a device is available, run one prompt and compare it with the prediction.
- Alone (10 min): add the fallback line: how would you make the same resource without AI, using the textbook, a colleague or paper? Write it under the prompt.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which part of the prompt changed the imagined answer most?
- What did the other pair predict could go wrong that you had not seen?
- Was your fallback quicker or slower than the AI route? When is it the better choice?
Reflect
- Which resource do you rewrite from scratch every year that a good prompt might draft?
- What do you know about your class that no tool could guess?
- Who could share a prompt bank with you at your school?
Try it tomorrow
- Take your next worksheet and add three real local details and one practical limit to the prompt.
- Ask for an answer key and a 'facts and numbers used' list, and check five items on it.
- Write the prompt on a card and note how many edits the draft needed.
Further reading and links
A prompt is a brief: give context, task, limits, format and a check, refine the draft, and always have a way to do the task without AI.