AI IN CLASS
Personalized Learning
Is the Key
And AI Can Help You
Unlock It
Big Problem
“Who are each of your students as learners?”
What makes them Tik?
What makes them ToK?
Knowing your learner is arguably the most fundamental thing a teacher needs to uncover and understand about a student. Discovering those gold nuggets are essential to building a relationship.
And that relationship?
It’s valuable street cred you can cash in on to get them to ‘smell what you’re cookin’ in the classroom.’
The reality of student discovery is a little more complex: every student is unique, and trying to deliver personalized learning can feel like an uphill battle when there’s only so much time in a classroom period. It’s always been a lot easier to rely on generic content. That is, at least until recently!
AI is the secret sauce you need to cook up tasty, healthy grub for student interest and engagement.
Action
Put the learning in the student’s lap. Give them the wheel.
PICTURE THIS: students controlling their learning like it’s their favourite game, leveling up their skills, and owning the process every step of the way.
Empowering learners.
That’s what this can be about.
Empowerment’s what’s gonna happen when you use consistently use variations of these eight adaptable classroom prompts, supercharged with AI tools like ChatGPT.
Personalized, engaging, and transformative—this is learning that sticks.
This is also learning that stacks student skills.
Stickin’ and Stackin’ as they drive their own learning, becoming the autonomous, independent individuals we want them to be.
8 Prompts to Personalize Learning—For Every Subject, Every Student
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Sample Prompt for Students: "Hey! I’m in Grade [insert grade], and I’m studying [subject]. Help me create a personalized learning plan for levelling up my learning about [insert specific topic]. Can you help me design a plan that has fun activities and challenges to improve my skills? Keep the tone friendly and easy for me to follow. To help you create a unique learning plan I’m really going to like, I thought it might be useful for you to know that I'm interested in [insert an interest of yours]."
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Sample Prompt for Students: "Hey ChatGPT, I’m pretty curious about [specific topic]. Can you explain this topic to me in a way that’s easy to understand for a [grade level] student? Make it fun and give me examples I can relate to by connecting it to [insert hobby, interest, favourite movie, artist, personality, super-hero, etc...]. Also, when you explain it to me, don’t give me too much information all at once. Give me a little bit of explanation at a time. Ask me if I understand or have any questions before giving me the next chunk of information about what I’m learning. When we’re all done learning about the topic, ask me some questions to check how well I understand what you were teaching me."
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Sample Prompt for Students: "Hey, yo! I’m in Grade [insert grade] working on improving my critical thinking skills [alternatively insert specific thinking skill]. Can you give me a challenging question or scenario about [subject] to solve that will help me flex that skill? Make it interesting and explain how I can approach the problem step by step. Give me feedback and follow-up questions as I work through the challenge - but don’t solve it for me. Use student-friendly ,Gen-Z-relatable, language so it's easier for me to understand."
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Sample Prompt for Students: "Hello there, I want to explore [topic] by asking questions and doing some deep thinking. Can we have a back-and-forth conversation where you act as [famous personality related to subject area] and ask me questions to make me think more about [subject]? Keep our convo friendly and understandable for someone in [grade level] but make me work for the answers - don’t just give me the answers if I’m missing something! Ask me follow-up questions to try and pull the answer out of me. Also, if you do give me any feedback, don’t give me too much to think about all at once. I’ll get indigestion. Give me small chunks of feedback/information to digest and think about. I like learning one bite at a time."
Alternative Prompt for Students: "Hi ChatGPT, I want to explore [topic] by taking the role of questioner. I’ll ask questions, and you respond in the role of [famous/relevant personality] with clear, student-friendly answers that are easy to understand for a [grade level] student. Keep your tone friendly and casual, and explain things step by step as we go along. Don’t give me too much information all at once, it’s easier for me to go over a little bit of information at a time."
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Sample Prompt for Students: "Greetings, I’m learning about [historical event/person]. Can you act as [someone from the event/specific person] and help me analyze it by explaining what happened, why it was important, and how it connects to today using the following historical thinking concept [Historical Significance, Historical Perspective, Cause & Consequence, Continuity and Change]? Make things simple, use a casual tone and detailed enough for a [grade level] student. Encourage me to ask you follow-up questions along the way so I can dig deeper and develop my historical thinking skills by practicing [Historical Significance, Historical Perspective, Cause & Consequence, Continuity and Change]."
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Sample Prompt for Students: "Act as my mentor in [subject]. I need help understanding [specific concept]. Can you explain it in a clear, relatable way and give me tips on how to improve? If it helps for framing up our conversation, I’m interested in [insert interest]. Use a supportive and encouraging tone to keep me motivated. Oh, yeah. I’m in [grade level] so can you use student-friendly language for my level?"
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Sample Prompt for Students: "I’m a [grade level] student in [insert class] and I want to work through a case study about [real-world problem or topic]. Can you give me a scenario to solve and guide me through solving things step by step? Keep it interactive and make the problem relatable to someone in [grade level]. Use student-friendly, Gen-Z-relatable language so it's easier for me to understand."
SUBJECT VARIATIONS:
English: "I’m in [grade level] English and we’re studying [topic of study]. Let’s explore a case study on a character from [novel, play, or story]. Create a scenario where this character faces a modern-day challenge. I’ll analyze how their traits and decisions might play out in today’s world. You ask the questions and give me feedback on my thinking. Keep the feedback manageable and the tone relatable for a [grade level] student. Don’t give me too much feedback all at once. Give me feedback so I can take action one step at a time."
Math: "I want to work on a case study involving real-world math problems. Can you create a scenario where I’m helping to plan a school event? Include challenges with budgeting, scheduling, or logistics that I can solve using math. Make it fun and interactive for a [grade level] student."
Science: "I’m interested in a case study about solving an environmental issue. Can you create a scenario where I’m part of a team working to reduce plastic waste in my community? Guide me through steps I could take and the science behind the solutions. When you explain the science behind the solutions, explain things a little bit at a time and check for my understanding before you might explain the next part. Keep it simple and engaging for a [grade level] student. When you explain the science behind the solutions, explain things a little bit at a time and check for my understanding before you might explain the next part."
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Sample Prompt for Students: "So, my teacher tells me that teaching something you’ve learned is the best proof that you understand and can apply it. I need to teach [specific topic] to someone else. I’m going to give you my notes on the topic. Then, can you help me organize the main points and explain them in a way that’s clear and fun for the people I'll be teaching? Don’t change my thinking too much, just help me organize it - I still want it to sound like me. Let's pretend you’re helping me prepare for a presentation. Oh yeah, and when you help me, always use student-friendly, Gen-Z-relatable language so it's easier for me to understand."
🌶 Spice Up The Learning
You’ll notice in a number of the prompts above I have students ask ChatGPT to act in a specific role.
It might be a famous person in the subject area.
It might also be a favourite personality of theirs who they would like to take on the role of mentoring them.
Imagine having students mentored by “Einstein” while learning about a specific science concept.
It might even be having ChatGPT respond with content generated in the voice/style of someone famous the student really likes.
Why this works
You can observe student thinking in action as you work the room and interact with students.
Have students create/upload a link to their ChatGPT session so you can see and ‘hear’ their conversation with ChatGPT.
To share a ChatGPT conversation:
Copy the Conversation: Highlight and copy the text of the conversation.
Use the Share Link: If your platform offers a "Share" button or link option, click it to generate a shareable link.
Save as File (Optional): Paste the text into a document (e.g., Word, Notepad) and save it if you prefer sharing as a file.
Share: Send the copied text, link, or file via email, messaging apps, or upload it to a sharing platform.
The chat session captured evidence of their learning.
This is valuable stuff that it’s difficult to yield from each and every student if you’re the one doing the interacting.
ChatGPT can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
When logged in, this ‘thread’ exists for students to return to and continue the conversation. The thread can also be shared with other students who can read the thread and then carry on the conversation themselves.
DOG-FOODING: EAT YOUR OWN LESSONS
Before rolling these prompts out to students though, it’s time to do some "dog-fooding."
What does that mean?
It’s simple: put yourself in your students’ shoes and try the prompts yourself.
Eat them. Ask the questions, work through the scenarios, and experience the learning firsthand.
If it’s not engaging, clear, or valuable to you, why would it be for them?
It’s also important to do this so you get a sense of what your prompts return in terms of results. If you’re not getting the useful responses from ChatGPT you’re looking for, your prompting likely needs a tune-up in the garage.
I’ve often found it necessary to make micro/macro tweaks/adjustments to prompts so they're more tailored to my students. You can even do this on-the-fly as your students experiment with these prompts and new tweaks become evident to you.
This whole, iterative process is taste-testing your own menu. If you don’t like the taste of it, or it gives you indigestion, why in the hell would you feed it to your students?
The best learning should taste good AND be healthy.
If you wouldn’t want to learn from these activities, refine them until they hit the sweet spot. This process not only ensures quality kibble, it gives you a better understanding of how students will interact with the material.
Bottom line: If you wouldn’t "eat" it, don’t serve it.
SOLUTION
Using ChatGPT, or another AI platform, learning can be customized to students’ needs with creative, thoughtful, specific and properly constructed prompts. Just like a student can customize their character in a video game, they can be put in charge of customizing their learning experience. These tools make personalized learning accessible. And you know what rocks? Providing students with autonomy, mastery and purpose. Providing these things allows them to:
Take ownership of their progress.
Build critical skills like responsibility, initiative, and organization.
Engage deeply with topics through role-playing and interactive questioning.
So, dog food these prompts. Give them a taste. Every student can pick up the old AI chisel and try their hand carving out their own unique path to success. I think you’ll be amazed at your student’s responses as they receive information more geared to who they are and what their interests might be. And you’ll free yourself up more in the process to observe and listen to students thinking around the classroom.
BEND THE RULES. BUILD BETTER.
It’s time to step outside the box and rethink how learning happens.
The world is changing—are you ready to change your practice too?
Next week, we’ll explore the ground rules for AI use in a classroom when it comes to student learning.
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Share any variations or additional prompts you design, or have found useful with your students, in the comments section.
