Using AI (Artificial Intelligence) for creating EAL lesson plans
With EAL learners making up a diverse group with varying English proficiency levels and needs, differentiating class content for EAL learners can be challenging and time-consuming for teachers. However, utilising Artificial Intelligence tools as a time-saving resource for EAL planning can help us adopt more tailored approaches to teaching in almost no time. Let’s explore some of the ways in which AI can help us save time on a busy school day.
AI tools can generate detailed lesson plans on specific topic areas or learning objectives in just a few seconds. Using the right prompts to make your request as specific as possible is key to helping you get the best results. An effective prompt for an EAL lesson plan can include the following: what exactly you need AI to create for you (e.g. a lesson plan, a sample response, a summary of a text etc), the topic area, learner level as well as a number of other parameters (such as length of lesson, specific vocabulary requirements or learning objectives). Here is an example of a prompt asking AI to generate a lesson plan on describing the setting of a story.
Create a lesson plan on writing short stories for BELL foundation C-level learners aiming at teaching learners how to describe the setting of a story. Length 30 minutes.
As a result of this prompt, ChatGPT came up with the following detailed lesson plan.
Lesson Plan: Describing the setting in a short story
Level: BELL Foundation C Level (Intermediate)
Duration: 30 minutes
Focus: Teaching students how to describe the setting of a short story
Objective: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to describe the setting of a short story using descriptive language, including location, time and atmosphere.
Materials:
- Whiteboard and markers
- Paper and pens for each student
- Example short story excerpts with detailed settings
- Worksheet on setting description
Lesson breakdown:
- Warm-up (5 minutes)
- Activity: Start with a brief group discussion about places the students enjoy visiting. Ask "Where is your favourite place in the world?". Encourage students to describe it briefly: "What do you see? What time of day is it? What sounds do you hear?".
- Purpose: Activate prior knowledge and get them thinking about sensory details related to places.
- Introduction to setting (5 minutes)
- Define setting: Explain that the setting of a story refers to the time and place where the story happens. It can also create an atmosphere or mood that influences the characters and events. Example: "In a story, the setting could be a rainy forest at night, or a sunny beach in the afternoon."
- Key elements to describe:
- Location (where)
- Time (when)
- Atmosphere (how does it feel)
- Analysing an example (7 minutes)
- Provide students with a short excerpt from a story that includes a detailed setting description. For example: "The sun had just set behind the tall, mist-covered mountains. The village was quiet, with only the soft rustling of leaves in the trees. It was a warm, calm evening, and the air smelled of pine and earth."
- Activity: Read the passage aloud and ask students to identify the following:
- Where is the story taking place? (Location)
- When is it happening? (Time)
- How does the setting make you feel? (Atmosphere)
- Discuss: Go over the answers with the class. Highlight how sensory details (like "smelled of pine and earth" or "mist-covered mountains") help make the setting more vivid and immersive.
- Guided practice (8 minutes)
- Activity: Have students work in pairs. Give each pair a different setting to describe (e.g., a busy city street, a quiet countryside, a dark forest, a cosy room at night).
- Instructions: They must describe the location, time of day, and atmosphere of the setting in a few sentences. Encourage them to use sensory details (what they see, hear, feel, smell).
- Example: "Describe a city at dawn." Students might say: "The streets are still empty, with the faint sound of birds chirping. The sky is pale blue, and the sun is just starting to rise, casting a soft glow over the buildings."
- Independent practice (5 minutes)
- Activity: Students will now independently write a short description of a setting of their choice, using the framework they’ve practiced.
- Instructions: Write about a place you’ve been or a place from your imagination. Describe the location, the time of day, and the atmosphere.
- Optional: Provide students with some prompts if they need help getting started (e.g., "Describe a forest at sunset," "Write about a school at lunchtime," or "Describe an old house at night").
- Sharing and wrap-up (5 minutes)
- Activity: Ask volunteers to share their descriptions with the class.
- Feedback: Provide positive feedback and some suggestions for improvement, focussing on the use of sensory details and descriptive language.
- Homework (optional): Ask students to write the opening paragraph of a short story, paying special attention to setting.
Useful AI prompts for EAL planning
When it comes to differentiating a reading comprehension or writing lesson for your EAL learners, depending on your lesson objectives, AI tools can summarise a text and create comprehension questions to go with it. They can also simplify a text, edit it to reflect different styles and levels of formality or translate it into different languages. AI can also help you with scaffolding your teaching of different text types by producing sample text to be used as models for your EAL learners. Support through the use of their first language is also an option here. The table below is a guide giving you ideas on how to create effective prompts to use with AI tools, such as ChatGPT, MagicSchool ai, Brisk and more.
| What you want AI to create |
Topic area |
Learner level |
Details (specific vocabulary, learning objects, length of lesson, etc.) |
| Create a lesson plan |
on writing short stories |
for BELL Foundation C-level |
aiming at teaching them how to describe the setting of a story. Length 30 minutes |
| Create a lesson plan |
to collaboratively plan a holiday itinerary for a family of four |
for BELL Foundation D-level learners |
aiming at developing learner speaking and collaboration skills. I need a detailed profile for each member of the family that learners need to take into account while planning for this holiday. |
| Create a quiz |
on using past tenses |
for BELL Foundation B-level learners |
including the verbs brought, thought, sang, and sent. Length 10 minutes. |
| Create a role-play |
between two pupils in the playground at break time. |
|
One of them wants to play hide and seek and the other one wants to play football. |
| Create a presentation |
on the topic of planets |
for BELL Foundation B-level learners |
introducing characteristics and qualities of different planets in short sentences. |
| Create a summary |
of the witches scene in Macbeth |
for CEFR A2-level learners |
followed by multiple-choice comprehension questions. |
AI tools are not perfect and you will need to check a lesson plan or text for potential inaccuracies. Sometimes the output produced may also be quite generic and further questions may be required to refine and further customise the content it produces. However, AI is here to stay and as it continues to evolve, it will undoubtedly provide a valuable set of tools to enrich the quality of our teaching in general and EAL teaching in particular. By integrating AI practices in your EAL lesson planning, you create more engaging, targeted and motivating lessons in almost no time, which can effortlessly lead to an enhanced learning experience for your learners.
You can download an AI prompt planner by clicking on the download button at the top and bottom of this page.
