50 AI Prompts for Busy Reading Teachers

Look, I know that everyone doesn’t love AI.  And I’m not just talking about its inability to correctly portray fingers.  But, I don’t think it is going away.  And if we can use it ethically to make our lives easier, I think we need to.

If you’re reading this and you’re a teacher, I know how precious your time is.  Why don’t we give ourselves a chance to make things easier for us?

Today, I’m sharing AI prompts you can use to help make the planning and delivery of your instruction easier.

I use ChatGPT, and it has been a life-saver in terms of helping me find lists for instruction, understand complex topics, and come up with new ideas for things to do with my students.

A lot of these prompts give specific skills/activities.  Feel free to change them up with whatever skills you are working on in your classroom. Blank lines are used to indicate that you should type in whatever specific skill you are working on!

Phonemic Awareness Prompts

1. Please give me a list of words with (list desired number) phonemes.
2. List words that begin with the /____/ sound that my kindergartners will have in their oral vocabulary.
3. Give me a list of words that have the /______/ sound as the final sound.
4. Please give me 5 activities my students can use to practice phonemic awareness orally.
5. Please give me a list of 25 words with 3 sounds that have a long e sound.
6. Give me a list of minimal pairs to help students distinguish between /b/ and /p/
7. Generate a set of phoneme manipulation challenges that changes the first sound.

Phonics Prompts

1. Give me a list of words with the ____________ sound.
2. Give me a list of multisyllabic words with only open and closed syllables.
3. Please give me 100 single-syllable words organized according to syllable types (please include all 6 syllable types).
4. Please write a decodable passage for me that only includes the following phonics patterns: ____________.
5. Create a blending drill using nonsense words for the following patterns: _______________.
6. Provide a list of heart words for grade __________.
7. Provide a list of words to play I have, Who has with CVCe words.
8. Provide a list of high-utility homophones that students can use to practice spelling.
9. Create a dictation list for the following patterns: _________.  Include 10 spelling words and 2 sentences using the patterns.

Morphology Prompts

1. List words that share the root ____________ and provide their meanings.
2. Create sentences that show how the prefix _____________ changes the meaning of a base word.
3. Sort these words ____________________ into morphological categories and explain the patterns.
4. Provide a short text using multiple words with the suffix _____________ in meaningful contexts.
5. Generate a matching activity where students pair base words with prefixes and suffixes. Please only use the following prefixes and suffixes: ______________.
6. Tell me the etymological history of this word: ______________.
7. Create a morphology word chain for the following root: ___________________. Each word in the chain should differ by one morpheme.
8. Please give me cloze sentences where the answers are as follows: ________________________ (insert target words).
9. Please create an assessment that focuses on meaning for the following morphemes: _________________.

Vocabulary Prompts

1. Generate a kid-friendly definition for the following words: ______________ (Students are in ____ grade):
2. Explain the difference between (word 1) and (word 2) in a way that a students in _____ grade will understand.
3. What are some synonyms and antonyms for the word _______________.
4. Create vocabulary questions that encourage reasoning and critical thinking about the following words: _____________________
5. Give me open-ended discussion prompts to assess students’ understanding of the word __________________.
6. Create a few sentence frames that students can use to show they understand the meaning of the following words: _____________.
7. Create cloze-sentences for the following vocabulary words: ___________. Students are in ______ grade.
8. What are some yes/no questions I could ask for students to show whether they understand ________?
9. Create a riddle where the answer is this vocabulary word ____________.  Please make it appropriate for _____ grade.
10. What are some Tier 2 words I could use that would be important in a unit about _____________________.

Comprehension Prompts

Important Note: If you have digital access to a text, you can copy/paste the text into ChatGPT.

1. Generate a text at multiple readability levels on the topic of _____________________.
2. Provide a scaffolded discussion guide for analyzing (insert text here).
3. Generate a set of comprehension questions that require students to infer meaning from context.
4. Simplify this passage (insert passage) so that it is more accessible for students in grade _____.
5. Create literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension questions for this passage (copy/paste passage).
6. Write a passage with a cause, but leave out the effect for students to determine.
7. Rewrite this story from a different character’s perspective (copy/paste passage).
8. Write a passage that includes similes, metaphors, and personification.
9. Write a paragraph for each of the following text structures around the topic of ________________: cause/effect, description, problem/solution, chronological, compare/contrast.

Differentiated Instruction

1. Modify this vocabulary lesson to support struggling readers and English learners. (Note: With certain AI tools, you can upload files/images.)
2. Suggest ways to scaffold complex texts for students who need extra support.
3. Provide enrichment activities for students who already understand__________________ (insert concept).
4. Create a set of challenging questions that push students to apply their understanding of ___________________.
5. Generate a mini-lesson on [topic] that follows an I Do, We Do, You Do structure.
6. I have a student who is struggling with (insert skill).  What are some activities I could use to support them in this skill?

Final Thoughts:

If you’ve made it this far, you deserve to know that AI wrote most of these prompts.  I told you it was clever.