In this post I’m sharing with you a lesson plan about social issues that I have prepared and have already used with my students. It’s not that original, I know, but I have a confession to make: I’ve had external help to create it. I asked some questions to a new artificial friend and they kindly provided me with a list of useful vocabulary about the topic, exercises for that vocabulary, questions for debate, and even ideas for the lesson plan itself.
Let me share with you my impressions of the process.
The first feeling when you introduce a question and the typing magically starts is of utter amazement, even more so when you read the result and it makes sense! But, how do you start? What’s the first question to ask? If fact what you do in chatGPT is give instructions and you have to be very precise, and that’s the difficulty.
I started by asking the chat to give me questions for debate on the topic of social issues for students of advanced level. The bot interpreted that what I wanted was talking about social problems that students have, so I had to rephrase it: “Write 10 questions to talk about social issues for students of English as a second language, level C2. And these are the questions it gave me as a result:
- What are the most pressing social issues facing society today, and how do they affect different communities and individuals?
- How do issues of race, ethnicity, and cultural diversity play out in society, and what can be done to promote understanding and acceptance among different groups?
- How can individuals get involved in advocating for social justice and equality in their community and beyond?
- How does the intersection of various identities, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and class, impact the experiences and challenges faced by different people in society?
- What are the most effective ways for individuals to raise awareness about social issues and encourage others to take action?
- How can individuals support marginalized communities and promote inclusion and diversity in society?
- How does the current political climate impact social issues and the experiences of different people in society, and how can individuals get involved in advocating for change?
- What role do social media and technology play in shaping public discourse and activism around social issues?
- How can individuals navigate and address sensitive or controversial topics related to social issues in a respectful and productive manner?
- How can individuals work towards creating a more equitable and inclusive society for all?
Not bad, eh?
Then I thought that I was going to try asking for a list of vocabulary to use, giving it the basic instruction: “Give me a list of necessary vocabulary to talk about the topic of social issues, level C2”. And it produced a list of words, all very useful, so I asked it to provide definitions as well. This is the list of terms with their definitions:
- Inequality: the state of being unequal, especially in terms of opportunities, rights, or treatment.
- Discrimination: the practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from others.
- Diversity: the presence of a wide range of different types of something within a group or organization.
- Marginalization: the process of pushing a particular group or individual to the edge of society, often by denying them access to opportunities or resources.
- Oppression: the use of power and authority to control and exploit a group of people, often through systemic discrimination and abuse.
- Privilege: unearned advantages or benefits that are granted to certain groups of people based on their social identity, such as race, gender, or class.
- Ally: someone who actively works to support and advocate for a marginalized group, even though they may not personally belong to that group.
- Equity: fairness and justice, especially in the distribution of rights, opportunities, and resources
- Inclusion: the act of including or being included, especially in a group or society
- Prejudice: an unreasonable dislike or mistrust of a particular group or person, often based on their race, religion, or other characteristics
- Stereotype: a fixed and oversimplified idea or image of a particular type of person or thing
- Social justice: the fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice
- Activism: the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change
- Microaggressions: subtle but harmful comments or actions that are often based on stereotypes or biases, and which can have a cumulative negative impact on marginalized groups.
- Intersectionality: the concept that different aspects of identity, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and class, intersect and interact in complex ways, shaping an individual’s experiences and challenges.
Then I went all the way and ask for the whole lesson plan, and that was the first disappointment, although if I had to have a written detailed version of all my lessons, this bot would definitely be a great help.
This is the lesson plan created by the bot, after a couple of attempts. The instructions were quite generic, but I specified it was aimed at students of English as a second language, level C2:
Not bad, but nothing to write home about. If this was the first time I had to face a class, this lesson plan would definitely be a useful starting point. The timing of the activities is realistic, but the activities themselves are not very helpful, they’re rather obvious.
Without losing optimism, I asked for a new version, hoping there would be some improvement but the result was similarly disappointing. I insisted a few times and asked for more exercises until the poor bot decided it had had enough of my requirements and gave me a message of error.
I was expecting something more innovative, but why should it be? The bot is simply compiling the information it finds in the archives, and the innovation is that it saves me time writing the questions for me, for example. It’s a tool that has just become popular, and its uses and benefits are still to be discovered, but it’s a fact that it’s very useful for language teachers. It can help us by providing examples and contexts for language structures we need to teach and it can create texts with a particular topic and vocabulary and from them, we can elaborate exercises for our students.
Using bits and pieces from these resources, I elaborated my lesson plan, adding activities, articles, and a video that the generous chatGPT did not provide (I asked for articles and all the links were dead). ChatGPT saved me work.
Hope you find this post useful. What are your impressions of ChatGPT?
