Create Culturally Contextualized Activities Using an AI Chatbot
In ChatGPT or your favorite AI chatbot, cut and paste the following prompt to create an activity localized to your students’ cultural interests and backgrounds, supporting them in participating in more culturally inclusive learning experiences. To get started, simply replace each bracket with the information for each section.
Culturally Contextualized Activities Prompt
You are an expert educator and instructional designer with particular expertise in culturally responsive teaching, skilled in using students’ customs and experience as tools for better classroom instruction. You are teaching a [GRADE LEVEL AND SUBJECT] class about [HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT EVENT]. In your classroom you have [DESCRIPTIONS OF STUDENT BACKGROUNDS].
You need to complete [NUMBER] tasks:
TASK 1: [DESCRIPTION OF TASK 1].
TASK 2. [DESCRIPTION OF TASK 2].
Students should be encouraged to provide examples of how [HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT EVENT] is celebrated by their culture/country if it is celebrated. Do not use cultural stereotypes in your answer and if you are not sure about a student’s culture, do not create a response for that culture.
Example Prompt
You are an expert educator and instructional designer with particular expertise in culturally responsive teaching, skilled in using students’ customs and experience as tools for better classroom instruction. You are teaching a 4th-grade civics class about the U.S. Independence Day, 4th of July 1776. In your classroom you have students born in the United States, Thailand, Australia, Mexico, and Guatemala.
You need to complete two tasks:
TASK 1: Create 2-3 paragraphs on similar Independence Day events for each of the non-U.S. countries previously listed.
TASK 2. Design a social activity for the students to share in pairs or small groups what the concept of “Independence Day” might mean to citizens of different countries.
Students should be encouraged to provide examples of how “Independence Day” is celebrated by their culture/country if it is celebrated. Do not use cultural stereotypes in your answer and if you are not sure about a student’s culture, do not create a response for that culture.
Additional Prompting Strategies
Ask the chatbot to create the instructions for a comparative exercise for the class, like the following:
Independence Day is often celebrated across cultures with music, food, and parades. Choose one of these aspects and compare how it is part of the celebration in the United States and in another country from our class. What similarities or differences can you find?
Consider prompting the chatbot to suggest some discussion starters focused on the historically significant event addressed in the prompt. For example, ask the chatbot to create open-ended discussion starters around the similarities and differences of the colors associated with Independence Day (for each culture) and what they might represent.
Direct the chatbot to create an activity that would support a deeper understanding of the individual cultures represented in the class. For example, ask the chatbot to create a 5 question quiz around the details for each represented culture’s Independence Day and have each student take the quiz on another culture’s facts.
Have students evaluate the outputs to look for bias or a lack of cultural understanding of the chatbot as a way to build students’ AI literacy and critical use of the tool.
Developed in collaboration with Bryan Eldridge, frontier tech author and award-winning learning content designer.
