5 More Ways Teachers Can Use Generative AI

In the previous blog post, we explored five practical ways generative AI can help teachers save time without sacrificing quality. Lesson planning, family communication, rubrics, enrichment, and exit tickets each offered a clear opportunity to use AI as a thinking partner. In each case, the tool supported faster drafting and helped bring greater focus to your work.

This second post takes the work further.

Now that you have seen how AI fits into your everyday instructional flow, it is time to consider how it can support more specialized, strategic parts of your role. You might be developing Tier 2 intervention plans. You might be scaffolding supports for IEPs or helping students build confidence in constructed responses. You could even be preparing for a difficult family conversation. In all of these scenarios, AI can support your thinking when the prompt is crafted with care and clarity.

The tools remain the same. What shifts is how you use them and the level of precision they require.

Each of the five use cases in this post includes a ready-to-use prompt, following the same structure introduced in Part 1. You define the AI’s role, provide clear instructions, and offer either context or a sample to shape the output. These strategies are designed for the parts of your work that require emotional focus, thoughtful planning, or careful language. In these areas, AI can ease the load while keeping your judgment at the center.

By the end of this post, you will have five more prompts in your toolkit. Each one is grounded in real classroom challenges and built for educators who are ready to lead with clarity and care.

Use Case #6: Building Tier 2 Intervention Plans 

Tier 2 instruction is where focused, small-group support takes place. It is also where every minute counts. Creating intervention plans that are both strategic and manageable often feels overwhelming. Teachers are expected to identify skill gaps, align supports with standards, monitor progress, and still keep everything practical within limited blocks of time.

At this point, generative AI becomes more than a time-saver. It becomes a planning partner. When given clear goals and instructional boundaries, AI can help draft intervention plans that are skill-specific, time-bound, and grounded in evidence-based strategies. You might ask it to include warm-ups, scaffolded practice, independent work, and even informal progress-monitoring ideas, all structured around the pacing you already use.

Here is one prompt that consistently delivers clear, ready-to-implement plans:

Act as an instructional coach creating a Tier 2 intervention plan for a small group of 3rd grade students who struggle with multiplication fluency. Design a two-week plan with three 20-minute sessions per week. Include warm-ups, scaffolded activities, and independent practice. Incorporate strategies for building math fact fluency and monitoring student progress informally. Make sure the plan is easy to implement in a general education setting.

The result might include familiar practices like number talks, partner games, and repeated fluency routines, but organized in a weekly format that saves time and simplifies planning. Once you have a draft, you can revise the language, drop in your preferred resources, or request a version that aligns with a specific math curriculum.

You can also build on the plan with quick follow-up prompts:

• “Write a parent update I can send home about this intervention.”

• “Add accommodations for students with attention challenges.”

• “Turn this into a checklist I can use for documentation.”

These adjustments take minutes, not hours. When Tier 2 planning becomes more efficient, it also becomes more adaptive. You gain time to observe students, make real-time decisions, and deliver support that is focused, flexible, and personal.

Use Case #7: Crafting IEP Support Documents or Scaffolds

Supporting students with IEPs calls for precision, personalization, and intentional planning. The work includes lesson adaptations, scaffolded instructions, and documentation of accommodations. Each task matters. And each one takes time. For general education teachers managing full class rosters, the pressure to meet student needs without adequate planning time can become a real source of stress.

AI will not know your students or their individual goals. Even so, it can help you design accessible scaffolds and communication tools grounded in best practices. With that kind of support, you can shift more of your time toward meaningful implementation.

When prompted with the right context, AI can generate instructional adaptations tailored to a specific skill or standard. That might include simplified directions, visual aids, draft documentation, or scaffolded objectives. The key is to provide information about the learning target, the student need, and the kind of support you’re building.

Here’s a sample prompt that produces well-structured, usable material:

Act as a special education co-teacher supporting a 7th grade ELA classroom. Create scaffolded instructional materials for students with IEPs working on identifying central themes in short fiction. Include simplified objectives, sentence frames, visual supports, and one example of how to model the thinking process. Make sure the materials align with grade-level standards but are accessible for students with reading comprehension challenges.

A response to this prompt might include adjusted learning objectives, step-by-step modeling language, sentence frames, vocabulary support, and a graphic organizer, all designed for classroom use. From there, you can follow up quickly with prompts like:

• “Add an option for verbal processing instead of written.”

• “Include sentence starters for a short paragraph response.”

• “Create a simple checklist students can use for self-monitoring.”

The goal is not to create one-size-fits-all materials. It is to build solid, flexible starting points more efficiently. You still bring the student knowledge and instructional judgment that make the support effective.

High-quality instruction and IEP compliance can work together. When AI takes care of the initial prep, you have more energy for student relationships, in-the-moment decision-making, and instructional care.

Use Case #8: Writing Constructed Response Starters for Student Practice 

Helping students express their thinking in clear extended responses is essential across grade levels and subject areas. Whether students are writing in ELA, explaining reasoning in math, or analyzing a primary source in social studies, constructed responses anchor rigorous instruction. For many learners, especially those building confidence with writing or academic language, getting started can be the hardest part.

Teachers often invest planning time developing sentence stems, modeling strong introductions, and building scaffolds that guide students from a blank page to a well-structured paragraph. That is where generative AI can provide timely support. The benefit isn’t limited to teachers. It extends to students, too.

With a well-crafted prompt, AI can generate writing supports aligned to your goals and scaled to different levels of complexity. It might include sentence starters, paragraph frames, or exemplar responses. You can tailor the output quickly, providing students with tools that help them build writing with more independence and clarity.

Here is one prompt that consistently produces useful material:

Act as a 5th grade writing teacher helping students respond to a reading comprehension prompt about character motivation. Provide three types of writing supports: a sentence starter for emerging writers, a paragraph frame for developing writers, and an exemplar paragraph that models strong reasoning. Keep the language accessible and aligned to grade-level expectations.

A response might begin with a simple sentence starter like “One reason the character acted this way is that…” It could continue with a scaffolded paragraph outline that guides topic sentence, evidence, and explanation. Finally, it may include a complete model that demonstrates how to connect ideas clearly and support them with reasoning.

You can also adjust the prompt to suit different reading levels, genres, or content areas. Students might be explaining a theme, justifying a claim, or comparing two characters. In each case, AI-generated scaffolds help students begin more confidently and give teachers more tools to meet a range of learning needs.

Constructed responses are about thinking as much as they are about writing. When students know how to begin, they are more likely to take intellectual risks. And that is where fluency starts to grow.

Use Case #9: Generating Instructional Slides or Visual Supports

Instructional slides and visual aids play a key role in supporting student learning. They help organize ideas, clarify expectations, and offer visual access to content that might otherwise feel abstract. When done well, slides create structure for the lesson and provide a consistent guide for learners at every level. But creating high-quality slides takes time. It becomes even more demanding when you are trying to align them to standards, simplify complex concepts, and design for diverse learning needs.

With a well-structured prompt, AI can generate draft slide content, suggest visuals, and propose layouts that match your goals. It does not replace platforms like Google Slides or Canva. Instead, it gives you a starting point that turns slide creation into a process of editing and refining, not building everything from the ground up.

Here’s an example of a prompt that produces usable content:

Act as a middle school science teacher preparing a five-slide mini-lesson on photosynthesis for 7th grade students. Create slide outlines that include a title, 2–3 bullet points per slide, suggested visuals or diagrams, and one student question or prompt per slide. Keep the content accessible and aligned to NGSS standards.

A response might include:

• Clear slide titles written in student-friendly language

• Suggested visuals, such as a labeled diagram of chloroplasts

• Prompts or questions that encourage reflection or discussion

Once you review the output, you can adapt it to meet your classroom needs. Try quick follow-up prompts like:

• “Simplify the vocabulary for English learners.”

• “Add a final slide with a review activity.”

• “Adjust this for a flipped classroom.”

AI will not deliver your voice, but it can provide the structure to support your message. You bring the tone, the pacing, and the visuals that make your content connect. The AI simply helps you move faster from content planning to classroom-ready material.

In classrooms where planning time is short and clarity is essential, starting with an AI-generated draft helps you stay focused. Slides come together more efficiently. The message remains clear. And your attention stays with your students.

Use Case #10: Preparing for Difficult Student or Family Conversations 

Every teacher faces challenging conversations. They may involve behavior, academic performance, attendance, or social dynamics. These moments matter because they offer a chance to build trust, clarify expectations, and create stronger partnerships with families and students. At the same time, they require emotional energy, careful word choice, and time that many educators don’t always have to prepare their thoughts in advance.

Generative AI can offer support in these situations. It functions as more than a writing tool. With the right prompt, it becomes a rehearsal space.

You can use AI to draft message scripts, generate talking points, or shape a response that allows you to enter the conversation with focus and clarity. Whether you are writing a follow-up email or preparing for a face-to-face meeting, having a structured draft in front of you reduces stress and keeps the discussion grounded in purpose.

Here’s an example of a prompt that produces clear, thoughtful language:

Act as a high school teacher preparing for a parent-teacher conference regarding a student who has shown a decline in effort and engagement. Draft talking points that balance honesty with care, suggest ways the family can support the student at home, and outline a plan for classroom support. Keep the tone professional, empathetic, and partnership-oriented.

The response often reflects the tone you aim to strike: steady, compassionate, and focused on student growth. You can use the draft to shape your meeting notes, adapt it into an email, or even rehearse with a colleague in advance.

You can refine the output with follow-up prompts such as:

• “Add language for an interpreter to use during a family conference.”

• “Make this message more concise for a parent email.”

• “Include student-facing language I could use in a 1:1 check-in.”

In a profession where relationships are as vital as instruction, these tools matter. They help teachers stay grounded, reduce anxiety, and model communication that is both clear and respectful, especially when the topic is difficult.

You are still the one who builds the relationship. AI simply helps you enter the conversation with calmness, clarity, and more energy to focus on what matters most: listening, connecting, and moving forward.

Conclusion

These five strategies reflect the deeper side of a teacher’s work. They move beyond daily instruction and into the kinds of tasks that demand planning, personalization, and care. Whether you're developing interventions, scaffolding for students with IEPs, preparing for conversations that build trust, or helping students express complex ideas, this is the heart of instructional leadership.

What connects each of these practices is the need for clarity, consistency, and thoughtfulness.

AI does not know your students. It does not understand your school or your teaching style. But when guided by your expertise, it can offer structure, save time, and give you a place to begin. With fewer hours spent staring at a blank screen, you gain more capacity to make decisions that move learning forward.

The goal is not to rely on AI. The goal is to use it with purpose. When prompts are clear and grounded in your context, AI can help you reflect more intentionally, communicate more effectively, and lead with greater focus.

As this series wraps up, take a moment to reflect: What task in your week consistently drains time or energy? And how might one of these strategies begin to shift that load?

Your judgment remains at the center of every meaningful choice you make in the classroom. AI simply adds support to the work only you can do.

Next week, the focus turns to school and district leaders. You’ll get ten practical ways to use generative AI for strategy, communication, and systems-level efficiency. Each one includes a ready-to-use prompt so you can put the ideas into practice right away.

Previous:

Part 1: Not Magic, Just Smart: How Educators Can Actually Use AI

Part 2: 5 Ways Teachers Can Use Generative AI to Save Time and Elevate Instruction