Prompts for Teachers: Prepare and Differentiate Faster

"Create a 10-question multiple-choice quiz on photosynthesis": you get ten questions where three of the four wrong answers are obviously absurd. Students find the right one by elimination, and the quiz tells you nothing about what they understood.

A good teaching prompt looks like what you'd say to a colleague when handing off an assignment: the level, what students already know, the mistakes they make, what you want to assess. You're the one who knows the class. The AI can quickly produce variations based on that knowledge, and the final sorting is up to you.

Before you start: what you can paste, and what to leave out

Never put a student's name into a chatbot, or anything that would let someone identify them: named report cards, family situations, accommodations related to health or disability. "Student A" is enough in almost all the prompts below, as long as the context doesn't make them recognizable.

France's Ministry of National Education published a framework for the use of AI in education in June 2025. It covers use by staff and notably provides for student use starting in 4e (roughly eighth grade), supervised by the teacher. Check its current version before having a class use a tool, and find out which ones your school or your académie (regional education authority) allows. These rules evolve, and your principal or your académie's data protection officer can settle any doubt.

Build a multiple-choice quiz that reveals misconceptions

Each wrong answer should match a real error. The student who checks it then tells you how they reasoned, and the quiz becomes a diagnostic tool.

You're helping me prepare a [SUBJECT] assessment for [GRADE LEVEL].
Concept assessed: [CONCEPT]
Already covered in class: [WHAT STUDENTS HAVE STUDIED]
Mistakes I often see: [2 TO 4 MISTAKES]

Write [NUMBER] multiple-choice questions. For each one:
- one correct answer only, and 3 distractors that are plausible for a student who hasn't understood
- each distractor matches a specific reasoning error, which you name
- one question tests understanding and can't be solved by simply memorizing a sentence from the lesson

After the questions, add a table: question, correct answer, error revealed by each distractor, possible remediation in one sentence.
Write the questions in vocabulary suited to this level. If you're not sure about a scientific point, flag it.

For photosynthesis in sixth grade, you could mention that some students think the plant "eats" the soil to grow. Some of the distractors will come from there, and correcting them will give you the start of your next lesson. If you already have a quiz you're happy with, attach it as a model: guiding the AI by example clearly improves the result.

Differentiate a text without changing its substance

This may be the clearest time saver. A history teacher wants her whole class to work on the same document, at different reading levels.

Here's a text used in a [GRADE LEVEL] class:
[TEXT]

Goal of the lesson: [WHAT STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO]

Produce three versions:
- Version A: the original text, with the 5 hardest words defined in a note.
- Version B: shorter sentences, simplified vocabulary, explicit logical connectors, same information.
- Version C: text simplified into very short paragraphs, one heading per paragraph, for students with serious reading difficulties.

Rules: all three versions keep all the information needed for the goal, with the same facts and the same dates. End with the list of information you removed or changed, so I can check.

Compare the three versions to the source text: in simplifying, the AI can erase a nuance or shift a cause-and-effect relationship. If your students have formal accommodations, the text produced doesn't replace what their support plan provides.

Prepare a sequence from the curriculum, not from the AI's memory

A chatbot can cite curricula that are approximate or outdated. So paste in the official excerpt that applies to you, from Éduscol or the Bulletin officiel.

Excerpt from the official curriculum:
[PASTE THE EXCERPT]

Class: [GRADE LEVEL, CLASS SIZE, TIME AVAILABLE: E.G. 6 LESSONS OF 55 MIN]
What students already know: [PRIOR KNOWLEDGE]
Materials available: [ROOM, EQUIPMENT]
Planned final assessment: [TASK]

Suggest a progression starting from the final assessment. For each lesson: objective phrased as "the student will be able to," main activity, expected written record, point to watch. Plan at least one lesson where students speak or work hands-on, and a remediation moment.
Don't add any skill that isn't in the excerpt. Present everything as a table.

The same prompt suits a vocational high school (lycée professionnel) teacher, as long as you paste in the curriculum framework and describe the technical equipment available. You'll get a base to rework, to be evaluated with your experience of the class.

Write a rubric students understand

A rubric takes time to put into words. It can also be handed to students before the work begins.

Instructions given to students: [INSTRUCTIONS]
Level: [GRADE LEVEL]
Skills assessed: [2 TO 4 SKILLS]
Scoring scale: [POINTS]

Create a rubric with 4 levels of mastery for each skill. Describe behaviors observable in the student's work, without vague adverbs like "well" or "fairly." Add a student version of the rubric, phrased in the first person ("I cite at least two passages from the text").

Find the words for parents and report cards

Delicate messages are often the ones that take the most time. Here's a prompt for a message with no identifying data, which you then complete in your school's online portal (ENT).

Write a message to parents, 90 words maximum, courteous and concrete tone.
Situation (anonymized): [E.G.: HOMEWORK NOT TURNED IN FOR THREE WEEKS, CLASS PARTICIPATION FINE]
What I've already put in place: [ACTION]
What I propose: [MEETING, TIME SLOTS]

Describe observed facts, with no judgment about the child or the family. Start with a real positive point, which is this: [POSITIVE POINT]. No administrative jargon.

For report card comments, beware of a subtle bias: with an equal profile, a model can produce different wording depending on the first name or gender suggested. Our article on AI bias explains how to spot it. An AI hasn't seen the student in class, so you stay in control of every comment.

To get started, take your next quiz and note the three mistakes your students make most. Add them to the first prompt, then compare the result with your old quiz.