Ep 45: Using AI to Help You Design Math Tasks!

In this episode, we dive into how AI tools like ChatGPT can support teachers in crafting creative and engaging math tasks for Kindergarten, 1st-grade, and 2nd-grade students. While AI can’t replace the human magic you bring to your classroom, it can be a great brainstorming partner to help spark ideas, refine tasks, and create meaningful learning experiences.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

1. The Power of Specific Prompts
   • A generic prompt like “Give me math tasks for counting” might not get the best results. Instead, provide details like grade level, standards, goals, and even a story context.
   • Specificity helps AI provide deeper, more tailored responses.
2. Ask for Variations
   • Encourage creativity by requesting multiple examples or exploring specific parts of a task.
   • Need thin-slicing? AI can help you design tasks with increasing levels of difficulty, ensuring they meet your learning objectives.
3. Engagement Matters
   • Beyond math concepts, you can ask AI for fun and creative ideas, like coming up with 10 names for a fictional business that include puns or alliteration to match your theme.
   • Adding a playful twist makes tasks more enjoyable for students!
4. Check the Work
   • While AI can do a lot, it’s not perfect. Always double-check tasks for accuracy, especially as the math becomes more advanced or nuanced.
   • Use AI as a starting point but refine the details yourself to ensure they’re just right for your students.

💡 Final Thoughts: AI isn’t magic—it’s a tool. It won’t create slides, choose the perfect context, or capture your students’ unique needs. What turns an idea into a task your students love is you. Your creativity, expertise, and connection to your class are what make learning truly come alive.

📚 Looking for Pre-Made Thinking Tasks? Check out our Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade bundles for ready-to-use ideas tailored to Building Thinking Classrooms!

✨ Join the Conversation: Have you used AI to create math tasks? Share your experiences and tips with us on Instagram or [e-mail]

Have a topic you want me to discuss? Fill out the Google Form!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Something that held me back from doing more tasks with my kids wasn't necessarily the will,

(00:05):
it was how am I going to come up with tasks. So today I'm going to share with you
three tips for using AI to help you create math tasks for your students.
Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Make Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers,

(00:27):
specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an impact in the number sense of
their students. If you have listened to my previous episodes, you know I've been on a
kick about creating tasks for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Combined it's probably
over a hundred tasks that I've created and I look back on that and I'm like, wow, that is mind-blowing.

(00:49):
But I'm not going to say as much as I would love to that those all just came from my brain. I
definitely had a little bit of help in coming up with the ideas, but I'll say it now and I'm
going to say it at the end to remind you, the person who brings a task to life is you. It is
not AI, it is not a computer. It might give you a little nudge, spark some creativity, but the person

(01:10):
who brings it to life, the people actually doing the math, are you and your students in your classroom.
Now, onto the tips. The first tip I have for you is to be specific. If I go and order a pizza and
I just ask for a pizza, you might get any pizza that the person who's making them feels like making.
You would never do that. You would say I want a pepperoni pizza with xyz to get exactly what you

(01:36):
want. AI is kind of the same. So if you're in chat GPT and you ask for a math task for second grade,
you will get the gambit of things and none of them might actually be helpful. So what to do instead
is give the prompt that you're giving some shape. So maybe say I'd like to create a task for second

(01:58):
grade students dealing with this standard and literally copy and paste the standard that you're
working on. And if you have an idea of the context that you want, include the context in it. Ask it
to thin slice for you. Ask it for six different levels of difficulty, all dealing with the same
skill and see what you get back. You will definitely get more information back closer to what you want

(02:21):
and it might give you some ideas. That kind of specificity works best if you kind of have a
context in mind. So if I already know that I want my task to focus on word problems measuring in
length to 100, then I might say give me this. But you might get something generic that's kind of

(02:42):
boring and maybe not something that your kids will even be into. So that's where again maybe you need
a question before your give me this task question. So it might be give me five contexts in which
someone would be measuring distance or when they might have to add more than two numbers together.
Something like that to kind of guide or shape the task that you are starting to create. And that kind

(03:06):
of leads into my next tip which is ask for lots of examples. So maybe you have no idea what you want
to do and you start off with asking for things that a kindergartner might be into, might enjoy.
And then you can move into more specifics. So that's kind of big picture going with being specific

(03:27):
and actually coming up with the task. Once you have it maybe you want to add a little bit more fun.
If you listen to any of my previous episodes on creating tasks you know I love a good pun. I love
some alliteration but I'm not necessarily the quickest with that. So what you could do is say
okay this task is about a movie theater. It takes place in a movie theater. Come up with 10 different

(03:53):
names that I could name my movie theater. And if you want alliteration say like 10 names with
alliteration for this movie theater. Maybe you just want it to be a pun. So five punny names for
a movie theater. Things like that. So it can give you little kind of hints here and there or ideas
here and there that help bring your task to life. So again my first tip be specific. Think about

(04:18):
what you want and kind of shape it in kind of cut off the edges so that you can have a task that'll
actually be what you're looking for and not too general. The second is to ask for various examples.
So maybe you asked for just the task but you actually need it thin sliced. So then you can
ask for what increasing levels of difficulty might be helpful for this task. But that leads to my

(04:44):
third and most important is to check the work. Don't just copy paste it and be like okay great
we're done. I have my task done because AI is not magic. It makes mistakes and granted for simple
addition it's attraction it'll probably be fine. But if you start to get into more difficult
mathematical concepts that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to get the math right.

(05:05):
After you have your ideas kind of check the work. Make sure everything makes sense. Make sure
everything is correct before you actually give your students the task. And coming back to what
I said at the beginning this is just a jumping off point. So maybe you're like I need to work on this
skill I'm just not really sure how to go about it. I don't know what context I can use to help with

(05:26):
this skill. That's something that you might enter in or I need a punny name for this fictional movie
theater I created. That's something that you're going to add in. But AI is not going to create
your slides for you. It's not going to create the recording sheets for you. I mean some of them can
but I have yet to see one that is as good as something that a teacher can create who knows

(05:48):
their students knows what they'll like and really can buy into it. Because if you buy into it your
students are going to buy into it. So that is my most important thing. This is a jumping off point.
It is not a replacement. It's something that can help you get started but you're the one who's
going to put the love and care into creating a math experience that your students will really
benefit from. Let me know if you try this out for your next math task. See how it goes and don't

(06:14):
forget to check the work before you do anything else. If you want tasks that are already done for
you. So I tried to put the love and care into these tasks that I would use for my own students.
I created the slides. I have the thin slicing. I have the check your understanding. I have the
recording sheets for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Done. You can check those out

(06:34):
at the link below as well as a blog post that'll kind of give you a summary of these skills that
you can save and look at later. Until then you'll hear from me next time.