4 A.I. Tools for English Teachers

Generative AI like GPT-3 & ChatGPT offer a lot of value to English teachers.

While many people consider AI as a generative tool (a way to generate new text) it’s also useful as a way to synthesize, edit, and improve your own text. It can help writers understand their own writing better.

Using AI means writing a prompt. A prompt is plain english instructions that explain what the AI should do.

Here are 4 useful tools for English teachers or anyone trying to improve their writing. All tools were made on Pickaxe with no code.

Shakespeare Translator

This tool is actually for reading better. This tool translates Shakespearean language into plain English that’s easy to understand. Shakespeare is beautiful, but sometimes difficult to grasp for inexperienced (and experienced) readers. This tool synthesizes the meaning in plain english. It does not replace the Bard’s words, rather it’s a useful companion to consult while reading them. You can try the Shakespeare Translator here.

Here are some of my favorite response:

Romeo & Juliet

Sonnet 2

Hamlet

Writing Instructor (Get instant feedback)

This tool provides actionable feedback on how to improve your writing. A student pastes in his/her paragraph and instantly receives a bulleted list of ways to make it more succinct, more precise, and less wordy.

This tool will suggest re-phrasing for clunky sentences, advise you on adverbs to cut, and even identify repeated sentiments to combine. You can try out the Writing Instructor here.

Here are some examples:

Improving an email to a prompt engineer asking about Pickaxe

Straighten that Sentence!

This one’s pretty simple. It takes a sentence and rewrites it as a more straightforward sentence. If you have a monster of a sentence, drop it in, and straighten it out.

The output helps a writer understand why their sentence derails and illustrates how it could work with fewer words. You can use Straighten that Sentence here.

Here are some examples.

Helping a copywriter make clear copy for a real estate website

Wrangling this description down to something more manageable.

Vocabulary Contextualize-r

Vocabulary words can seem so… useless? Extraneous? No, no, superfluous! Sometimes it’s unclear when or how you would use a word, even if you know the meaning.

This tool generates simple sentences that demonstrate the meaning of a word contextually. It’s great for teaching vocabulary words, or generating examples for a test. You can use the Vocabulary Contextualize-r here.

Here are some examples:

Recognize any of these?

If you aren’t using “milquetoast” daily, you aren’t winning!

Make your own tool — It’s easy!

All the above tools are very simple to make. I wrote them in a couple lines of plain english on Pickaxe. Writing a prompt is easy. Consider what you want AI to do, then describe it clearly. For example, the above prompt was as simple as:

Write example sentences for the following vocabulary words that use the words in a way that contextually conveys their meaning.
WORDS TO USE: {insert words}
EXAMPLES SENTENCES:

You can get start making AI tools, instantly, with no-code, for free at Pickaxe. Try it out today.

Happy writing!

A Large Language Model drinking in words, readying to generate some awesome output.