If you are an English teacher in a Sri Lankan government school, you know the Sunday night struggle.
You have a Grade 10 class tomorrow. In that single classroom of 40+ students, you have a massive range of abilities: the "bright" students who attend private tuition and watch Netflix, and the struggling students who are still grappling with the basics of sentence construction. You have to cover the syllabus, prepare them for the G.C.E. O/Levels, and somehow make the "Passive Voice" interesting—all with limited resources and perhaps just a blackboard.
The traditional approach involves digging through the Teacher’s Guide, recycling old past papers, or spending hours writing out examples on the board. It is exhausting.
Enter ChatGPT.
Don't think of it as "high-tech" sci-fi that requires every student to have a laptop. Think of it as a free, tireless assistant teacher who sits in your staff room. It can write reading passages about Sri Lankan cricket instead of American baseball, generate three levels of worksheets for your mixed-ability class in seconds, and write model answers for O/Level General English papers.
This guide will walk you through exactly how to use this tool to create relevant, engaging lesson plans that work in a real Sri Lankan classroom.
The Golden Rule: The Art of the "Sri Lankan" Prompt
ChatGPT is a large language model trained on the internet—mostly the Western internet. If you ask it for a "Lesson on Hobbies," it will talk about skiing or baseball.
To get materials your students will actually understand, you need to use the R.O.C.K. formula, customized for our context:
- R - Role: Tell it who you are (e.g., "You are an experienced ESL teacher in a Sri Lankan National School.").
- O - Objective: What is the syllabus goal? (e.g., "Teach the First Conditional" or "Practice O/Level Letter Writing").
- C - Context: Who are the students? (e.g., "Grade 9 students, rural context, CEFR level A2, mixed abilities").
- K - Key Information: Localize it! (e.g., "Use examples related to cricket, Avurudu, or Sri Lankan tourism").
Step-by-Step: Creating a Lesson That Works
Let’s build a hypothetical lesson plan for a Grade 9 class.
Step 1: Define the Scenario
Topic: Adjectives and Describing Places. The Problem: The textbook examples are a bit dry. You want to engage the boys who love cricket and the students who enjoy local travel. Class Size: 45 Students.
Step 2: The Initial Outline Prompt
We will ask for a lesson plan that follows the standard Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) method used in our teacher training.
Prompt:
"You are an English teacher in Sri Lanka. Create a 40-minute lesson plan for a Grade 9 class with 45 students. The topic is 'Adjectives for Describing Places.' The goal is to help them write a paragraph about a famous local site. The students have mixed abilities. Plan for a 'chalk and talk' environment where I will write exercises on the board."
ChatGPT will give you a solid structure: A warm-up brainstorming session, a grammar explanation, and a writing task.
Step 3: Generating Culturally Relevant Materials (The Magic Step)
This is where you save hours of time. instead of using a text about "London" or "New York," let's make it local.
A. The Reading Text (Local Context) Prompt:
"Write a simple 150-word reading passage about Sigiriya or Ella. Use at least 10 descriptive adjectives (like ancient, misty, steep, beautiful). Keep the English simple (British English spelling) suitable for Sri Lankan rural students."
Result: You get a text about climbing the "steep" steps of Sigiriya to see the "ancient" frescoes. The students immediately understand the context, making the English easier to absorb.
B. The "Mixed Ability" Solution (Differentiation) In a class of 45, one worksheet rarely fits all. You can ask ChatGPT to create "Levels" of the same activity.
Prompt:
"I need to put an activity on the board. Create 'Fill in the blanks' sentences using the adjectives from the text above.
- Group A (Support Needed): Give 5 simple sentences with a word bank.
- Group B (Advanced): Give 5 sentences where they must think of the adjective themselves.
- Context: Use sentences about a Cricket Match (e.g., 'The match was _____')."
Now, while the class is working, you can assign Group A the easier task and Group B the harder one, keeping everyone challenged but not overwhelmed.
Step 4: O/Level Prep – The "Model Answer" Generator
For Grades 10 and 11, the focus is the O/Level exam. Students often struggle with the Writing Task (Test 14/16) because they don't know what a "good" answer looks like.
Prompt:
"Write a model answer for a G.C.E O/Level formal letter task: 'Write a letter to the Chairman of the Pradeshiya Sabha complaining about the garbage collection in your area.'
- Draft 1: Write a 'Band 1' answer (Simple, grammatically correct, about 100 words).
- Draft 2: Write a 'Band 3' answer (Advanced vocabulary, complex grammar, very polite tone)."
How to use this: Write both on the board (or print one copy to pass around). Ask students to find the differences. It teaches them exactly what the examiners are looking for.
Important Tips for the Sri Lankan Teacher
British English Mode: Always add "Use British English spelling" to your prompts. You don't want your students learning "Color" or "Center" when the O/Level exam marks "Colour" and "Centre."
No Internet? No Problem: You are the bridge. You use ChatGPT at home or on your phone in the staff room. You write the output on the blackboard, or if you are lucky enough to have a roneo machine/photocopier, you print the worksheets. The students don't need AI; you do.
Check the "Hallucinations": If you ask for "History of Kandy," check the dates. AI can sometimes make mistakes with specific historical facts.
Grammar Translation: If you have a very weak class, you can even ask: "Translate these 10 English vocabulary words into Sinhala/Tamil for a vocabulary list." (Always double-check the translation yourself, but it’s a great starting point).
Using ChatGPT doesn't mean replacing the teacher or needing a "Smart Classroom." It means you spend less time scratching your head thinking of example sentences, and more time actually helping your students.
It allows you to take a generic syllabus topic and instantly turn it into a lesson about Sri Lankan culture, cricket, or local life—topics that will actually make your students want to raise their hands.
So, for your next lesson, don't just open the textbook. Open ChatGPT, tell it you're a Sri Lankan teacher, and ask it to help you bring the lesson to life.
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