Adapted from Bakin, B. (2026, May 1). AI-assisted story creation for students! [Conference presentation]. CCAE State Conference, San Diego, CA, United States.
Computer and projector, Mobile devices for students, Computer
Activity Description
Students will gain experience creating stories while practicing writing skills, reading skills, and critical thinking skills with the assistance of an AI assistant teacher to help them to become better storytellers.
Preparation
Check the website to ensure it is not blocked at your site.
Read through the lesson plan.
Print and make copies of any handouts.
How-To
You can do this with pretty much any AI chatbot, like Gemini, ChatGPT, Diffit, Claude, etc. Of course, you'll need to figure out which AI chatbot is accessible to your students depending on your district's AI use policy, firewall blocking, etc. This lesson plan will use Google's Gemini for the examples.
The objective is to help your ESL students develop storytelling skills and improve their writing skills by co-authoring stories with the AI chatbot.
The first thing that you want to do is to provide a prompt for your students. You can post one into your LMS, write one on the board, create a Google Doc and provide a QR code that your students can scan...whatever's easiest for your students.
The prompt should include the fact that they are ESL students (or adult ESL students), their level, and the instructions for the activity. Here's a prompt that I used. This can be modified in any way:
"I'm a beginning high ESL student. Let's write a four-sentence story together using simple English. I will start with a sentence. Next, you add a sentence. I will add a 3rd sentence and then you will finish the story."
Here are the AI's responses along with my responses:
(Google, 2026)
It's a fun and simple way for the students to practice writing and logical thinking (critical thinking) skills, and they can do it in class, outside of class, or both!
I like to add an instruction so the AI chatbot becomes my teaching assistant. I'd like the chatbot to check the grammar, spelling, and punctuation in addition to helping to write the story. Here's an example from a low-level ESL prompt:
(Google, 2026)
...and an example from a higher-level ESL prompt:
(Google, 2026)
Notice how the depth, grammar level, and level of scrutiny change depending on the prompt.
Again, you can tweak the prompt in any way that fits your lesson and class, like making the story longer, choosing a specific topic, etc.
Teacher Tips
It's best to try any variation that you plan to do before doing it with your students to ensure that the prompts that you'll provide to your students work the way you'd like.
More Ways
There are so many variations possible for this activity.
For example, you can add a prompt for the AI to add a picture for each sentence that the student writes to assess if the sentence was what the student intended, or have the student provide the prompt (description) of the pictures.
For upper-level ESL classes, you can have them write paragraphs instead of single sentences, alternating with the AI chatbot.
The possibilities are endless!
Program Areas
ESL: English as a Second Language
Levels
Beginning Literacy
Beginning Low
Beginning High
Intermediate Low
Intermediate High
Advanced
View Lesson Plan
Warm-up
Engagement
Find Someone Who...
Do a reading-related activity. You can have students look for people with certain genre interests (Find someone who likes romantic stories), people who like to tell stories, people who like to hear stories, etc.
Introduction
Engagement
Tell the students that they are going to practice writing a story with the assistance of an AI chatbot.
Presentation
Engagement
Model the activity that the students will be doing with yourself as the assistant. Ask a volunteer to start a story with one sentence. Write (or have them write) the sentence on the board. Then, you provide the next sentence. Ask another student to write the 3rd sentence. You provide the last sentence. Ask the students if the story makes sense or if there's anything they'd like to fix or alter.
Next, tell them that they'll be doing the same thing with an AI chatbot.
Project your computer screen on the board, go the the AI website, type in the prompt, and when you are prompted by the chatbot, ask students for help filling in the sentences (and correcting the errors if that was built into the prompt).
Practice
Engagement Enhancement
Guide the students to the AI chatbot website and provide the students with the prompt that you'd like them to use. Give them time to complete one or two stories.
Evaluation
Engagement Enhancement Extension
Pair students up. Have them read their stories to each other. The listener can give feedback based on what they hear. (Good job! That's interesting. I would change ____ to _____, etc.)
Application
Engagement Enhancement Extension
Have them write a story on their own for homework and have it evaluated in one of 2 ways:
1) Bring it in to share with the class the following day and have their peers give feedback.
2) Provide them a prompt for the chatbot to evaluate the story and provide feedback. The students can fix the errors and bring the corrected story to you the following day.
View Standards
Reading Foundational Skills
RF.2 - Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes). (Phonological Awareness)
RF.3 - Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. (Phonics and Word Recognition)
RF.4 - Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. (Fluency)
Reading
CCR Anchor 1 - Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
CCR Anchor 4 - Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
CCR Anchor 5 - Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
CCR Anchor 6 - Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
Writing
CCR Anchor 3 - Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.
CCR Anchor 4 - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
CCR Anchor 5 - Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
CCR Anchor 6 - Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
Language
CCR Anchor 1 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
CCR Anchor 2 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
CCR Anchor 3 - Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
AI, AI assistant, chatbot, computer, generative AI
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CC BY: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as
attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
View AI Reference
Google. (2026). Gemini 2.5 Pro [Large language model]. https://gemini.google.com/
