How this AP Social Studies Teacher Plans to Utilize ChatGPT Next Year

With this plan created at the end of the 2022–23 school year

14 min readMay 24, 2023

I am a San Marino (California) High School social studies teacher with more than thirty years of teaching experience.

Over the years, I’ve taught every one of the nine AP social studies courses (with the exception of AP Micro Economics and AP Comparative Government).

Next year, no matter what AP social studies course I’m assigned to teach, I plan to utilize CHatGPT . . . and specifically to create various:

ChatGPT-Produced End-of-Unit Study Compendiums
ChatGPT-Produced Multiple Choice Tests
ChatGPT Produced Free Response (SAQ and LEQ) Questions
ChatGPT-Produced FRQ Scoring Activities
ChatGPT-Produced End-of-Year Review Materials
ChatGPT-Using Project-Based Learning Opportunities

Each of these I have designed with two goals in mind. Above all also, I’m hoping that with this work, I’ll be able to bend the stubborn student success curve (meaning that the primary goal of this work is to try to help more students than ever excel academically without causing them to feel any more stress and anxiety than they currently do.)

I’ve also designed this work in an attempt to streamline and simplify my responsibilities as an educator, thereby making my job more manageable.

As for the detailing of each of these six ChatGPT-produced resources, I will get to that in a bit, but first, a qualifier.

ChatGPT only launched five months ago, which means I’m learning something new about the platform every day and expect this to continue for quite some time. Additionally, at the time of this writing, I’m looking at only one week left in the school year. In other words, like most teachers, I’m completely worn out. Then, to top things off, there are the Hinton, Altman, and Musk warnings.

In other words, whatever I put forward now, I might change this summer. So great is the learning curve.

That said, here now are the details

My ChatGPT-Produced End-of-Unit Study Compendiums

The term “end-of-unit study compendium” refers to a learning tool that seeks to offer students a condensed and well-organized source of knowledge, facilitating their review and comprehension of essential concepts, theories, and findings relevant to their studies.

A high-quality AP social studies end-of-unit study compendium typically contains:

Meticulous notes taken during lectures and then reworked to include important “fill-in-the-gaps” information found in the textbook.
Concise 3–5 sentence definitions of CED expressly mentioned need-to-know nouns.
Well-crafted responses, usually consisting of 2–5 sentences, to all-important Short Answer Questions (SAQs) or other critical assessment prompts (aka LEQ or DBQ).
Helpful visual aids such as charts, graphs, images, or excerpts.

Next year, AT THE BEGINNING OF EVERY UNIT, I plan to provide my students, in whatever AP social studies course I’m assigned to teach, with a ChatGPT-produced end-of-unit study compendium.

Below are two examples of ChatGPT Produced Study Compendiums:

Notice any glaring errors or omissions? If so, and you wish to give me a heads-up, I can be reached at ppaccone@smusd.us.

My ChatGPT-Produced AP-Style MCQ Tests

ChatGPT’s ability to generate AP-style Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) is amazing.

Teachers now no longer have to rely primarily on College Board to provide them with a bank of multiple-choice test questions.

ChatGPT gives teachers the ability to greatly expand the range of available questions, allowing for a more diverse and extensive collection to choose from.

Additionally, since ChatGPT generates questions on-demand, you can easily customize the question bank to suit your specific needs, covering various topics and difficulty levels.

Below are two examples of ChatGPT-Produced stimulus-based MCQs:

I also plan to utilize ChatGPT to create various “old-style” MCQs (aka non-stimulus-based practice tests and quizzes). Here are three examples:

If you, too, decide to ask ChatGPT to create some MCQs, here’s something for you to think about.

Using ChatGPT to create multiple-choice questions for summative assessments can be a helpful tool for AP teachers, but it should be used with caution. Teachers should (in other words) carefully review and modify the questions generated by ChatGPT to ensure their accuracy, relevance, and adherence to the learning objectives.
— According to ChatGPT

Good advice, no?

Regardless, if after looking over my ChatGPT-produced stimulus-based MCQs, you conclude that they are not up to snuff when compared to the AP classroom MCQs, I encourage you to take a batch of the MCQs appearing in my post, then copy and paste these MCQs into ChatGPT. Then also copy and paste into ChatGPT a batch of MCQs that you think are up to snuff.

Then ask ChatGPT to rework the first batch to look more like the batch you’ve presented the bot with. A day and night difference you should find. True, they still won’t be perfect, but they will certainly get very close to being able to hurdle the “up-to-snuff bar.”

That said, the intention here is not to suggest that teachers should create chat-produced MCQs as a replacement for AP Classroom MCQs. I am a big fan of the AP Classroom MCQ Question Bank, and I recognize its value in the teaching and learning process. The purpose of this blog post is merely to present an additional tool for practice and engagement, offering students a variety of question formats to deepen their knowledge.

My ChatGPT Produced Free Response Questions

The intention here, as with my ChatGPT-produced MCQs, is not to suggest that teachers should create chat-produced FRQs as a replacement for AP Classroom FRQs. I am a big fan of the AP Classroom Question Bank FRQs, and I recognize their value in the teaching and learning process. The purpose of this portion of my blog post is to present an additional tool for practice and engagement, offering students a variety of question formats to deepen their knowledge.

My Fifty-Five ChatGPT-Produced APWH Non-Stimulus Based SAQs for Units 4–6):
My Fifty-Five ChatGPT-Produced APUSH Stimulus-Based SAQs for Units 4–6)
My Fifty-Five ChatGPT-Produced APUSGH Non-Stimulus Based SAQs for Units 4–6)

My ChatGPT-Produced SAQ, LEQ, and DBQ, Scoring Activities

These activities consist of a wide array of ChatGPT responses to various SAQs, LEQs, and DBQs

Throughout the 2023–2024 school year, I will call on my students to score the SAQ, LEQ, and DBQ responses using CB-produced scoring guides.

I firmly believe that this method of learning, where students evaluate and score various LEQ, DBQ, and SAQ responses, is one of the most effective ways for them to develop the skills needed to excel on the writing portion of my unit tests and on CB’s annual exam.

Prior to the availability of ChatGPT, creating such scoring activities required significant time and effort. However, with the advent of this technology, I can now generate these activities within minutes.

Below, are two examples of ChatGPT-Produced Scoring Activities

My APUSH LEQ Scoring Activity #1: This activity contains four LEQs and a ChatGPT-Produced response to each LEQ. After reading each essay, students are asked, “Would you award the essay all six points?”
My APWH SAQ Scoring Activity #1: This activity contains fifty-five SAQs and a ChatGPT-Produced response to each SAQ. After reading each response, students are asked, “Would you award the SAQ point?”

My ChatGPT-Produced End-of-Year Review Materials

Below are several examples:

Aside from placing the above before my students during our year-end review, I will also place before my students various ChatGPT-Produced MCQs with the answers included — then ask the students to check this work for accuracy.

The primary focus here is for the students to review the material for the exam., though this exercise also aims to encourage students to decide for themselves whether ChatGPT is truly prone to errors, as some have claimed

The ChatGPT-produced MCQs, with the ChatGPT-declared correct answer that I plan to place before my APGov students, will look something like this:

Stimulus:
Excerpt from Federalist №10 by James Madison “Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction.”

Question 1: What is the “violence of faction” that Madison refers to in this quote? A) Violence during protests B) The inherent instability of political parties C) The potential for majority tyranny D) The potential for physical conflict between states

Correct answer: C) The potential for majority tyranny

Question 2: Based on this excerpt, which system of government does Madison seem to favor? A) Direct democracy B) Representative democracy C) Autocracy D) Oligarchy

Correct answer: B) Representative democracy

Stimulus:
Diagram of the U.S. Government’s system of checks and balances

Question 3: Which principle of the U.S. Constitution is represented by this diagram? A) Federalism B) Popular sovereignty C) Limited government D) Checks and balances

Correct answer: D) Checks and balances

Question 4: How does this system contribute to the functioning of a democratic government? A) By ensuring all citizens have equal power B) By preventing any one branch from becoming too powerful C) By guaranteeing the right to vote for all citizens D) By allowing the president to make all important decisions

Correct answer: B) By preventing any one branch from becoming too powerful

Stimulus:
Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Question 5: What principle of democracy is most clearly reflected in this excerpt? A) Individualism B) Equality of opportunity C) Free enterprise D) Rule of law

Correct answer: B) Equality of opportunity

Question 6: According to this excerpt, where do individuals’ rights come from? A) The government B) The people themselves C) The Constitution D) A divine or natural source

Correct answer: D) A divine or natural source

My ChatGPT Student-Using Project-Based Learning Opportunities (aka Cutting Edge PBL)

Next year, in whatever AP social studies course I’m assigned to teach, I plan to place before my students several project-based learning opportunities, with each of these PBLs inviting students to use ChatGPT as a tool to produce some kind of “tangible work product.”

This could be a research paper or a newspaper article. It could also be a US Supreme Court amicus curie brief, a city council slideshow presentation, a script for a scene in a movie, or a museum exhibit. It could even be a historical fiction letter or a historical diary entry.

However, when it comes to assessment, I will not assess the students on the quality of their collaboration with ChatGPT. Instead, I will assess them on their ability to answer several logically anticipatable questions related to their ChatGPT-produced work product.

These questions will be designed to provide the students with an opportunity to showcase their content knowledge and analytical abilities.

Below, are several examples of the cutting-edge PBLs I plan to place before my APSH students next year:

Native American Use of Natural Resources: This PBL relates to APUSH Topics 1.2 (Native American Societies Before European Contact). It calls on students to use ChatGPT to produce a two-page research paper and then, for a grade, answer a number of follow-up questions designed to assess the students’ content knowledge and writing skills.
The Lowell Mill Girls: This PBL relates to APUSH Topic 4.6 (The Market Revolution: Society and Culture). It calls on students to use ChatGPT to produce a historical fiction letter and then, for a grade, answer a number of follow-up questions designed to assess the students’ content knowledge and writing skills.
The Flappers: This PBL relates to APUSH Topic 7.8 (Political and Cultural Controversies in the 1920s). It calls on students to use ChatGPT to produce a historical diary entry and then, for a grade, answer a number of follow-up questions designed to assess the students’ content knowledge and writing skills.
The Vietnam War — This PBL relates to Topic 8.8 (The Vietnam War). It calls on students to use ChatGPT to produce various scenes for a movie entitled The Khe Sahn DT) and then, for a grade, answer a number of follow-up questions designed to assess the students’ content knowledge and writing skills.
Museum Exhibit: This PBL calls on APUSH students to work in small groups to use ChatGPT to create an exhibit for a museum of the student’s choosing; then, for a grade, answer a number of follow-up questions designed to assess the students’ content knowledge and writing skills.

In the upcoming academic year, I will not only implement such cutting-edge project-based learning opportunities in my APUSH course but also in any Advanced Placement (AP) social studies class I am assigned to teach, and there are several reasons for this:

Reason #1: PBL Is In the Best Interest of My Students

Students who engage in PBL, as I discussed in my May 2021 blog post “Why PBL is Now Finally in the Best Interest of all AP Students,” should outperform their more traditional classroom peers, submit better college application essays, receive better letters of recommendation, and report a more joyful learning experience.

Reason #2: I Have the Time Needed to Implement Cutting-Edge PBL

I teach at a traditionally calendared school and work with students of average or above-average abilities. I, therefore, don’t need anywhere close to the CB-suggested 140, forty-five minute class periods to properly prepare my students for the annual exam. All I need is four, fifty-four minute class periods per week, if I align, as I do, my course 100% with the APUSH CED and make ample use of AP Classroom. If I go that route, I do not have to worry. My students will do well on the annual exam, and I will be able to declare every Friday as “Cutting Edge Friday.”

All AP social studies teachers with average or better students who teach at a traditionally calendared school should be able to do the same, with Trevor Packer, the AP President, “. . .agree(ing) with (my) position wholeheartedly.”

Reason #3: My School and District Support My Desire to Implement Cutting-Edge PBL

Despite recent concerns and warnings surrounding the use of AI like ChatGPT, the San Marino Unified School District has chosen not to ban ChatGPT. Additionally, the district has refrained from directing teachers to seek parental permission before assigning work that involves the use of ChatGPT. This reflects the district’s intention to be perceived as forward-thinking and innovative, eager to integrate cutting-edge technology into its pedagogy. Consequently, in line with this philosophy, I am committed to introducing various cutting-edge project-based learning opportunities into any social studies class I’m assigned to teach. That said, I will be seeking parent permission prior to the students’ engagement with ChatGPT.

Reason #4: My Students’ Parents Support My Desire to Implement Cutting-Edge PBL

On several different occasions, I’ve been told that my students’ parents are supportive of my cutting-edge PBLs. It seems they recognize the importance of teaching their children to use tools like ChatGPT intelligently and safely. They also seem to agree with the idea that PBL, especially when it involves cutting-edge technology, can be in their children’s best interest. Aware of the increasingly competitive educational landscape and the central role technology plays in it, these parents don’t want their children to miss out on such vital learning opportunities. This perceived parental endorsement further fuels my commitment to incorporate ChatGPT-based PBLs into my teaching methodology.

Reason #5: Several Top Tier Education Leaders Support My Desire to Implement Cutting-Edge PBL

Said one: “One of the lovely things about (your cutting-edge PBLs) is that they (call on students to) use Chat GPT to gather information and frame ideas, but then they also have the students make sense of it and transform it into something else. (Bottom line, your Cutting Edge PBLs) put ChatGPT into the right role — as a tool for gathering information but not doing the final work and analysis.”

Said another: “Good work. Your cutting-edge PBLs are leveraging the power of ChatGPT as a valuable tool for information gathering and idea formulation. By challenging students to make sense of the gathered information, you are fostering higher-order thinking skills and promoting authentic learning experiences. I think you’re on the right track.”

Said a third: Despite the recent warnings, I do not suggest that you step back and let it go until the dust settles. Instead, I suggest that you keep moving forward, though be sure to teach the ChatGPT pros and cons to the kids, and when it comes to the cons, don’t hesitate to warn them of the dangers. Also, make sure in your classes that it is used only for the advancement of good things, and point out every time a good thing can be turned around and used for a bad thing. Lastly, require them to not only double check everything ChatGPT produces but also to analyze everything that ChatGPT spits out as either positive or negative.”

Said a fourth: “I agree with you. Instead of blocking students from using ChatGPT, teachers should provide their students with ample opportunity to utilize the tool, just as you are suggesting. This approach will prepare them for a future where AI and human collaboration is essential, whether in the workplace or in everyday life.”

Reason #6: The Implementation of Cutting-Edge PBL Should Reduce Instances of Cheating

This pedagogical approach requires students to transform and make sense of the information they gather through ChatGPT. This inherently discourages cheating, as students cannot merely copy information; instead, they must demonstrate their understanding and ability to utilize the information effectively.

To clarify:

The term “cutting edge project based learning opportunity” refers to a new type of PBL, one that emerged immediately after the launch of ChatGPT and did not exist previously.
The pre-ChatGPT PBL typically called on students to work individually or in small groups to create a tangible end product with the assessment often focusing on the grading of the overall quality of this end product while minimal attention was given to any kind of presentation relating to the end product.
With the cutting edge project based learning opportunity, students are not only encouraged to collaborate with ChatGPT to produce the end product but there is also a significant shift in the assessment approach. Now, instead of solely grading the end product, or placing a far greater grading-weight on the end-product, teachers will place a far greater grading-weight on the presentation, and particularly on the students’ ability to answer logically anticipated questions following the presentation.
This evolution in the production and assessment of the end product is expected to yield several benefits. By utilizing ChatGPT as a collaborative tool, students should end up producing more comprehensive and insightful work and by shifting the grading focus from product to presentation the students communication and critical thinking skills should improve dramatically.