Top 10 AI Prompts and Use Cases and in the Education Industry in Chicago

Illinois is at a turning point: recent legislation crafted with Teach Plus Illinois directs the State Board of Education to produce the state's first K–12 AI guidance, update internet-safety curriculum, and include teachers in advisory work - steps that matter because ISBE is expected to publish initial guidance by July 1, 2026, creating a common statewide standard rather than leaving districts to improvise; see the Teach Plus Illinois AI bill summary and analysis (Teach Plus Illinois AI bill summary and analysis).

At the district level, Chicago Public Schools already requires rigorous vendor vetting, privacy safeguards, and human-in-the-loop expectations for any AI EdTech (Chicago Public Schools AI vendor guidelines and privacy safeguards), and state planning emphasizes AI literacy, pilot programs, and teacher training; for educators and staff seeking practical upskilling, the 15-week Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp is a targeted option with prompt-writing and workplace AI skills and a direct registration link (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp registration (15-week)).

“The rapidly expanding presence of artificial intelligence in schools means that teachers have to make decisions about AI in their classrooms every day, whether they're AI experts or not. Teachers need guidelines now, and our teacher leaders were able to call attention to this issue and develop legislation that both addresses the possibilities AI offers for innovative teaching and learning, as well as the need to ensure this learning benefits all students.”

Selections for these Top 10 prompts and use cases were intentionally grounded in Chicago Public Schools' stated principles - centering equity, transparency, human oversight, and legal compliance - so each prompt was vetted for pedagogical value, privacy risk, and vendor approval; reviewers cross-checked alignment with CPS's AI vision and governance (Chicago Public Schools AI Principles and Vision), educator responsibilities and classroom examples (CPS Guidance for Educators and Staff on AI), and vendor privacy/security expectations (CPS Guidance for Vendors on AI).

Prompts were prioritized if they: (1) supported teacher oversight and student ownership as required by CPS student rules; (2) reduced exposure of identifiable data by design; and (3) demonstrated classroom relevance in the district's use-case examples.

The practical test for inclusion: a prompt must be usable within CPS procurement and monitoring constraints and capable of scaling to the district's operational footprint - ITS already supports more than 750,000 devices - so recommended prompts favor vendor-approved tools, clear teacher workflows, and explicit disclosure or citation steps to preserve academic integrity and equity.

Lesson planning with ChatGPT/GPT‑4 can move routine design work into the background so teachers focus on instruction and differentiation: use ready-made templates to generate a standards-aligned lesson objective, a warm-up, guided practice, and a tiered independent task, then ask the model to produce three differentiated versions for struggling, on-level, and advanced learners - strategies that match Illinois classroom needs and Common Core alignment while keeping teachers in control of content and accommodations; see the practical prompt bank in Teaching Channel's "65 AI Prompts for Lesson Planning" for examples of complete lessons and differentiated materials (Teaching Channel - 65 AI Prompts for Lesson Planning) and the ChatGPT Edu prompt pack for K–12-ready differentiation templates that incorporate UDL and ESL/SpEd scaffolds (OpenAI - ChatGPT Edu K‑12 Prompt Pack for Teachers).

The real payoff: one well-crafted prompt can produce a teachable lesson outline plus a choice board and an exit ticket in minutes, making it easier to meet Chicago Public Schools' expectations for human oversight and equitable access.

Differentiate this 10th grade physics lesson on Newton's Laws to support advanced learners, English language learners, and students needing additional support. Use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and include specific scaffolding strategies for ELL and SpEd students to align with common district expectations. Provide strategies, examples, and resources for each group.

Platforms like Eduaide, when combined with GPT‑4's prompt‑driven generation, can turn district priorities into on‑ramped personalized learning: a single teacher prompt can produce a standards‑aligned learning pathway, a six‑week adaptive study plan, and three tiered lesson variants (intervention, on‑level, enrichment) in minutes - letting teachers spend class time coaching rather than formatting.

Use GPT‑4 to generate sequenced micro‑lessons and practice sets that match the business‑oriented and technical tracks described in AI curriculum planning (AI curriculum prompts and course tracks for K‑12 and higher ed), pair short, actionable study schedules with built‑in breaks and checkpoints (ChatGPT study schedule examples and student time management strategies), and layer Illinois‑relevant safeguards from local guidance and Nucamp's implementation checklist to keep pathways equitable and privacy‑compliant (Chicago AI in education: data privacy and equity safeguards).

The concrete payoff: scalable, teacher‑reviewable personalization that fits district device fleets and CPS‑style vendor rules, so differentiation is sustainable, auditable, and classroom‑ready.

ChatGPT can help create a study schedule that balances study time and breaks for students with multiple exams or assignments.

Pairing a classroom quiz platform like Quizzizz with GPT‑4 can streamline assessment generation and item analysis while keeping Illinois learning goals front and center: use GPT‑4 prompts to draft multiple-choice stems, plausible distractors, and alignment notes, then cross‑check each item against the Illinois Learning Standards and Illinois Priority Learning Standards to ensure grade‑level coverage and district compliance (see Illinois State Board of Education learning standards and assessment resources: Illinois State Board of Education - Learning Standards & Assessment).

Layer local safeguards from district procurement policies and Nucamp's AI-in-education checklist to avoid sharing identifiable student data during prompt‑writing and to document human review steps (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp syllabus and AI-in-education checklist).

The practical payoff for Chicago educators: faster item bank creation that remains auditable to ISBE expectations and frees teacher time for targeted remediation and standards-based feedback.

Immediate feedback and grading assistance can free up classroom time while keeping teachers in control: use targeted ChatGPT prompts to generate rubric-aligned comments, common-mistake diagnostics, and batch feedback templates that teachers review and personalize, then paste the refined comments into your LMS - best practices for prompt design and teacher review are outlined in a practical guide to ChatGPT for teachers (ChatGPT for Teachers: best practices for designing prompts and improving responses); prompt banks and ready-made comment stems (e.g., rubrics, error-pattern explanations, and feed‑forward next steps) are available in K–12 prompt collections that can reduce prep work - McKinsey estimates similar automation can reclaim about five hours per week for educators (see curated ChatGPT prompts for K–12 teachers and classroom use Best ChatGPT prompts and templates for K–12 teachers).

Important safeguards from university and state guidance caution against including student-identifying data and advise explicit syllabus language and human‑in‑the‑loop review to protect privacy and academic integrity (institutional guidance on ChatGPT use in education NIU guide: ChatGPT and education - privacy, integrity, and syllabus language); the practical payoff for Illinois classrooms is faster, auditable feedback that teachers control, not replaced - meaning more one‑on‑one coaching during class time.

Illinois classrooms can boost accessibility by using AI to produce leveled, curriculum-aligned passages and then pairing those texts with text‑to‑speech audio and simple visual layouts in tools like Canva so multisensory learners - ELL students, readers below grade level, and students with visual or print‑access needs - receive the same core content across formats; follow the proven prompt template that generates three versions of a passage at different reading levels to keep key concepts identical (AI prompt template for creating leveled texts and three-reading-level outputs), adapt any source text into scaffolded, Lexile-adjusted passages using step‑by‑step prompt strategies (Step-by-step guide to generate adaptive reading passages from any text with AI), and use classroom prompt banks to request decodable passages or visual‑impairment accommodations when designing materials (ChatGPT prompts for differentiated and accessible teaching resources).

The practical payoff: reproducible, teacher‑reviewable adaptations that preserve content fidelity while expanding access for diverse Illinois learners.

Illinois districts can modernize teacher coaching by pairing models such as Claude and GPT‑4 with district-aligned professional development frameworks: use short, scenario-based prompts to rehearse difficult conversations, draft targeted feedback, or generate micro-lessons that teachers then edit and validate under human-in-the-loop rules described in the Chicago Public Schools AI Guidebook (Chicago Public Schools AI Guidebook: district AI policies and guidance); SIGCSE's Teacher Support program underscores that professional development should combine curriculum guidance with hands-on practice for educators (SIGCSE TS 2025 AI4K12 teacher professional development program).

Pair every coached module with documented privacy and equity checks from Nucamp's implementation guidance (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work implementation guidance and safeguards) so each prompt, model response, and teacher revision creates an auditable artifact that both upskills staff and satisfies district oversight - turning one-off tech demos into sustainable, classroom-ready coaching.

Clear, consistent outreach is essential for Illinois schools serving multilingual families: start with an editable bilingual classroom newsletter (ready-to-print Spanish/English templates and electronic PDF options) to share weekly or monthly updates and reinforce that

sending information in many methods increases the likelihood parents receive and read the newsletter

, then pair that cadence with district-gradeable, district-ready notification templates to cover placement, testing, and reclassification in families' home languages - OSPI's multilingual family communication collection shows the practical scope of these templates (home language surveys, placement notifications, WIDA testing letters, and exit notices) available in dozens of languages (Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Arabic, and more) that Illinois districts can adapt for local letterhead and timelines (editable bilingual classroom newsletter templates (Spanish & English)), then pair that cadence with district-gradeable, district-ready notification templates to cover placement, testing, and reclassification in families' home languages - OSPI's multilingual family communication collection shows the practical scope of these templates (home language surveys, placement notifications, WIDA testing letters, and exit notices) available in dozens of languages (Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Arabic, and more) that Illinois districts can adapt for local letterhead and timelines (OSPI multilingual family communication templates (sample letters & languages)); the concrete payoff: one standardized bilingual newsletter plus translated, template-based notifications reduces back-office translation time, increases family engagement, and creates auditable artifacts for enrollment and ELD notification workflows.

Use GPT‑4 to generate a clear curriculum map that crosswalks unit objectives to Illinois standards, highlights grade‑level gaps, and produces a one‑page teacher checklist that flags required accommodations and human‑in‑the‑loop review - a practical artifact districts can attach to lesson plans for audit and equity reviews.

Anchor every AI output to local safeguards by following Nucamp's guidance on data privacy and equity (Nucamp Cybersecurity Fundamentals data privacy and equity safeguards for Illinois school leaders) and preserve teacher judgment and mentorship skills emphasized as resilient human strengths in district transitions (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work guidance on preserving teacher judgment and mentorship when adopting AI).

The concrete payoff: an auditable, standards‑aligned map that saves planning time while keeping teachers as the final, documented decision‑makers.

Administrative teams in Illinois districts can combine GPT‑4 prompt automation with Microsoft 365 templates to cut repetitive work and produce auditable artifacts: use a GPT‑4 prompt to draft meeting agendas and then drop the text into Microsoft meeting agenda templates, provision a SharePoint Event Planning site (home page, team calendar, document library, and ready-made event recap/status templates) to centralize event logistics and deadlines (SharePoint Event Planning site template), and instantiate repeatable task workflows by adding Microsoft Planner boards as tabs inside Teams so tasks, assignments, and notifications flow into teacher and staff channels (Create a plan with Microsoft Planner in Teams).

The practical payoff for Illinois administrators: standardized, editable templates that preserve human review, make compliance and approvals traceable, and turn one well‑crafted GPT‑4 prompt into meeting materials, event sites, and task boards without rebuilding the wheel each term.

Clear, course-level AI rules plus a short “classroom AI contract” protect learning and make violations auditable: require students to disclose tool name, version/date, URL, the exact prompts used, and a short reflective note or transcript of edits (sample disclosure language and syllabus templates are widely recommended - see practical examples in the Alliant GenAI syllabus sample language Alliant GenAI syllabus sample language and disclosure template), prohibit submitting unchecked AI output as original work, and enforce university-grade vetting for any use of non‑approved tools so protected FERPA/HIPAA/Level II–III data never go to public models (UD's directive details vetting and data-level restrictions for campus use University of Delaware Generative AI campus directive and data-level restrictions).

Frame policies on a continuum - from prohibited to freely permitted with documentation - and incorporate instructor-facing guidance and verification practices from institutional guides so each AI-influenced submission includes teacher review and an auditable record (see Duke University AI in teaching policies and instructor considerations Duke University AI policies, syllabus guidelines, and instructor considerations); the concrete payoff: a single required appendix (prompts + transcript) makes academic integrity checks fast, defensible, and teachable.

“Don't trust anything it says. If it gives you a number or fact, assume it is wrong unless you either know the answer or can check in with another source.”

Chicago educators should close this guide with three practical commitments: (1) adopt CPS's human‑centered principles and vendor‑vetting practices as operational rules in every school by referencing the district's AI Guidebook (Chicago Public Schools AI Guidebook - principles, governance, and human-in-the-loop expectations); (2) require transparent, auditable disclosures on any AI‑assisted work - tool name, version/date, exact prompts used, and a short edit log - so academic integrity checks are fast, teachable, and defensible under CPS student rules (CPS Student AI Guidance - disclosure, approved tools, and monitoring); and (3) pair those policies with sustained staff upskilling (a practical option: the 15‑week Nucamp AI Essentials for Work course) so prompt design, privacy safeguards, and equity checks become routine rather than ad hoc (Enroll in Nucamp AI Essentials for Work (15‑week) - registration & syllabus).

The payoff: auditable classroom artifacts, preserved teacher judgment, and faster, equitable use of AI across Illinois schools.

“Don't trust anything it says. If it gives you a number or fact, assume it is wrong unless you either know the answer or can check in with another source.”