ChatGPT Prompts to Generate Effective, Printable Worksheets for Teachers

Creating worksheets for your class with AI is all about getting the prompt right. You need an initial prompt that clearly sets the direction and follow-up prompts that refine the details. Sounds simple in theory, but not so much in reality.

If you search online, you’ll find posts like “100 Best ChatGPT Prompts for Teachers,” filled with examples like:

It sounds straightforward, but this kind of prompt tends to fall short.

Tools like Monsha work with complex prompt engineering behind the scenes to produce research-based, printable worksheets that meet the precise needs of teachers. In this article, we’ll be exploring some of the same sophisticated prompt strategies that you can start using right away, whether in ChatGPT, Claude, or any other AI chatbot.

You’ll learn how to use ChatGPT to create worksheets that are not only engaging and effective but also functional, relevant, well-formatted, and adaptable to different learning needs.

On a high level, this article gradually covers the following prompts.

Worksheets containing different activities and question-types:
📝 Diagram Labelling
📝 Matching Questions
📝 Fill-in-the-Gaps
📝 MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)
📝 True/False
📝 Compare and Contrast
📝 Open-Ended Questions
📝 Critical Thinking
📝 Practice Problems or Exercises
📝 Writing Prompts
📝 Sequencing Events
Turning lesson plans or any materials into worksheets
Aligning worksheets to set of standards and learning goals
Formatting to be print-ready, exporting as pdf or docx
Plus some more AI tips and strategies on worksheet creation

As you move through the article, you’ll see how the worksheets improve and become more ready for classroom use.

Generating Different Types of Worksheets Using ChatGPT

We’ll be using a few variables in the prompts, marked by brackets. When you see brackets, just replace them with the specific info as per you need. Here’s a quick guide to these variables:

Variable	Context
[grade]	grade level
[language]	language of your choice
[topic]	What your want your worksheet on..

Anyway let’s get started and create different types of worksheets with ChatGPT!

📝 Diagram Labelling

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, include a diagram and include labels or blank spaces for students to fill in key parts. Generate the diagram and also describe it for context. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

You can see the full ChatGPT thread here.

📝 Matching Questions

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, create 5+ pairs matching terms/concepts with their definitions or descriptions, directly related to the topic.. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

📝 Fill-in-the-Gaps

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, write a short paragraph or set of sentences, leaving specific key terms or phrases as blanks for students to fill in. Include a list of the missing words at the bottom for reference. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

📝 MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, create 5-7 multiple-choice questions with four options each. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

📝 True/False

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, create 5-7 true/false questions. If false, ask for correct answers. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

📝 Compare and Contrast

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, design an exercise comparing two concepts/items/phenomena using a table or Venn diagram for similarities/differences. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

📝 Open-Ended Questions

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, write 3 questions for extended responses, ensuring they prompt analysis and opinions. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

📝 Critical Thinking

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, formulate 2-3 open-ended questions requiring interpretation, analysis, or evidence-based reasoning. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

📝 Practice Problems or Exercises

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, create 5-7 exercises for students to apply concepts or skills (e.g., calculations, practical tasks, written responses, depending on the subject). Vary the difficulty and provide space for written solutions. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

📝 Writing Prompts

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, offer an open-ended prompt with guidelines (e.g., word count, format, focus areas) to explore the topic creatively or analytically, encouraging students to express their thoughts, opinions, or ideas in a structured manner. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

📝 Sequencing Events

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic provided below, delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, list 5-7 scrambled events/steps for students to arrange in the correct order, with context provided. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Example Response:

Turn Lesson Plan or Any Materials into a Worksheet

Now, let’s say you have a lesson plan and want to create worksheets based on it. Or perhaps you have some reading materials that you’d like to turn into a worksheet. You can include these within your prompt using a new variable called [reference].

In [reference], you can insert any article, text, or other content you want your assessment to be based on. For ChatGPT 4 or later, you can even provide direct links (e.g., articles, YouTube videos) here.

Note: The free version of ChatGPT has a character limit for both prompts and output. To avoid hitting that limit, it’s a good idea to provide a summarized version of your content rather than copy-pasting a lengthy document.

Let’s see how this works with an example where we create a Compare and Contrast worksheet based on a Britannica resource.

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic and reference provided below, each delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, design an exercise comparing two concepts/items/phenomena using a table or Venn diagram for similarities/differences. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8 and written entirely in English.

Topic: """mitosis""

_Reference: """_https://www.britannica.com/science/mitosis"""

Example Response:

Align ChatGPT Generated Worksheets with Learning Goals

I think you’re starting to get the knack of it.

So let’s go ahead and add standards and learning goals.

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

You are an expert teacher and educator, skilled at creating effective and detailed resources for your students. Create a worksheet based on the topic and reference provided below, each delimited by triple double quotes. In the worksheet, formulate 2-3 open-ended questions requiring interpretation, analysis, or evidence-based reasoning. Ensure the worksheet is suitable for grade 8, written entirely in English, and aligned to the standards and learning goals below, each delimited by triple double quotes.

Topic: """mitosis"""

Standards: """MS-LS1-2 (NGSS - Next Generation Science Standards): Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and the ways parts of cells contribute to the function."""

Example Response:

Add Formatting Options

ChatGPT sometimes generates pre-formatted questions without explicit instructions, but most of the time it needs tweaking. So you might want to specify the formats as well.

Below, I’ve added formatting instructions to one of the prompts we used earlier.

Prompt Template:

Prompt Example:

Topic: """Mitosis Cell Division"""

Worksheet Format:

Provide clear instructions for each activity.
Include descriptions for any images.
Include activity titles and number them, but don’t label any paragraph or component.
Format the worksheet cleanly, keep adequate space for student responses (e.g., lines, blank boxes, spaces) under each question/activity to make it print-ready.
At the end, include a separator and provide answer keys for teachers for all activities.

Example Response:

Export as PDF or DOCX

Finally, once you’re satisfied with the generated content, you can ask ChatGPT to convert the worksheet into a downloadable PDF or DOCX file. It will provide the content in a format that can be easily exported to Word or Google Docs. It’s always a good idea to review the generated content before exporting.

Additional AI Strategies for Teachers on Worksheets

Using Monsha, you can:

Differentiate worksheets to meet your students’ needs based on grade levels, Bloom’s taxonomy, Lexile reading levels, or Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels.
Turn a lesson plan, presentation, reading passage, assessment, or quiz into a worksheet with just a few clicks.
Create additional teaching resources like quizzes, presentations, reading passages, or discussion prompts based on the worksheet content. This saves time and helps reinforce learning outcomes by providing multiple ways for students to engage with the material.

If all this seems overwhelming, give Monsha a try for even better results and more features—for free.