Clara James Tutoring
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Using ChatGPT to help with revision and homework
The other day I was speaking to a mum and she was about to invest in some GCSE revision books for her daughter costing in excess of £20 each. I suggested that I had bought similar books for my 3 and they hadn't used them, Instead, they had used their own notes from their books instead. The mum then explained that her daughter wasn't allowed to bring any of her books home from school. I suggested that prior to buying all the books she could perhaps use ChatGPT to help with revision.
I put this to ChatGPT and asked it if it “could explain in UK English (in first person) how you could help with homework and year 11, revision”.
This was the response I received:
I completely understand the frustration of trying to find the right resources to help your child revise, especially when they're not allowed to bring their schoolbooks home. Before investing in expensive revision books, I’d like to suggest an alternative that might work just as well, if not better—using ChatGPT as a revision tool.
ChatGPT can help in several ways with both homework and Year 11 revision:
1. Explaining Concepts Clearly
If your daughter is struggling to understand a particular topic, she can ask ChatGPT to explain it in simple terms. Whether it's a tricky maths problem, an analysis of a poem, or a science concept, ChatGPT can break it down into easy-to-understand steps. Sometimes, hearing something explained in a different way makes all the difference—just like how you and I explain things to our own children differently from their teachers.
2. Personalised Practice Questions
ChatGPT can generate practice questions tailored to the specific subject your daughter is studying. For example, if she needs help with algebra, poetry analysis, or history, she can ask for questions on that topic and then work through them. I can even provide step-by-step solutions or explanations if she gets stuck.
3. Revision Planning
Creating a study plan can be overwhelming, but ChatGPT can help organise a revision timetable. Your daughter can input her subjects, and ChatGPT can suggest how to structure her revision time, ensuring she covers all areas before exams.
4. Reviewing Past Papers
Although ChatGPT can’t provide official past papers, I can help go through typical exam-style questions. Your daughter can ask about the types of questions that usually come up, and I can guide her on how to answer them effectively, including advice on how to structure essays or responses in timed conditions.
5. Summarising and Quizzing on Notes
If she prefers using her own notes but isn’t sure she’s retained all the information, ChatGPT can help by summarising key points or creating quizzes based on the notes she inputs. This can be a great way to test her knowledge in a fun and interactive way.
6. Quick Help with Homework
For day-to-day homework, if there’s something she doesn’t understand, she can quickly ask ChatGPT for guidance. Whether it's a maths problem, a science question, or help with writing an essay, ChatGPT can provide instant feedback and support.
7. Revision Resources
In addition to answering questions, ChatGPT can provide recommendations for additional online resources, videos, or websites that might be useful for revising specific subjects. It’s like having a revision guide, tutor, and planner all in one place!
I hope this helps to show how ChatGPT could be a valuable, cost-effective tool for your daughter's GCSE revision. It’s flexible, available 24/7, and adapts to whatever topics she’s working on. If you'd like, I can show you how to use it effectively for revision too!
In response to this I asked if it could explain. Again, here was the response it gave me:
Absolutely! Here’s an explanation of how ChatGPT can be used specifically for revision:
When it comes to revising for GCSEs, ChatGPT can be a fantastic support tool because it adapts to your daughter’s needs and allows her to approach revision in a flexible, personalised way. Here’s how she can use ChatGPT to make the most of her revision sessions:
1. Topic-by-Topic Explanations
If your daughter is revising a particular subject or topic but feels unsure about certain areas, she can ask ChatGPT for a clear, step-by-step explanation. For example, she could ask:
"Can you explain Pythagoras’ theorem?"
"What are the key themes in ‘An Inspector Calls’?"
"How does photosynthesis work?"
This way, she can review any topic quickly and easily, without needing to search through books.
2. Generating Practice Questions
Practice makes perfect, and ChatGPT can generate customised questions for any topic your daughter is revising. She could ask for:
- Multiple-choice questions for science.
- Essay-style questions for English or history.
- Short answer questions for maths or geography.
Once she’s answered, ChatGPT can provide feedback or explain how to arrive at the correct solution, helping her identify any gaps in her understanding.
3. Flashcards and Quizzes
Revision often involves memorising facts, definitions, or formulas. ChatGPT can create flashcards or quizzes to help your daughter test her memory. For instance, she could ask:
"Can you quiz me on the key events of World War II?"
"Give me some flashcard-style questions for the GCSE biology syllabus."
"Test me on my French vocabulary for GCSE."
This interactive revision approach keeps things varied and engaging.
4. Essay Writing Practice
For subjects that require essay writing, such as English literature, history, or religious studies, your daughter can use ChatGPT to practice structuring her answers. She could ask ChatGPT to:
Provide essay questions on specific topics.
Help her outline her ideas before she writes an essay.
Review a sample essay and suggest improvements in terms of argument structure, use of evidence, and clarity.
It’s a great way to refine essay-writing skills in preparation for exams.
5. Summary Creation
Your daughter can input her own notes or key points from her textbooks, and ChatGPT can help summarise them. For instance, she could paste in a long passage and ask:
"Can you summarise this section on plate tectonics?"
"What are the main points of this history lesson?"
This helps to condense complex information into bite-sized chunks, making it easier to revise and remember.
6. Exam-Style Timed Practice
If she wants to practice answering exam questions under timed conditions, she can ask ChatGPT to simulate an exam. For example, she could ask:
"Give me a 10-minute set of maths problems to complete."
"Can you give me a 30-minute English literature exam question to work on?"
This way, she can build confidence in answering questions within a specific time limit, just like in a real exam setting.
7. Reviewing and Clarifying Wrong Answers
If your daughter gets a question wrong, she can ask ChatGPT to explain why the answer was incorrect and provide guidance on how to solve it. This instant feedback helps her learn from her mistakes and solidify her understanding of challenging concepts.
8. Building a Personalised Revision Plan
ChatGPT can also help your daughter create a tailored revision timetable. She could input the subjects and topics she needs to cover, along with her exam dates, and ChatGPT can suggest how to break down her revision into manageable chunks. This helps to keep her organised and ensures that she covers everything in time for the exams.
9. Revising with Past Paper Style Questions
Even though ChatGPT can’t access official past papers, it can generate questions similar to those found in past exams. Your daughter can ask for specific types of questions to practice:
"Can you give me an English literature exam-style question about Macbeth?"
"I need some algebra word problems to practice for GCSE maths."
This provides excellent practice for exam techniques and builds her confidence in approaching the types of questions that might come up in the actual exam.
10. Staying Motivated
Revision can be overwhelming, but ChatGPT can also help keep her on track with encouragement and tips for staying motivated. If she feels stuck, she can ask for advice:
"How can I stay focused during revision?"
"What’s a good way to take study breaks?"
"How can I manage my time better?"
This flexibility allows your daughter to use ChatGPT as a supportive study companion, available whenever she needs help.
In summary, ChatGPT can be a versatile, personalised tool for Year 11 revision, helping with everything from understanding difficult concepts to creating quizzes, practising questions, and staying organised. It’s an interactive and accessible way to support learning without the need for expensive resources.
You can't ask for AI to do the work for you, but you can treat it as a more knowledgeable other and ask for help, or a peer that you are working alongside.
I hope this helps. ChatGPT does have a free version, if you do pay it’s around £20/month. I use it a lot and it has saved me a lot of time. Because it’s free, I would suggest giving it a go, if you’re not happy with it nothing ventured nothing gained.
Happy New Year - Jan 2024
Happy new year!
I hope you’ve had a brilliant break over Christmas.
I know some people have been on holiday, others have been enjoying family time at home. Either way, I hope it was fantastic.
Someone sent me a Christmas present just before the bog day, but I have no idea who it was from, so I can’t say thank you. I feel really guilty as it seems like bad manners, but it was just in a box from M&S with no message attached.
This year, I have committed to send out the notification when the monthly membership bundle goes live, but I am also going to send out an (initially) fortnightly newsletter with suggestions for revision / secondary school Math / English, then in the alternate week a newsletter with suggestions for the primary subjects.
If either of them isn’t relevant, please either let me know and I will ensure you just get the primary or secondary newsletter if you want it, or just click unsubscribe (but then you also won’t receive the email about when the bundle goes live).
My goal is to keep you more in the loop as to what is happening. For example, we occasionally put free courses on Udemy – we’ve just done one on angles – here’s the link if wanted. It was created to promote the topic book we have also created; we’ve also got revision planners for students that might be suitable for some GCSE parents.
At Christmas we also had some free times-tables colouring sheets which you may not have been aware of, so like I say, it may not be of interest to you, but if it is, at least you’ll be aware of it. I have 3 revision planners and 3 angles topic books to give away if you’re interested. Let me know and I’ll happily pop one in the post for you (or give it to you if I’m likely to see you…).
If you do have one, if you could give it feedback on Amazon (I’ll send you the link) that would be hugely appreciated.
Happy new year for now and warm wishes,
Dawn
Times Tables - Jan 24
Hi,
Last week I sent out an email saying I was going to try and commit to sending out an email at the beginning of each week on ideas to support primary school children, then later in the week about supporting secondary school children.
As a result, I was asked if I could also send out some ideas to support the 11+.
(Again, if this doesn’t concern you let me know and I’ll try to ensure that you don’t receive them).
I’ll send the 11+ emails on an alternate Wednesday as I normally have Alfie, my grandson on a Tuesday and the odds of getting much done with a lively 2-year-old for company…
There will be some cross over between primary school and secondary school subjects, but at any stage there is something you specifically want me to help with, please do shout.
So, back on subject, sorry…
Times tables have always been one of the key subjects that I work on with, specifically primary aged children, but also secondary school children, and often the parents say they’re awful at them as well…
I don’t suggest learning them in chronological order.
If you do, you’ll hit some of the much harder ones before you get to some of the easier ones.
Instead, what I suggest (and you’ve probably heard me say this before) is that you start with the 10’s, 11’s, 2’s and 5’s as they do in school.
Then deviate across to the 9’s as there are so many tricks to help you to learn them.
Then the 6’s or 7’s. Crazy I know! But they are quite simple if you split them so that 6x8 becomes: 5x8 + 1x8 = 50+8 Or 7x8 becomes 5x8 + 2x8 = 40 +16 = 56.
From there you can pretty much work in any order.
The 12’s is also straight forward as we can split it into 10x + 2x which would give us the same answer as 12x.
There are more suggestions on the times tables over in the Clara James Approach, or I have a sequence of emails which sends out once a month with suggestions on how to learn each of the times tables with some resources. If it would help, the link is here: Support your child with their times tables - The fun way! (sendfox.com)
I hope that’s helpful and not just waffle.
Like I say if there is anything specific you would like us to focus on, please do give me a shout.
Have a great week and warm wishes,
Dawn
Hand Writing Support
Hi,
I hope you had a good weekend.
Something I am often asked about is supporting hand-writing skills.
At a young age this may relate to the hand muscles in the hands not yet being fully developed and I have a few suggestions that may help.
As the child gets older, you may want to find the support of an occupational therapist to provide some suggestions.
1. Start big: I guess it’s a bit like parking a car. When you are first asked to park a car, you wouldn’t want to park in a narrow gap, you’d hopefully save that until you were more confident, more skilled. Handwriting practice is the same, using a big piece of paper is far better than trying to squeeze your imperfect shapes between two narrow lines. Even better, (if the weather is more forgiving) start by using water to paint on the side of the house, a patio or footpath). Use large movements and as these improve start to shrink it down to what is expected inside a school exercise book.
2. Jenga: I love this game and we’ve adapted it by writing numbers of the bricks so that we can practice number bonds or the times tables, we’ve also got grammatical terms on others so that we can also practice those. But the skill and care needed to remove the brick from the tower without it all tumbling is a great way to practice the fine motor skills which will in turn support handwriting.
3. Colouring is another suggestion: keeping the colouring inside the lines is another skill that requires practice and patience. Again, the strokes used in colouring can further aid the shapes created when writing letters.
4. Sewing again requires the use of the fine motor skills needed for neat handwriting. You may just do a normal running stitch on a square of fabric, or you may decide to make something or use a more elaborate stitch. Either way I hope this helps.
5. Playdough and clay are other great early interventions to building up the muscles in the hands. The stronger and more developed the muscles are the more precise we can be with our writing.
To be honest, anything that needs to be precise will help. Many crafts and building activities help.
For some people, messy handwriting is always an issue.
There are a couple of members of my family whose handwriting I always struggle to read, yet they are so intelligent. It doesn't seem to add up. But my daughter says, if she doesn’t write quickly, she can’t remember everything her brain is throwing at her. Her brain works at such a speed.
I used to tutor a girl a couple of years back. I hadn’t realized her mum was an invigilator for the A’ levels at the school my youngest went to.
Not long after Hay sat her history the mum asked me if my daughter was doing her exams now.
Yes.
Does she do History?
Yes. Is she called Angel?
Yes.
She said, I thought it must be your daughter.
I have never seen anyone writing so quickly. I expected sparks to come off that page!
There are many reasons why people have scruffy handwriting, sometimes it needs to be investigated and like I say, if you are worried about it, it might be worth while trying to get in touch with an occupational therapist.
Sometimes, practicing using the suggestions above will help. Sometimes, like with Hay, it’s just one of those things that make them, them.
I hope this has helped a bit.
Have a great week and warm wishes,
Dawn