The problem
Teachers spend hours finding or rewriting texts at the right level: an article that's too hard for A2, a dialogue that doesn't use this week's grammar. A teacher-owner spending 3 hours a week adapting materials spends about 13 hours a month on it.
What the AI does
Give ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini the language, the CEFR level, the topic, the grammar and vocabulary of the week and the length, and ask for a short text with comprehension questions and an answer key. A fluent teacher then reads every line for mistakes, unnatural phrasing and level, and adjusts it. Don't paste copyrighted coursebook pages in; describe what you need instead.
A worked example
The owner of a small Italian and Spanish school in Bath teaches 12 hours a week and spends about 3 hours a week adapting reading texts for different levels.
Before
3 hours a week adapting texts: about 12.9 hours a month
After
1.5 hours a week drafting with an assistant and checking: about 6.45 hours a month
What it's worth
About $214£161€192A$309C$303 a month of time saved. That's 1.5 hours a week x 4.3, 6.45 hours, at an assumed $33£25€30A$48C$47 an hour. Free plans can do this; a paid plan is about $20£15€18A$29C$28 to $27£20€24A$38C$38 a month for one person.
How to set it up
- Write a reusable prompt: language, CEFR level, topic, grammar point, word list, length and 'add 5 questions and an answer key'.
- Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
- Have a fluent teacher check every sentence for accuracy, naturalness and level.
- Save checked texts in a shared folder by level and topic.
- Note which prompts work best for each language.
What goes wrong
- Assistants make more mistakes in less widely used languages and with regional usage; a fluent teacher must check every text.
- Texts can drift above the level asked for; check vocabulary against the level, not just the topic.
- Don't paste students' work or names into a consumer assistant, and don't paste in copyrighted coursebook material.