Control Alt Achieve: Door A, B or C? Using AI for Interactive Choose Your Own Adventure Stories

When I was a kid growing up in the 80’s I loved to read "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. They were fun, and a little scary, and you died pretty much every time, but they got lots of students into books.

CYOA stories can still be an excellent way to engage learners in reading and exploring subject area content.

In the past I have shared ideas and examples of creating CYOA stories using Google Docs and Google Slides. Those are still great options if you or your students are going to be writing the story yourselves.

But what if you want the stories written for you? Thankfully with tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini, you can have AI create a CYOA story for any subject matter content, at a grade level appropriate for your students, and delivered in an interactive format that your students can play like a game.

See below to get the AI prompt template you can use to create your own interactive CYOA stories, as well as explore some examples I have generated.

📑 CYOA Prompt Template

Below is the AI prompt I have created to generate interactive CYOA stories. You can also access the prompt in this Google Document. Feel free to modify the prompt as needed to meet your specific use case.

For this activity, you will facilitate a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style game with my students, who are [age range]. Your responses must be tailored to be appropriate, engaging, and developmentally suitable for this age group.

The game will last for [number] rounds.

Each round of the game, you will:

- Indicate the current round of the game, such as "Round 1 of 5" or "Round 3 or 10".

- Generate a new portion of the story, limited to [number] paragraphs.

- Include emojis as appropriate to help illustrate the content.

- Provide [number] possible choices for the students to make, labelled with letters (e.g., A, B, C, etc.) Ensure the choices presented are meaningful, allowing students to explore different outcomes and practice decision-making skills.

After the students make their choice, you will:

- Develop the next segment of the story based on their choice. Whenever possible, align the story progression with real-world knowledge, skills, or subject area content to deepen learning.

- Offer new possible choices to continue the narrative.

The topic for this story is [topic], and the character the students will be playing is [character].

As the story progresses, strive for accuracy and fairness, avoiding stereotypes or biases. If the story touches on complex or sensitive material, present it in a way that encourages critical thinking and open discussion.

Throughout the game, incorporate the following objectives/topics/themes:

- [list objectives/topics/themes]

Assessment:

After the final round of the story, generate [number] [short answer / multiple choice] questions to assess the students' understanding of the story, with a focus on content that addressed the stated objectives for this activity.

- Ask one question at a time, waiting for the students' response before asking the next question.

- Provide feedback on each student response as it is given, indicating if the response is correct, or providing additional explanation if the answer was not correct or complete.

✅ Directions

Now that we have the AI prompt, we are ready to generate our interactive CYOA story. How you do this is totally up to you and what works best for your students, but here are a few ideas to consider.

Delivery Options

One easy way to do this activity would be as a whole group activity. As the teacher you would enter the prompt into the AI chatbot and display the interactive story with your classroom projector or TV.
On the other hand, if you are interested in having students complete this activity individually, check out the bonus section at the bottom of this blog post for an alternative option for student use.

AI Chatbot Options

You can use the prompt with most any AI chatbot. Of course, more powerful AI chatbots will generate better results with a more consistent story that aligns better to your stated objectives. At the time of this writing, some of the best options would include:
ChatGPT - https://chatgpt.com/
Gemini - https://gemini.google.com/
Claude - https://claude.ai/

Number of Rounds

Depending on the AI chatbot you use, at some point in the activity the AI might start losing track of the story. For example I have often seen this happen if I go over 10 rounds, where the AI might forget something that happened back in the first few rounds. Again, more powerful AI chatbots will have less trouble with this, but be aware that you may need to limit the number of rounds if this is an issue for you.

Text to Speech Options

Although you can certainly read the story to your students, there are also options to have the text read aloud by the AI. Both ChatGPT and Gemini have a "read aloud" option you can use. Alternatively you can always use text-to-speech tools such as the free "Read&Write for Chrome" extension.

Decision Making Options

After you read each section of the CYOA story, your students will need to decide which option to take to move the story forward. This would be a great time for class discussion to consider the choices and what makes the most sense. For the actual decision you could:

Do a vote in class by having students raise hands for their choices
Do a vote with a technology tool such a Google Forms
Randomly pick a student to make the choice

🐝 Example - Life of a Bee

(Image Credit - Gemini)

Try It Out

Use the link below to try out this prompt already loaded into ChatGPT - ChatGPT link

AI Prompt

Use the prompt below (or edit it as needed) to try out this CYOA story.

For this activity, you will facilitate a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style game with my students, who are in Grade 5 (ages 9 to 10 years old). Your responses must be tailored to be appropriate, engaging, and developmentally suitable for this age group.

The topic for this story is "A Day in the Life of a Honey Bee", and the character the students will be playing is a worker bee.

Throughout the game, incorporate the following objectives/topics/themes:

- Explore the different roles of bees in the hive, focusing on the responsibilities of worker bees.

- Highlight the worker bee's role in pollinating plants and its importance to ecosystems and agriculture.

- Introduce how bees communicate, such as the waggle dance, to share information about food sources.

- Show how bees interact with plants, animals, and the environment, emphasizing their role in food webs.

- Present realistic challenges, such as navigating to a distant flower patch or deciding how to respond to a predator.

- Use terms like "nectar," "pollen," "colony," "foraging," "hive," "ecosystem," and "pollination" to build students’ scientific language.

The game will last for 6 rounds.

Each round of the game, you will:

- Indicate the current round of the game, such as "Round 1 of 5" or "Round 3 or 10".

- Generate a new portion of the story, limited to 1 to 2 paragraphs.

- Include emojis as appropriate to help illustrate the content.

- Provide 2 to 3 possible choices for the students to make, labelled with letters (e.g., A, B, C, etc.) Ensure the choices presented are meaningful, allowing students to explore different outcomes and practice decision-making skills.

After the students make their choice, you will:

- Develop the next segment of the story based on their choice.

- Offer new possible choices to continue the narrative.

As the story progresses:

- Align the story with the objectives/topics/themes mentioned earlier, as well as real-world knowledge, skills, or subject area content to deepen learning.

- Strive for accuracy and fairness, avoiding stereotypes or biases. If the story touches on complex or sensitive material, present it in a way that encourages critical thinking and open discussion.

Assessment:

After the final round of the story, generate 5 multiple choice questions to assess the students' understanding of the story, with a focus on content that addresses the stated objectives for this activity.

- Ask one question at a time, waiting for the students' response before asking the next question.

- Provide feedback on each student response as it is given, indicating if the response is correct, or providing additional explanation if the answer was not correct or complete.

Example

You can read the full transcript of an example for this story here - "CYOA Example - Life of a Bee"

📗 Example - The Giver

(Image Credit - Gemini)

Try It Out

Use the link below to try out this prompt already loaded into ChatGPT - ChatGPT link

AI Prompt

Use the prompt below (or edit it as needed) to try out this CYOA story.

For this activity, you will facilitate a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style game with my students, who are in middle school (ages 11 to 13). Your responses must be tailored to be appropriate, engaging, and developmentally suitable for this age group.

The game will last for 6 rounds.

Each round of the game, you will:

- Indicate the current round of the game, such as "Round 1 of 5" or "Round 3 or 10".

- Generate a new portion of the story, limited to 1 to 2 paragraphs.

- Include emojis as appropriate to help illustrate the content.

- Provide 4 possible choices for the students to make, labelled with letters (e.g., A, B, C, etc.) Ensure the choices presented are meaningful, allowing students to explore different outcomes and practice decision-making skills.

After the students make their choice, you will:

- Develop the next segment of the story based on their choice. Whenever possible, align the story progression with real-world knowledge, skills, or subject area content to deepen learning.

- Offer new possible choices to continue the narrative.

The topic for this story is the book "The Giver", and the character the students will be playing is a Receiver-in-Training who has been newly chosen to train under The Giver.

Throughout the game, incorporate the following objectives/topics/themes:

- Individuality, conformity, and the role of memory in shaping society

- Consequences of adhering to or deviating from community rules

- Parallels between the community in The Giver and real-world societal structures

- How laws and ethics vary in different contexts.

Assessment:

After the final round of the story, generate 3 short answer questions to assess the students' understanding of the story, with a focus on content that addresses the stated objectives for this activity.

- Ask one question at a time, waiting for the students' response before asking the next question.

- Provide feedback on each student response as it is given, indicating if the response is correct, or providing additional explanation if the answer was not correct or complete.

Example

You can read the full transcript of an example for this story here - "CYOA Example - The Giver"

🐂 Example - Oregon Trail

(Image Credit - Gemini)

Try It Out

Use the link below to try out this prompt already loaded into ChatGPT - ChatGPT link

AI Prompt

Use the prompt below (or edit it as needed) to try out this CYOA story.

For this activity, you will facilitate a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style game with my students, who are 10 years old. Your responses must be tailored to be appropriate, engaging, and developmentally suitable for this age group.

The game will last for 6 rounds.

Each round of the game, you will:

- Indicate the current round of the game, such as "Round 1 of 5" or "Round 3 or 10".

- Generate a new portion of the story, limited to 1 to 2 paragraphs.

- Include emojis as appropriate to help illustrate the content.

- Provide 3 possible choices for the students to make, labelled with letters (e.g., A, B, C, etc.) Ensure the choices presented are meaningful, allowing students to explore different outcomes and practice decision-making skills.

After the students make their choice, you will:

- Develop the next segment of the story based on their choice. Whenever possible, align the story progression with real-world knowledge, skills, or subject area content to deepen learning.

- Offer new possible choices to continue the narrative.

The topic for this story is traveling on the Oregon Trail in 1850, and the character the students will be playing is a 10-year-old child who is traveling along with their father and mother.

Throughout the game, incorporate the following objectives/topics/themes:

- Hardships of Daily Life - limited food, harsh weather, difficult terrain, and the danger of diseases like cholera or dysentery.

- Importance of Supplies and Decision-Making

- Impact of Geography and Terrain - diverse landscapes and the strategic planning it took to navigate challenging environments.

- Sense of Community and Collaboration - the importance of traveling in groups for safety and support.

Assessment:

After the final round of the story, generate 3 multiple choice questions to assess the students' understanding of the story, with a focus on content that addresses the stated objectives for this activity.

- Ask one question at a time, waiting for the students' response before asking the next question.

- Provide feedback on each student response as it is given, indicating if the response is correct, or providing additional explanation if the answer was not correct or complete.

Example

You can read the full transcript of an example for this story here - "CYOA Example - The Oregon Trail"

👦 Individual Option

The prompt and examples given above will work great for a whole class activity. However, if you prefer to have each student individually interacting with the AI, there are options that are school-safe and student-friendly.

One such option would be SchoolAI - https://schoolai.com/

SchoolAI allows you to create custom AI activities for your students including AI tutors, AI interviews with historical characters, AI book discussions, and more. One of these options also includes creating AI CYOA activities.

Here's how it works:

Sign into the SchoolAI website as a teacher.
Click the "Spaces" menu and then choose "Discover".
In the section titled "Common activities for your classes" scroll over and click the "Choose Your Own Adventure" option.
Note: If you have trouble finding it you can use this link as well - https://app.schoolai.com/spaces/clmtiw5uv001i3b662mp78yww

Now you can type in the "Topic" for the CYOA story.
If needed, you can also click "More Options" to enter the "Setting" and "Objectives".
Next test out the CYOA activity by clicking the "Start Preview" button.

If everything looks good, click the "Launch" button.
This will give you a link you can copy to give to your students.
Each student can now click the link and play their own individual version of the CYOA game you have created.
SchoolAI will record all of the interactions so you can review your students' conversations with the AI at any time.