Making a History assignment bilingual & classroom-ready
A four-prompt system for scaffolded, bilingual assignments. Run CHECK. This tells you if you need to SCAFFOLD. If yes, run SCAFFOLD; then run TRANSLATE. Finally, run FORMAT HTML to generate a printable, styled PDF layout. Works in Gemini or NotebookLM.
What to do
1
Upload one assignment and its sources.One assignment per run. Remove any answer key before uploading; CHECK will stop and ask you to if one is still in the file. A DBQ counts as one assignment: upload the question and all its documents together. A unit packet with several separate worksheets (guided notes, a timeline, a DBQ, a test) is several runs; long files lose their tables. Upload the original Doc or Word file if you have it; scanned PDFs lose words, and maps, charts, and cartoons can't be read at all, so keep those originals for the students.
2
Paste the CHECK prompt.It reads what you uploaded and tells you which prompt to run next, what's missing, and whether any quotes in the assignment are actually in the sources.
3
Do what CHECK says.Usually one of these. For a DBQ or any assignment with several documents, run SCAFFOLD in this chat, then copy its output into a new chat and run TRANSLATE and FORMAT HTML there; long chats make Gemini fail with "I seem to be encountering an error."
Students write or analyze from sourcesDBQs, source analysis, cause-and-effect, compare-and-contrast, short answer from a reading. Paste SCAFFOLD. When it finishes, paste TRANSLATE on the result.
Quiz, test, vocabulary, guided notes, timeline to fill inPaste TRANSLATE.
4
Paste FORMAT HTML for a styled layout.Paste FORMAT HTML to turn the text into a styled worksheet with document boxes, callout boxes, bordered question cards, and blank response lines. Save the output code as an
.html file or paste into CodePen, then press Ctrl+P / Cmd+P in Chrome to print/save as PDF. Maps, charts, and cartoons come out as labeled placeholder boxes; hand out the originals with the worksheet. If Gemini gives you a file or opens a side panel instead of replying in the chat, that's still the TRANSLATE result. Paste FORMAT HTML next to get the print-ready version.5
Run the teacher check below, then export or print.In Gemini, use Export to Docs if keeping text, or save as PDF via Chrome. Copy-pasting raw text breaks formatting.
Prompt 1: CHECK run first, on whatever you have
Look at the attached files and answer in exactly this format. Do not rewrite, translate, or scaffold anything yet. 1. WHAT THIS IS One line: the type of assignment (DBQ, source analysis, reading with questions, cause-and-effect or compare-and-contrast chart, timeline, map or chart analysis, guided notes, vocabulary, quiz, essay, other) and what students must produce. 2. WHICH PROMPT TO RUN Read every question, not just the title. If any question asks students to explain, compare, judge, or choose and defend (why, which most, what impact, how did), or to write from documents, a reading, a map, or a chart, even one question at the bottom of a timeline: "Run SCAFFOLD, then TRANSLATE." If every item is recall or fill-in with no explanation: "Run TRANSLATE only." A quiz or test is always "Run TRANSLATE only," whatever its questions ask. One line saying which and why. 3. WHAT IS MISSING - Sources present (the reading, the documents, the passage the questions use), as separate files or printed inside the assignment? Yes / No / Partly / Not needed. Choose "Not needed" when the assignment is meant to be done from class notes or prior knowledge rather than from a passage (a timeline, a chart, a set of review questions); SCAFFOLD supplies dates and facts as labeled background. If sources are needed and not all present: "Attach the sources before running SCAFFOLD," and name what is missing. - Does the task depend on a map, chart, graph, photo, or cartoon? Yes / No. If Yes: "I cannot read [name]. The scaffold will mark its place; the teacher supplies it." - Scanned or image-only PDF? Yes / No. If Yes: "Upload the original Doc or Word file if you have it; scanned text can lose words." - Answer key (answers to the items students must do) attached or printed anywhere in the file? Yes / No. If Yes, say where. Rubric attached? Yes / No. - More than one assignment in the file (several Name/Date headers or separate worksheets)? Yes / No. If Yes: "This file has [N] assignments. Split it and run one at a time." 4. PROBLEMS IN THE ASSIGNMENT Always report the first item; report the others only if they apply. - Quotations: list each one and say whether it appears word for word in the sources. If none: "No quotations in the assignment." If the sources are missing: "Cannot verify quotations." - A document, author, date, or speaker named in the assignment that does not match the sources. - Teacher-facing material on student pages: standards codes, teacher notes, answer keys. - Anything students cannot do from the attached materials (a document, map, chart, or textbook section the assignment refers to but does not include). Dates or facts a student would get from class notes do not count. 5. NEXT STEP Reply with exactly one of these lines and nothing else: - "Remove the answer key from the file, upload it again, and paste CHECK again." (Use this line whenever an answer key is attached, before any other.) - "Paste the SCAFFOLD prompt now." - "Paste the TRANSLATE prompt now." - "Attach the sources, then paste the SCAFFOLD prompt." - "Upload the original Doc or Word file, then paste CHECK again." - "Split the file into one assignment per upload, then paste CHECK again on the first one." Do not ask the teacher any questions.
Prompt 2: SCAFFOLD only if CHECK says so; run in English
Rebuild the assignment in this conversation as a scaffolded version for students still developing academic English. Use the assignment and the sources already uploaded here (documents, readings, excerpts, as separate files or printed inside the assignment); they are the only source for quotes, banks, and examples. Do not ask for them again. Keep the standard; change the route to it.
KEEP
- The task, required items, required vocabulary, required evidence, and any required paragraph or essay structure, exactly as the original demands. Keep headings, section order, rubrics, and point values.
- Every table, with the same rows and columns, frames placed in the empty cells. A timeline, map, diagram, organizer, or drawing space keeps its shape, orientation, labels, and cell count; nothing is sorted into it or pre-filled; support goes in the banks and frames outside it. If a table cannot be reproduced, write "[TABLE NOT REPRODUCED: name]" in its place.
CHANGE
1. Directions: numbered steps, one action each, plain English, two lines max. Remove standards codes and teacher notes.
2. Document summaries: under each primary source (speech, letter, law, treaty, diary, newspaper, any excerpt by a named historical author), one or two plain sentences labeled "What this says (summary, not the document):" giving who, when, and the main point, using only what the document and assignment state. The document's own text is never changed. Skip for textbook passages and teacher-written background.
3. Quote bank: 6 to 9 short phrases copied word for word from the sources, in quotation marks, each tagged with where it comes from: a named person's words by name (Reagan), even when printed inside the reading; the reading's own text (Reading); a numbered document (Doc 2). Fewer if the sources are short; say so. Leave this section out entirely if the assignment has no prose (a list of events, a blank organizer).
4. Terms, names, and dates bank: the people, places, events, laws, and dates the task needs, from the attached materials only. If the task needs outside knowledge ("using what you know," or a timeline asking for dates the worksheet does not give), supply it under "Background (not from the sources)": for a timeline, each listed event with its year; otherwise 3 to 5 plain factual phrases. Nothing beyond what the task needs.
5. Visuals: for a map, chart, graph, photo, or cartoon, write "[VISUAL: keep from original: name]" where it belongs, then 3 to 5 things to look for, drawn only from what the assignment says about it.
6. Model example: one complete example in the exact format the student must produce, simpler and shorter than the real task. Built on a real quote when the sources have prose; otherwise built from the task (one organizer cell filled correctly and one frame completed, using an item from the banks that students are unlikely to pick for the real questions). Replace any model example in the original unless every quoted word is in the sources.
7. Frames. Source analysis (who wrote this, when, why, for whom): one frame per element, ending in a blank for the student's judgment. Cause-and-effect, sequence, or compare charts: each cell becomes a frame that names the relationship and leaves the content blank ("___ led to ___ because ___"). Short response: a sentence frame per required sentence. DBQ or essay: an outline frame, one block for a thesis (naming the document categories, not the argument), one block per body paragraph with slots for a claim, two "Doc __ shows ___" citations, and an explanation, and one closing-sentence frame. Required transitions, signal verbs, and vocabulary go in the frame text, never in blanks; a quotation the student must choose is a blank ([quote from the bank]), never filled in. The student's interpretation is always a blank: a frame never states or leads toward the answer, and a bracketed hint names only what kind of thing goes there, never a claim ("[how this event affected the colonists]" is allowed; "[how this event caused the war]" is the answer and is not). If the answer key's idea appears in a frame or hint, rewrite it.
8. Glossary: each required academic and historical term with a one-line plain definition; short lists of signal verbs (states, argues, warns) and cause, sequence, and contrast words if the task needs them.
NEVER
- Quote or attribute anything not in the sources, or add historical facts beyond the labeled background list. If no line supports the model example, write "no supporting line found in the sources" and continue.
- Add commentary, notes, a summary, or citation tags such as [cite: 1]. Return only the student-facing document, in English.
Prompt 3: TRANSLATE run on the scaffolded document, or on any assignment CHECK says needs translation only
Convert the assignment into a bilingual English/Spanish version for multilingual learners. If a scaffolded version appears earlier in this conversation, translate that; otherwise translate the attached document. Use only that one document. Do not add, remove, combine, reword, or summarize anything. LAYOUT - Stacked: every English line exactly as written, then its Spanish translation directly beneath, as its own italic paragraph. This applies to everything: headers, headings, directions, questions, answer choices, banks, frames, examples, glossaries. In a list, the Spanish sits under the item without repeating its number or letter. - Leave out any answer key or list of answers, its heading, and any line telling students where answers are; in its place write "[ANSWER KEY REMOVED]". Keep order, numbering, point values, blank lines, and tables. A table keeps its rows and columns with English and Spanish stacked in each cell; never drop one or turn it into a list. If it cannot be reproduced, write "[TABLE NOT REPRODUCED: name]". STAYS IN ENGLISH - Primary-source text: speeches, letters, laws, treaties, diaries, newspaper excerpts, any passage by a named historical author that students read closely or quote, including quoted phrases inside banks, examples, and frames. A short Spanish gloss in parentheses after a quoted phrase is allowed. - People's names; the names of specific laws, court cases, agencies, parties, and titled documents (the Boland Amendment, Marbury v. Madison, the Contras); dates, numbers, and centuries as written; "[VISUAL: keep from original]" placeholders, which get a Spanish line beneath; copyright lines and standards codes. In a bank or glossary, each entry is one line, English / Spanish; an entry that already has a Spanish gloss gets no second line. Everything else written for students is translated, including textbook passages, background paragraphs, context and key-terms boxes, source headers, captions, "What this says" summaries, model examples, and every frame with its fixed words and bracketed hints. In the Spanish lines, countries, continents, regions, cities, government bodies, wars, battles, revolutions, movements, eras, and treaties take their standard Spanish form with the English in parentheses on first use (Irán, Centroamérica, el Congreso (Congress), la Batalla de Saratoga, la Guerra Civil (Civil War), el Tratado de París). SPANISH - Neutral Spanish for a high school reader, tú in directions (Analiza, Escribe), plain wording with academic terms glossed in parentheses on first use. Where an article or adjective before a blank would reveal the answer's gender or number, rewrite the line. - Terms: sentence frame = marco de oración; paragraph frame = marco de párrafo; outline frame = esquema guiado; word bank = banco de palabras; signal verbs = verbos de cita; transition words = palabras de transición; model example = ejemplo modelo; glossary = glosario; terms, names, and dates bank = banco de términos, nombres y fechas; background (not from the sources) = contexto (no viene de las fuentes); document summary = resumen del documento; primary source = fuente primaria; secondary source = fuente secundaria; point of view = punto de vista; purpose = propósito; audience = audiencia; historical context = contexto histórico; cause = causa; effect = efecto; thesis = tesis. OUTPUT - Title as a level-1 heading, section names as level-2, numbered questions as level-3, so they export as Heading styles. The Spanish version of a heading is normal italic text on the line below, not a heading. - Body text uses only bold, italics, numbered and bulleted lists, and tables. No literal symbols (#, *, -, >) and no citation tags such as [cite: 1]; remove any that appear. - Return the complete document only. No introduction, summary, or commentary.
Prompt 4: FORMAT HTML run after TRANSLATE to generate a print-ready PDF layout
Convert the entire document above into one complete, standalone HTML file styled for student printing. Do not summarize, shorten, add, or omit anything. Remove any citation tags such as [cite: 1]. Return ONLY the HTML code block.
1. Page: @page { size: letter; margin: 0.6in; }. Font stack system-ui, -apple-system, Arial, sans-serif at 10.5pt, line-height 1.4. page-break-inside: avoid on question boxes.
2. Header: a table with the title, its Spanish title beneath, and underline slots for Name/Nombre and Date/Fecha.
3. Callout boxes for directions, word banks, and glossaries: background #f7fafc; border 1px solid #e2e8f0; border-left 4px solid #3182ce; padding 10px 14px; border-radius 4px; margin-bottom 12px.
4. Textbook passages and background readings in a serif box: font-family Georgia, serif; background #fffaf0; border 1px solid #feebc8; border-left 4px solid #dd6b20; padding 12px 16px; margin-bottom 15px. Each primary-source document in its own document box: font-family Georgia, serif; background #fdfdfd; border 1px solid #a0aec0; border-left 6px solid #2d3748; padding 12px 16px; margin-bottom 15px, with the source header (document number, author, date) in bold sans-serif at the top. Its "What this says" summary goes directly below the box as a small sans-serif note (font-size 9.5pt; color #4a5568; border-left 3px solid #a0aec0; padding-left 10px; margin -8px 0 14px), visibly separate from the document. Each "[VISUAL: keep from original]" placeholder becomes a dashed box (border 2px dashed #a0aec0; padding 24px; text-align center; color #4a5568; margin-bottom 15px) holding the placeholder text and any look-for list already in the document; never write a new one.
5. Bilingual text: English in #1a202c; each Spanish translation directly beneath in italics, #4a5568.
6. Response cards: each question and its frames in a card (border 1px solid #cbd5e0; border-radius 6px; padding 10px 12px; margin-bottom 12px), the question in a light header inside it (background #edf2f7; padding 8px 10px; border-radius 4px; font-weight 600). Blanks and bracketed hints get border-bottom 1px dashed #4a5568.
7. Tables: full width, borders #cbd5e0, light header shading, English and Spanish stacked in each cell. A timeline keeps the orientation of the original: a horizontal timeline is one table row of equal-width year headers over one row of empty cells at least 1.6in tall, never a vertical list of years. A list of events or terms to place is a plain bulleted list, not tags or chips. Blank cells of any organizer stay blank.
Teacher check two minutes, before you print
- Every quoted phrase in the word bank and model example is in one of the documents. Search each one.
- Read every document in the output against the original. Gemini can merge a caption, a source header, or a key-terms box into the document text, and the document text must be untouched.
- Each "What this says" summary is accurate and is labeled as a summary. Students must not mistake it for the document.
- Every map, chart, or cartoon the task needs is marked with a placeholder, and you have the original to hand out with it.
- A timeline or organizer still has its original shape and is still blank where students are meant to write. No [cite: 1] tags anywhere on the page.
- Every table from the original is there, with the same rows and columns.
- The model example is easier than what students must produce, not harder.
- Nothing your rubric requires was dropped.
- No answer key is on the page, and no line tells students where to find answers.
- The last item is complete. Gemini sometimes cuts off long HTML partway through; if it did, type "continue" in the same chat or run FORMAT HTML again in a new chat.
- Directions are in tú (Analiza, not Analice).
- Every Spanish line is in italics and tables survived. If exporting directly to Google Docs, use Export to Docs. If using FORMAT HTML, open the file in Chrome/Edge and press Ctrl+P / Cmd+P to save as PDF.
If a prompt refuses or asks for the reading, it's doing its job: attach the reading and run it again. If the model tells you it verified something, check anyway; it can be confidently wrong.
If the Spanish isn't in italics, or runs into the English on the same line Gemini does this about half the time; this fixes it in one step
Reprint the entire document you just produced. Change nothing except this: every Spanish translation is on its own line directly under its English line, never on the same line, and every Spanish line, including full paragraphs, list items, frames, and table cells, is in italics, while every English line is not. Remove every citation tag or bracketed source marker such as [cite: 1]. Do not shorten, summarize, or omit anything, and keep every table. Then I will export it.
Paste it in the same chat, right after the TRANSLATE result, then Export to Docs from the reprinted version. If it still comes back plain, the Doc is correct in every other way; the italics can be added by hand for the few lines students will read most (directions and questions).