If you are to ask me about the instructional aspect that AI has significantly revolutionized, I would say lesson planning. I spent almost 15 years in classroom teaching, and although I quit teaching years before the introduction of AI, I can only imagine how much easier and more efficient my planning process would have been with AI tools. Back in the day, lesson planning meant hours of scouring textbooks, searching for engaging activities, and aligning objectives with standards—all manually.
Now, AI tools have simplified the process saving teachers precious time to spend on building meaningful relationships with their students, refining instructional strategies, and focusing on personalized support for individual learners.
In this post, I share with you a collection of practical tips to show you how to use generative AI tools especially AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to create engaging lesson plans.
AI Tips for Lesson Planning
Besides the general-purpose AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot, there are a wide range of AI tools tailored specifically to meet instructional needs. I have already reviewed some of these AI tools in a post titled Top AI Lesson Plan Tools for Teachers.
In it I featured tools such as MagicSchool, Curipod, Eduaide, Almanack, Diffit, among others. These are all tools that enable you to generate detailed lesson plans complete with engaging activities, suggestions for teaching resources, differentiated instruction strategies, and even assessments tailored to specific learning objectives.
The AI tips below include both these lesson plan-focused tools and AI chatbots.
1. Creating Lesson Outlines
AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Claude can play an important role in helping you create detailed lesson outlines. Simply, type in the topic of your lesson and ask the bot to come up with an outline. You can always add more details to your prompt (e.g, include type of activities, time allocations, transitions, etc.,).
Once the initial outline is generated go ahead and ask it to work on each section of the outline in detail, such as suggesting specific learning objectives, designing interactive activities, recommending multimedia resources, or even drafting discussion questions and assessments.
An important prompting strategy to use in this regard is role assignment. As its name indicates, this strategy involves assigning a specific role to the AI chatbot, such as acting as an expert teacher, curriculum designer, or subject matter specialist. This strategy helps generate responses that are tailored and context-specific, aligning closely with the instructional goals you have in mind. For more on prompting strategies, check out my book ChatGPT for Teachers: Mastering the Skill of Crafting Effective Prompts.
For example, let’s imagine I want to get help with creating a lesson plan on the topic of daylight saving time, here is a sample prompt I would use:
“Act as an experienced middle school teacher and create a detailed outline for a lesson on the topic of Daylight Saving Time. The lesson should be 45 minutes long and include the following: learning objectives, a warm-up activity, key discussion points, a hands-on activity, and a closing assessment or reflection.”
I would then take the generated lesson plan outline and work on it section by section. I will for instance start with the objectives section. I will see if the AI-generated objectives align with my instructional goals and the needs of my students. If not, I would revise or refine them to ensure they are clear, measurable, and relevant to the topic and grade level.
I will do the same with other sections such as activities, discussion points, and assessments. I can ask ChatGPT to suggest more engaging activities, refine discussion questions, or provide alternative assessment ideas to better suit the needs of my students and the overall flow of the lesson. You get the point, right?
2. Differentiated Instruction Activities
Another way to use AI chatbots to help with lesson planning is for differentiated instruction activities. For instance, I can ask the chatbot to provide variations of activities so that they cater to different learning styles or skill levels. Using the same topic, daylight saving time, I can go ahead and ask ChatGPT:
“Act as a middle school teacher and suggest differentiated instruction activities on the topic of Daylight Saving Time. Include one activity for visual learners, one for auditory learners, and one for kinesthetic learners.”
3. Curriculum Alignment
Aligning instructional content with curriculum standards is one the things that teachers struggle with the most. Anyone classroom teacher knows that it is not easy to strike a balance between meeting students learning objectives and creating engaging and relevant lesson plans. This is actually a process that requires meticulous planning and cross referencing.
Some of the AI lesson planners I mentioned earlier do include the option to align your generated lessons with specific curriculum standards. You can also use AI chatbots to help with curriculum standards alignment. For instance, you can ask an AI chatbot to analyze your lesson objectives and activities and suggest how they align with specific standards, such as Common Core or state-level requirements. You could use a prompt like:
“Review this lesson plan and identify which Common Core standards it aligns with. If any gaps exist, suggest modifications to better align it with the standards.”
4 Real-time Updates
An increasing number of AI tools can now browse the web in real time allowing you to collect information that are up-to-date. In fact, ChatGPT has recently released its new feature called ChatGPT Search which provides answers based on updated data from the web. Similarly, Gemini and Copilot have access to the web as well.
When it comes to lesson planning, this is incredibly valuable as it enables you to incorporate the latest research, news, and developments into your lessons making your content current, relevant, and more importantly, engaging for students.
Again, let’s take the example of daylight saving time. When generating a lesson on the topic, you can, for instance, use the ‘search the web’ functionality in ChatGPT to ask the chatbot about any new facts, news, or information related to the topic. An example would be:
“Search the web and provide up-to-date information on the current debates or developments regarding Daylight Saving Time in [your country]. Include any recent legislative proposals, public opinions, or scientific studies relevant to the topic.”
5. Cross-curricular Integration
Another helpful way to leverage the power of AI in your lesson planning is by asking it to help with ideas regarding cross-curricular activities. These are basically activities that embed themes and topics from other subjects. Let’s take a lesson plan on daylight saving time, you can ask AI to suggest inter-curricular activities that integrate themes from other subjects right into your lesson. For instance:
- “Math: Calculate the impact of Daylight Saving Time on energy savings by analyzing data and creating graphs.
- Science: Explore the biological effects of time changes on human circadian rhythms.
- History: Research the origins of Daylight Saving Time and its adoption in different countries.
- Geography: Study how Daylight Saving Time affects time zones and global communication.
- Language Arts: Write a persuasive essay arguing for or against the continuation of Daylight Saving Time.”
Besides enriching the lesson and making it more relevant and engaging for students, integrating cross-curricular activities will enable students to make connections and see how the topic relates to other areas of their learning. And as we all know, students are more motivated to engage with content that is relevant to their learning.
6. Classroom Management
When we talk about classroom management we talk about a host of interconnected elements including maintaining order, creating a positive learning environment, and making sure that instructional time is used effectively. A well-structured lesson plan, I believe, is the foundation of good classroom management.
A lesson plan provides a clear roadmap for what is to take place during the whole teaching period (e.g., activities, transitions, assessments, etc.), and because everything is timed and structured, disruptions and behaviour problems are minimized. With no idle time for students to lose focus, a well-planned lesson keeps the class on track and ensures that every minute is used productively.
Of course, you want to be flexible to accommodate unexpected questions, teachable moments, or varying student needs; however, having a structured plan ensures you can return to the flow of the lesson without losing direction or momentum.
Tools like AI chatbots and AI lesson planners can help you structure your lessons in more efficient and effective ways. For instance, you can use them to get suggestions on how to organize activities in your lessons, which activities to use, how to divide time allocations for each segment, and even plan transitions between tasks.
Additionally, you can use these AI-powered platforms to assist you with coming up with suggestions for things like managing group work, addressing diverse learning styles, and tips for maintaining student engagement throughout the lesson. Here is a sample prompt to use:
“Act as an experienced classroom teacher and help me structure a 60-minute lesson plan on [topic]. Suggest activities for each segment, time allocations, and transitions to keep students engaged and minimize disruptions. Include strategies for managing group work and addressing diverse learning styles.”
7. Formative Assessment
Unlike assessment of learning (summative assessment), assessment for learning or formative assessment is an ongoing process conducted during learning to help teachers identify students’ strengths and weaknesses and address gaps in understanding. Formative assessment takes different forms including quizzes, exit tickets, class discussions, peer reviews, observations, reflective writing, among others.
When you create your lesson plan, you wan to make sure you integrate formative assessment activities throughout the lesson. These activities act as checkpoints to help you gauge students’ understanding in real time and provide you with immediate feedback on how your teaching is progressing and whether you need to adjust your instructional approach to better meet your students’ needs.
AI can help a lot with formative assessment activities. You can use ChatGPT or Claude to get suggestions for quick quizzes, discussion prompts, reflective questions, or interactive activities. The best way to do it is by sharing your lesson plan (copy/paste or upload it) with the Chatbot and ask it to come up with relevant formative assessment startegies for your lesson. You can use a prompt like
“You are a middle school teacher. Here is my lesson plan on [topic]. Please suggest five formative assessment strategies tailored to this lesson”
8. Emergency Lesson Planning
Emergencies happen and surprise is their inherent nature. Just because we cannot make it to class doesn’t mean students learning has to come to a halt. You want to have a reliable backup in place. Using generative AI and more specifically AI Chatbots will save you so much time and hassle creating simplified plans for substitute teachers or unexpected schedule adjustments.
Here is how to go about doing it: have your lesson plan handy or outline the main objectives and key activities you want to cover. Then, ask the chatbot to simplify the plan and tailor it for a substitute teacher. For example, you can use a prompt like this :
“You are a middle school teacher. Simplify the following lesson plan on [topic] for a substitute teacher. Include clear instructions, key objectives, essential activities, and any necessary materials to ensure the lesson runs smoothly in my absence.”
9. Inclusive and Special Education Planning
Generative AI can be an invaluable tool for coming up with ideas and activities that speak to the needs of all students including students with disabilities or learning difficulties. For instance, explain to the chatbot the kind of learning challenges your students face and ask it to suggest activities or accommodations tailored to their needs.
For example, you could use a prompt like this:
“I am teaching a lesson on [topic] to a class that includes students with dyslexia and ADHD. Please suggest activities that use visual aids, step-by-step instructions, and opportunities for hands-on engagement to support their learning.”
10. Homework Design
The last tip in this list is all about creating homework using AI. Using tools such as ChatGPT and/or Claude will enable you to generate engaging and differentiated homework assignments. The goal is to reinforce classroom learning and consolidate students’ comprehension of the teachable content. You can do this by instructing the chatbot to create questions, prompts, or tasks specific to the lesson objectives.
You will want to provide detailed content or even upload your lesson plan to the chatbot to ensure the generated homework aligns perfectly with what was taught in class. For instance, you could use a prompt like this:
“Here is my lesson plan on [topic]. Create a homework assignment that includes two multiple-choice questions, one short-answer question, and a creative task for students to apply what they learned.”
AI Lesson Plan Prompts
To make lesson planning even more efficient, I’ve created this quick-reference poster featuring 10 AI-powered prompts to streamline your teaching workflow. Whether you’re creating activities, aligning with standards, or designing assessments, this poster provides practical ideas to save you time and inspire your creativity.
Conclusion
As we have seen from the pointers above, AI can do a tremendous job facilitating your lesson planning. While helping you create efficient and engaging lesson plans, AI also saves you precious much time that you can channel towards improving other areas in your teaching including building rapport with your students and enhancing your professional development. I hope you have found these tips helpful and that you are now more inspired to apply what you’ve learned here to make your teaching practice more effective, engaging, and rewarding.
