Lesson Planning in Minutes

Before we start prompting, let's agree on what a good lesson plan actually includes. Whether you're in London, Los Angeles, or Melbourne, strong lesson plans share the same bones:

Learning objectives — What will students know or be able to do by the end? Specific, measurable, and aligned to curriculum standards.

Success criteria — How will students (and you) know they've achieved the objective? What does success look like at different levels?

Starter activity (5-10 mins) — An engaging hook that activates prior knowledge or introduces the key concept.

Main teaching input (10-15 mins) — Direct instruction, modelling, or explanation of new content.

Student activities (15-25 mins) — Practice tasks, group work, or independent application. Ideally differentiated.

Plenary (5-10 mins) — Assessment of understanding. Exit tickets, class discussion, or quick quiz.

Resources needed — Everything you need to prepare before the lesson.

The secret to getting excellent lesson plans from AI is telling it exactly what you want in the plan. The more specific your prompt, the more usable the output.

Here's a template you can copy and adapt for any single lesson. Fill in the bracketed sections with your specifics:

"Create a detailed lesson plan for [year group/grade] [subject] on the topic of [topic]. The lesson is [X] minutes long. Align to [curriculum — e.g., UK National Curriculum, US Common Core, Australian Curriculum v9].

Include: learning objectives, success criteria, a starter activity ([X] mins), main teaching input ([X] mins), differentiated student activities at three levels — foundation, core, and extension ([X] mins), a plenary activity ([X] mins), key vocabulary, and a list of resources needed.

The class is [mixed ability / description of ability range]. [Add any specific needs — e.g., 'Several students have EAL needs' or 'The extension group are working towards Grade 9']. "

That's it. One prompt. Sixty seconds later, you have a lesson plan.

This is where the real time savings kick in. Instead of planning one lesson at a time, you can generate an entire week:

"Create a week of [subject] lesson plans for [year group/grade], Monday to Friday. Each lesson is [X] minutes. The topic for this week is [topic/unit]. Align to [curriculum].

For each lesson include: learning objectives, a starter activity, main teaching, differentiated tasks (foundation, core, extension), and a plenary. Show a clear progression across the five days — from introduction on Monday to assessment or consolidation on Friday.

The class is [description]. Resources should be realistic for a standard classroom."

One prompt. Five lesson plans. A logical progression across the week. This is the prompt that turns a three-hour Sunday session into a 30-minute review.

For longer-term planning, you can go even bigger:

"Create a [X]-week scheme of work for [year group/grade] [subject] on [unit/topic]. Each week has [X] lessons of [X] minutes each. Align to [curriculum/specification].

Include: unit overview, learning journey showing progression, individual lesson plans with objectives and activities, key vocabulary for the unit, formative assessment opportunities built in, and a summative assessment task for the end of the unit.

Differentiation should be woven throughout. The class includes students working at [range of levels]."

This is where Claude often outperforms ChatGPT. The length and complexity of a full scheme of work plays to Claude's strengths in handling detailed, structured output. Try both and see which gives you better results for your subject.

The prompt templates above work internationally. Here's how to adapt them:

UK teachers: Reference the National Curriculum, specific key stages, and exam board specifications (AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC). For primary, reference the statutory programme of study. For GCSE, include the specification number.

US teachers: Reference Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, or your state-specific standards. Include the grade level and standard codes where possible (e.g., "CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.RP.A.1").

Australian teachers: Reference the Australian Curriculum v9 with content descriptions and achievement standards. Include the learning area and year level.

IB teachers: Reference the specific IB programme (PYP, MYP, DP) and subject guide. Include assessment criteria.

The more specific your curriculum reference, the better aligned the output. "Align to the curriculum" gives you something generic. "Align to AQA GCSE Combined Science Trilogy, Paper 1: Biology, Topic 4.1 Cell Biology" gives you something you can actually use.

AI gives you the first draft. Your job is the quality check. Here's what to look for every time:

Accuracy — Is the subject content correct? AI occasionally gets facts wrong, especially in specialist subjects. You're the subject expert.

Age-appropriateness — Is the language right for your year group? AI sometimes pitches too high or too low.

Timing — Are the timings realistic for your class? A task AI says takes 10 minutes might take your class 20, or vice versa.

Differentiation — Does the differentiation actually match your students' needs? Generic "harder/easier" isn't good enough. Does it reflect the real range in your room?

Resources — Do you actually have the resources listed? No point planning a practical if you don't have the equipment.

This review takes 5 to 10 minutes. Combined with the 1 to 2 minutes it takes to generate the plan, you're looking at under 15 minutes for a fully reviewed, ready-to-teach lesson plan. Compare that to 45 to 60 minutes from scratch.