From Idea to Impact - Planning Lessons with AI
A practical guide to using AI to design full lesson sequences aligned with your curriculum intent.
Welcome to AI for Teachers, a 12-part series designed to help you plan smarter, teach better, and make your workload more manageable. Whether you’re new to AI or already exploring what it can do, this series will guide you step by step with real examples, practical tools, and research that matters.
🧭 This is not the only way to use AI in education – the possibilities are endless. This post is simply designed to show you one approach that might work for you, your learners, and your setting.
In this post, we’re focusing on lesson planning. Great lessons don’t just happen, they’re built with intention. With AI, you can move from a blank page to a coherent, engaging lesson sequence in minutes, freeing up time for creativity, feedback and reflection.
🧪 This works just as well across subjects and phases – from KS1 Science to IB Theory of Knowledge. Whatever you teach, structured AI lesson planning can help you think clearly and teach with purpose.
Why This Matters: From Research to Practice
💡 Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction – Rosenshine (2012) shows that carefully sequenced lessons with clear explanations, guided practice and regular checks for understanding are key to effective teaching.
How AI helps:
AI makes it quicker to structure lessons around these core principles, helping teachers embed modelling, scaffolding, and review from the start.
💡 Clark & Mayer – Learning and the Science of Instruction – They highlight the importance of structured, clear instruction aligned to learning goals, with reduced cognitive load.
How AI helps:
With AI, you can generate lesson sequences that logically flow from one step to the next, keeping the learner journey central and eliminating clutter or ambiguity.
🔍 A quick note on responsible use:
AI can suggest sequences, activities and timings, but always apply your professional judgement. Check alignment with your learners, curriculum goals and phase expectations.
Step-by-Step: Use AI to Plan a Full Lesson Sequence
We’ll walk through how a KS2 teacher used AI to co-plan three linked lessons on habitats in just 15 minutes. These steps apply across all subjects and key stages – whether you’re teaching English, Science or Islamic Studies.
Step 1 – Add Your Planning Expectations
Before you prompt, get clear on your school's non-negotiables. This might include required lesson elements (like a “Do Now” or plenary), classroom strategies (like collaborative learning), or inspection-linked expectations (like success criteria or assessment opportunities). Think of this step as giving AI your lesson planning checklist before it starts drafting.
Why this matters:
Many teachers forget that AI isn’t working from your school’s framework, it’s only as good as the information you give it. By stating what must be included in your lessons, you ensure the output aligns with your school’s rhythm, routines and expectations.
What to watch for:
✅ Required structures (Do Now, Kagan task, plenary)
✅ Specific timings or grouping strategies
✅ Format preferences or compliance criteria
Prompt add-on:
“Please include a Do Now task, one collaborative activity using a Kagan structure, and a retrieval-based plenary. Include timings, learning objective, and success criteria for each part of the lesson.”
Step 2 – Define Your Learning Intention
Now feed in the heart of your lesson – the what and the why. Share your learning objective, year group, subject, and key vocabulary or content focus. If there’s a specific misconception to tackle or a required skill to include, mention that too.
Why this matters:
Your lesson must have direction. AI can generate brilliant content, but without knowing your intended learning, it may drift or miss the mark. Clear input leads to stronger, more relevant output.
What to watch for:
✅ Specific, curriculum-linked learning goal
✅ Key terms learners need to understand or use
✅ Any known misconceptions or scaffolds required
Example prompt:
“Plan a KS2 Science lesson on how animals are suited to their habitats. Include key vocabulary like ‘adaptation’, ‘climate’, and ‘camouflage’. Address the misconception that all desert animals live underground.”
Step 3 – Generate a Lesson Outline
This is your draft stage. Ask AI to provide a full lesson outline that includes each phase of the lesson: starter, teacher input, modelling, guided practice, independent activity, and plenary. Include timings, groupings, and success criteria if helpful.
Why this matters:
You’re not aiming for perfection here – just a clear, structured draft that gives you momentum. This outline becomes your framework to build from, adapt or share with colleagues.
What to watch for:
✅ Clear flow from learning intention to activity
✅ Inclusion of collaboration, modelling or questioning
✅ Logical transitions and manageable pace
Pro tip: Ask for a 3-lesson sequence instead of just one. This helps build knowledge over time, reinforces key skills and makes follow-up planning far easier.
Step 4 – Chain Your Prompts for Depth
Now go deeper with chained prompts. A chained prompt is when you build on a previous output with a more focused request. For example, if AI has given you a modelling phase, you can follow up by asking it to write a model answer, generate stretch questions, or produce a student scaffold.
Why this matters:
AI shines when you zoom in. Rather than accepting its first answer, guide it step-by-step. Chaining prompts helps you refine, extend or customise any part of the lesson so it suits your learners and teaching style.
What to watch for:
✅ One step at a time – don’t overwhelm the model
✅ Use follow-ups to personalise tone, simplify language or add stretch
✅ Always review for appropriateness before using in class
Follow-up prompt:
“Write a modelled explanation for how a camel’s features help it survive in the desert. Use vocabulary suitable for Year 4 and include a labelled diagram.”
Step 5 – Check for Clarity and Progression
Step back and look across the sequence. Ask AI (and yourself) whether the lessons build logically. Are concepts deepened across sessions? Are retrieval and assessment woven in? Have misconceptions been addressed more than once?
Why this matters:
Well-sequenced lessons create deeper learning. If lessons jump between topics or miss reinforcement opportunities, learning may stall. AI can help you spot these gaps and improve the overall flow.
What to watch for:
✅ A clear learning journey from Lesson 1 to Lesson 3
✅ Consistent vocabulary, scaffolds and success criteria
✅ Retrieval, review or application built into the sequence
Prompt idea:
“Review this 3-lesson sequence and suggest any improvements to ensure progression is smooth and misconceptions are addressed.”
Step 6 – Format for Sharing or Teaching
Finally, polish it. Ask AI to format the plan into something you can teach from lesson plan template, printable sheet, slide sequence, or shared doc. You can also prompt it to write headings, slide titles, or instruction scripts to save you even more time.
Why this matters:
A well-formatted plan doesn’t just look good, it helps you teach with confidence and clarity. It’s also easier to share with a colleague, use in an observation, or archive for future planning.
What to watch for:
✅ Consistent layout and headings
✅ Clear distinction between teacher and student actions
✅ Saved prompt history for reuse or audit trail
🧩 Advanced tip: Use Notion, Google Drive or OneNote to store your best sequences. Tag each file with year group, subject and prompt, over time, you’ll build a searchable bank of curriculum-aligned lessons.
Teacher Voice
This spotlight comes from a Year 4 teacher who used AI to co-plan a Science mini-unit on habitats. She’d been struggling to find time to pull together cohesive lessons between meetings and marking.
“I typed my objective and within minutes had a 3-lesson plan with key vocabulary, model answers, and assessment tasks. I tweaked a few bits, but honestly, it saved me hours. I finally felt ahead, not behind.”
Challenge: Step It Up
📚 Plan a 3-lesson mini-unit - Pick a topic you teach next week. Use AI to generate three linked lessons that build logically. Focus on structure first, then prompt again for detail.
🧠 Model and check for misconceptions - Ask AI to write model answers or guided explanations for the hardest concept in your topic. Use these in your input or as scaffolds.
🎨 Auto-format your plan - Prompt AI to turn your notes into a full lesson plan with headings, timings, and prompts. Bonus: get it to write slide titles and intro questions too.
Reflect and Share
💬 Where in your planning process do you lose the most time? Could AI help you regain that space for reflection, feedback or creativity?
Try planning a lesson sequence this week using AI. Tag a colleague to try it too and share your formatted plan with us. We’d love to feature your version in an upcoming post.
Resources to Support You
🆓 Free Resource
5-step lesson planner + before/after AI lesson plan comparison
🔐 Paid Subscriber Exclusive
AI Lesson Planning Toolkit
Editable 3-lesson template
Prompt chaining guide
Auto-formatting walkthrough
🎓 Available in your subscriber dashboard
AI for Teachers - Blog Series
Planning with Purpose – AI and the Curriculum Map
Use AI to map your curriculum for the year, then zoom in to plan high-impact, inclusive units.Designing for Progression – Spot Gaps and Next Steps
Track how concepts build across year groups and use AI to analyse where progression breaks down.Localise Your Curriculum – Adapting Content with AI
Adapt units to reflect local culture and identity using translation, rewriting and cultural relevance prompts.From Idea to Impact – Planning Lessons with AI (You are here)
Build full lesson sequences in minutes that reflect your curriculum intent.Stretch and Scaffold – Differentiated Tasks with AI
Generate support and challenge versions of tasks that suit the range of learners in your classroom.AI-Powered Kagan and Collaboration Tasks
Rework solo tasks into powerful peer-learning routines using cooperative structures.Picture It – Visuals, Diagrams and Dual Coding with AI
Use AI to create visual aids and diagrams to support comprehension and long-term recall.Formative in a Flash – Low-Stakes Checks with AI
Quickly create hinge questions, concept checks, and exit tickets aligned to Bloom’s and DOK.Mastery Matters – Designing Summative Assessments
Build rubrics and performance tasks that align to your learning goals and mastery models.Feedback Fast – Personalised Marking with AI
Speed up marking by creating personalised feedback that sounds like you.Data Talks – Analyse Student Work and Trends with AI
Analyse student performance to inform future planning and adapt teaching strategies.The AI Planning Workflow – From Intent to Impact
Combine everything into a weekly planning rhythm that saves time and improves focus.
📅 Coming next: Stretch and Scaffold – Differentiated Tasks with AI
See how one KS3 Maths teacher used AI to generate Band 1–3 tasks from a single objective – and cut planning time in half.