ChatGPT prompts for lesson plans
By Ryan Mwangi, founder · Last updated
Nine prompts you can copy into ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Copilot to write a lesson plan, fix one and check it. Replace the words in square brackets with your own.
If you would sooner not type your curriculum and class into every chat, LessonSmith holds them for you. Its demo includes 10 lesson plans, once, with no account.
How do you prompt ChatGPT for a lesson plan?
Tell it five things it cannot guess: the curriculum, the class, the minutes, what the learners already know and what is in the room. Then name the sections you want, in order. A prompt that only says "write a lesson plan on fractions" gets a plan for an imaginary class with a projector and thirty learners.
Two habits matter more than wording. Paste the curriculum text instead of naming the curriculum, and ask for the answers to every example so you can check them. Chat assistants get sums wrong often enough that you should work each one yourself before it goes on a board.
Prompts that write the plan
Start with the first one. Fill every bracket: the minutes and the class size change the plan more than the topic does.
A complete lesson plan
Write a lesson plan for a [40]-minute [Mathematics] lesson for [Grade 7], class of [45] learners. Topic: [adding fractions with different denominators]. Curriculum: [Kenya CBC, Grade 7 Mathematics]. What the class already knows: [equivalent fractions]. Resources I have: [chalkboard, exercise books, no projector]. Use these sections in this order: learning outcomes, key question, resources, introduction, main activities, assessment, conclusion, differentiation, reflection (leave blank). Write two or three outcomes, each starting with a verb I could watch a learner do. Give the minutes for every part and make them add up to [40]. Use worked examples with real numbers, and check each answer.
A plan from your curriculum document
Below is the section of my curriculum document for this topic. Write the lesson plan from it and from nothing else. Use its wording for the strand, sub-strand and learning outcomes. If something I asked for is not in the text, say so instead of filling the gap. Lesson length: [40] minutes. Class: [Grade 7], [45] learners. This is lesson [2] of [5] on the topic. [Paste the curriculum text here]
A plan from one row of your scheme of work
This is one row of my scheme of work. Turn it into a full lesson plan of [40] minutes for [Grade 7]. Week [3], lesson [3] Strand and sub-strand: [Fractions: adding with different denominators] Learning outcome: [add two fractions by first finding a common denominator] Resources: [fraction strips, one set per pair] Assessment: [exit questions] Keep the outcome exactly as written. Plan the assessment first, then the activities that prepare learners for it.
Prompts that fix a plan
Paste a plan you already have, yours or the one the chat just wrote, under any of these.
Fit it to the bell
Rewrite the lesson plan below for [35] minutes instead of [40]. Keep every learning outcome. Cut or shorten activities, and tell me what you cut and why. [Paste the plan]
Adapt it for learners who need support
In the class for the plan below I have [one learner with a hearing impairment, three learners who are new to English, and four who finish early]. For each group, give one change to how the content is presented, how the learner responds, where they work or how much time they get. Name the activity each change applies to. Do not lower the learning outcome. [Paste the plan]
Write the exit questions
Write [3] exit questions for the lesson plan below that a learner can answer on a slip of paper in [5] minutes. Each question must test one of the learning outcomes. Include one question that catches the most common mistake on this topic, and say what that mistake is. Give the answers. [Paste the plan]
Make it work with what is in the room
The plan below assumes resources I do not have. I have only: [chalkboard, exercise books, bottle tops, a football]. Rewrite the activities to use those and nothing else. [Paste the plan]
Prompts that check the plan
Run these last, in a new chat, so the assistant reads the plan cold.
Find what is wrong with it
Act as a head of department reviewing the lesson plan below before it is taught. List, most serious first: 1. any fact, date, formula or answer that is wrong (work every calculation again); 2. any activity that does not prepare learners for the assessment; 3. any timing that will not fit a real class of [45]; 4. anything a learner could not do with the resources listed. Do not rewrite the plan. Just list the problems. [Paste the plan]
Check it against the curriculum
Here is my curriculum's text for this topic, then my lesson plan. Tell me which learning outcomes in the curriculum text the plan covers, which it misses, and anything in the plan that the curriculum text does not ask for. Curriculum text: [Paste] Lesson plan: [Paste]
Where do prompts stop being enough?
Around the second week of term. One plan from a prompt is quick. Twenty-five a week means pasting the same curriculum, class and format twenty-five times, and every plan comes back laid out a little differently, so they never look like one teacher's file.
That repetition is the job a lesson plan generator does. LessonSmith keeps your curriculum and class, saves each plan onto its date in your term calendar, and exports every plan to Word or PDF in the same section order. If you plan a lesson now and then, the prompts above are all you need, and they cost nothing.
Questions
Can ChatGPT write a lesson plan?
Yes. Given the subject, class, minutes and topic, it writes a complete plan in under a minute. It writes a better one when you paste your curriculum's own text, because otherwise it works from its memory of your curriculum, which can be out of date or wrong.
Is it safe to put learner details into ChatGPT?
Leave them out. Describe the need, not the child: write one learner with a hearing impairment, never a name, an admission number or a medical history. None of these prompts needs personal details to work.
Do these prompts work in Gemini, Claude or Copilot?
Yes. They are plain instructions with no special syntax, so they work in any AI chat. The results differ between assistants, so run the checking prompt whichever one you use.
What is the best ChatGPT prompt for a lesson plan?
The one that gives the most context: curriculum, grade, lesson length, class size, what the class already knows and the resources you have, followed by the sections you want in order. The first prompt on this page is built that way.