AI Workshop for Teachers: Plan, Adapt and Check Lessons with AI

Your path

9 steps · 2 quizzes · open any step, or read it here

1. 1
   Plan, adapt and check: an AI workshop for teachersStart hereThis AI workshop for teachers shows you how to plan, adapt and check lessons with an AI assistant.InteractiveHands-on

   Read this step

   This AI workshop for teachers shows you how to plan, adapt and check lessons with an AI assistant. You will write prompts that draft a lesson plan, rewrite one text for different readers and produce quiz questions, then practise checking each draft before it reaches your class.

   The idea behind the whole session: the AI drafts, you decide. A draft can save you twenty minutes, and it can also carry a wrong fact or a wrong answer key straight into a lesson if nobody reads it. Press Play and watch one request travel through the three stages you will practise.

   Interactive · From a request to a lesson you can trust — try it in the lesson

   In this lesson you'll:

   • give an AI the details about your class that turn a generic plan into one you can teach
   • adapt one text for three reading levels and check that the key ideas survived
   • build quiz questions whose wrong answers tell you what each student thinks
   • find the errors in an AI-drafted handout, keep student information out, and save a routine you can reuse

   It takes about 70 minutes. You can do every step without an AI tool; if you have one open, try each prompt on a topic you teach next week.

   Try it: press Play, then Reset and Play again, and name the one thing that was caught in the Check stage.

   Takeaway: an AI gives you a first draft, and nothing goes to students until you have checked it.

2. 2
   Plan a lesson: tell the AI about your class, not just the topicAsk an AI for "a lesson plan on fractions" and you get a plan for nobody: no age, no goal, no timings, nothing about what your students already know. It isn't the tool's fault. It can only use what you tell it, so it fills every gap with a guess.InteractiveHands-on

   Read this step

   Ask an AI for "a lesson plan on fractions" and you get a plan for nobody: no age, no goal, no timings, nothing about what your students already know. It isn't the tool's fault. It can only use what you tell it, so it fills every gap with a guess.

   Five details do most of the work in a planning prompt:

   1. Who the class is: age or grade, and anything about the group that changes how you teach.
   2. What they should be able to do by the end, written as something you can see ("add two fractions with different denominators"), not a topic.
   3. How long the lesson is.
   4. What they already know, and the mistake they usually make. This one changes the plan most, because it decides where the lesson starts.
   5. The format you want back, so the draft drops straight into your planning template.

   Try it: start from the bare prompt, switch the details on one at a time, and watch which one changes the plan most.

   Interactive · Prompt builder: what the AI knows about your class — try it in the lesson

   The prior-knowledge detail turned the starter from "What is a fraction?" into a question that tests the exact mistake the class makes. The objective changed every activity. If you want the general parts of a good prompt (context, examples, constraints, asking again), the library lesson Prompt Writing Workshop: Get Useful Answers from AI covers them.

   If you have an AI tool open, write your own five-detail prompt for a lesson you teach soon, and compare its plan with one from the bare topic.

   Takeaway: the more the AI knows about your class, the less it guesses; what students already know matters most.

3. 3
   Adapt one text for different readers, and keep the ideasOne of the most useful things an AI does for teachers is rewrite a text at a different reading level: the same content, shorter sentences, fewer long words, hard terms explained. It takes seconds, where doing it by hand for three groups takes an evening.InteractiveHands-on

   Read this step

   One of the most useful things an AI does for teachers is rewrite a text at a different reading level: the same content, shorter sentences, fewer long words, hard terms explained. It takes seconds, where doing it by hand for three groups takes an evening.

   The risk is that the simpler version quietly changes the content. A model asked to "make it easier" may drop an idea it thinks is too hard, or swap a precise statement for a familiar but wrong one. In science, the classic slip is "plants get their food from the soil", which is the very misconception a photosynthesis lesson is meant to correct.

   So check two things in every adapted text:

   • The language: are the sentences short enough and the words familiar enough for these readers?
   • The content: is every key idea still there, and still true?

   A good habit is to list the key ideas before you ask, and put them in the prompt: "Keep these ideas: light, carbon dioxide, water, sugar, oxygen."

   Try it: move the slider from Level 3 down to Level 1 and watch the numbers. Then switch on the sample AI slip.

   Interactive · One text at three reading levels — try it in the lesson

   At every level the five key ideas stay. With the slip on, the text reads just as smoothly, drops carbon dioxide and teaches a misconception. Reading for flow would not have caught it; checking the key ideas did.

   Takeaway: an adapted text changes its sentences, never its ideas; check the key ideas every time.

4. 4
   Write quiz questions whose wrong answers diagnoseAsk an AI for ten multiple-choice questions and you'll get them fast. The right answers are often fine. The wrong answers (distractors) are where drafts are weakest: many are options no student would pick, so they test nothing.InteractiveHands-on

   Read this step

   Ask an AI for ten multiple-choice questions and you'll get them fast. The right answers are often fine. The wrong answers (distractors) are where drafts are weakest: many are options no student would pick, so they test nothing.

   A useful wrong answer matches a mistake students really make. Then a student who picks it has told you what they think, and you know what to reteach. A question with three such distractors works like a short conversation with every student at once.

   Two ways to get better distractors from an AI:

   • Name the misconceptions in the prompt: "Students often think a moving object needs a force to keep moving. Make each wrong answer match a misconception like this."
   • Ask for a reason with each wrong answer: "After each question, say which misconception each wrong answer reveals." A distractor the AI can't explain is usually filler.

   Try it: the AI suggested six wrong answers for a physics question. Pick the three you would use and read what each one tells you.

   Interactive · Wrong answers that diagnose — try it in the lesson

   Three of the six diagnose a specific idea. Two are filler: a student picking them is most likely guessing, and you learn nothing. "Air resistance pushing up" sits in between, and it is also a trap for you: at the top of its flight the ball isn't moving, so there is no air resistance at all.

   Takeaway: keep a wrong answer only if you can say what a student who picks it believes.

5. 5
   Rubrics and feedback students can act onAI tools draft rubrics in seconds, and the drafts look finished: a neat grid, four levels, a word in every cell. Read the cells. Many say "Excellent conclusion", "Good conclusion", "Fair conclusion".InteractiveHands-on

   Read this step

   AI tools draft rubrics in seconds, and the drafts look finished: a neat grid, four levels, a word in every cell. Read the cells. Many say "Excellent conclusion", "Good conclusion", "Fair conclusion". A student told "Good conclusion" knows how you rated it, not what to do next.

   Two checks make a drafted rubric useful:

   • Each level describes what the work looks like. "Says whether the results support the prediction, citing one value" can be seen in a piece of work. "Good" can't.
   • The criteria match what you taught. AI drafts often add neatness, spelling or effort. If the lesson was about drawing conclusions from data, a criterion for neatness takes marks from the thing you want to see.

   When you ask, say so: "Describe what the work looks like at each level. Don't use quality words like good or excellent." Feedback written from such a rubric then says what to do next, not just how well it went.

   Try it: switch "Describe what each level looks like" off and on, and read the feedback the student would get each time. Then add Neatness.

   Interactive · A rubric students can act on — try it in the lesson

   With descriptions, every line of feedback names a next step. Without them, the feedback is a row of grades in words.

   Takeaway: a rubric level should describe the work, so the feedback can tell a student what to do next.

6. Check: planning, adapting, questions and rubricsFour questions on what you've practised so far.Quiz · 4 questions

   Read the questions

   Four questions on what you've practised so far.

   Question 1. You ask an AI for a lesson plan. Which addition changes the plan most for your class?

   • "Please make it the best possible plan."
   • What students already know and the mistake they usually make.
   • A longer, more detailed lesson title.
   • Asking it to use a friendly tone.

   Question 2. An AI rewrote a science text for younger readers. What should you check first?

   • That it is exactly half as long.
   • That every key idea is still there and still correct.
   • That it has no words longer than six letters.
   • That it has a title.

   Question 3. What makes a wrong answer useful in a multiple-choice question?

   • It is obviously silly, so most students avoid it.
   • It matches a mistake students really make, so a pick tells you what to reteach.
   • It is longer than the right answer.
   • It comes from a different topic, to keep students alert.

   Question 4. Which rubric descriptor can a student act on?

   • Excellent results.
   • Good effort shown.
   • Table has a heading and a unit for every column.
   • Results: 3 out of 4.
7. 6
   Check every draft before it reaches the classAn AI writes fluent, confident text whether or not it is right. That's what makes its errors easy to miss: a wrong date, a wrong answer key or a made-up reference reads exactly like the true sentences around it.InteractiveHands-on

   Read this step

   An AI writes fluent, confident text whether or not it is right. That's what makes its errors easy to miss: a wrong date, a wrong answer key or a made-up reference reads exactly like the true sentences around it.

   Read every draft for five kinds of problem before you use it:

   1. Wrong facts: names, dates, numbers, definitions. Check anything you're not sure of against a source you trust.
   2. Wrong answer keys: do every question yourself. Keys are where errors do the most harm, because students who got it right are marked wrong.
   3. Activities that miss the objective: read the objective, then each activity, and ask "does this make students do that?"
   4. Safety: practical instructions in science, technology, cooking or PE can be unsafe.
   5. Sources that don't exist: AI tools sometimes produce references that look real (author, year, title, publisher) and aren't. Look each one up before you print it.

   Try it: this handout was drafted for a lesson on the water cycle. It reads well. Tap each line you think is wrong.

   Interactive · Spot the errors in an AI draft — try it in the lesson

   Five problems in twelve lines, and none of them is obvious from the tone. If you had read it only for flow, a class would have heard that evaporation needs 100 °C and been marked wrong for answering 0 °C.

   Takeaway: an AI draft sounds right whether or not it is; check facts, keys, objective, safety and sources every time.

8. 7
   Student information: describe the need, not the childMany AI tasks seem to need student details: adapt a text "for Maya", draft feedback on "Sam's essay". In almost every case the AI doesn't need to know who the student is. It needs to know what the student needs.InteractiveHands-on

   Read this step

   Many AI tasks seem to need student details: adapt a text "for Maya", draft feedback on "Sam's essay". In almost every case the AI doesn't need to know who the student is. It needs to know what the student needs.

   A habit that keeps you safe whatever tool you use:

   • Green: paste as it is. Class-level descriptions and numbers nobody can be identified from ("six students are new to English", "the class average was 62%").
   • Amber: paste only after you remove details. Student work with the name, and anything personal in the text, taken out ("Essay A"). A photo with the name cropped off.
   • Red: keep it out. Names with grades, ID numbers, health or support plans, family matters, private messages about named people.

   Before you use any AI tool for school work, find out what your school or district allows, and whether the tool keeps what you type or uses it for training. School-provided tools are often set up differently from personal accounts. This lesson teaches habits; your school's policy comes first.

   Try it: sort the seven items. Where an item can be made safe, open the safer version.

   Interactive · Green, amber or red: student information — try it in the lesson

   Most red items have a green version that gets the same help: describe the reading level instead of naming the reader, ask for an email template instead of pasting the email thread.

   Takeaway: the AI needs to know what a student needs, not who the student is.

9. 8
   Practise: spot what's missing or wrongSix short exercises from the work you have practised. Pick an answer and check it; a hint costs nothing.Practice · 6 exercises

   Read this step

   Six short exercises from the work you have practised. Pick an answer and check it; a hint costs nothing.

   Which detail is missing from this planning prompt? "Write a 40-minute lesson on persuasive writing for 13-year-olds, as a table with timings."

   • What students should be able to do by the end
   • How long the lesson is
   • Who the class is
   • The format to give it in

   The question is "Which number is the greatest?" with options 0.8 (right), 0.75, 0.125 and 0.5. Which wrong answer would a student who thinks "longer decimals are larger" pick?

   • 0.75
   • 0.125
   • 0.5

   An AI-made answer key says: "3/4 + 1/8 = 4/12". What is wrong?

   • It added the tops and the bottoms; the answer is 7/8
   • Nothing, 4/12 is right
   • The answer is 4/8
   • The answer is 1

   Which of these is safest to paste into an AI tool to get help adapting a text?

   • The class list with each student's reading score
   • "Eight students find long texts hard; most read about two years below their age."
   • A support plan with the student's name removed but their date of birth and class kept
   • A photo of a student's work with their name showing

   An AI-drafted plan says the objective is "Students will compare two poems". The only activity is "Read poem A and answer five recall questions." What should you change?

   • Add a task where students compare the poems, such as a table of similarities and differences
   • Nothing, the objective is met
   • Add five more recall questions on poem A
   • Change the objective to "Students will enjoy poetry"

   A rubric level reads "Good use of evidence". Which rewrite lets a student act on it?

   • Very good use of evidence
   • Uses at least two quotations and explains how each supports the point
   • Evidence: 3 out of 4
   • Excellent work with evidence
10. 9
    Make it a routine: saved prompts and a checklistThe first time you use AI for planning, it can take longer than doing it yourself: writing the prompt, reading the draft, fixing it. It gets faster when you stop starting from a blank box.InteractiveHands-on

    Read this step

    The first time you use AI for planning, it can take longer than doing it yourself: writing the prompt, reading the draft, fixing it. It gets faster when you stop starting from a blank box.

    Keep a short document with:

    • A saved prompt for each task you repeat: planning, adapting a text, writing questions, drafting a rubric, drafting feedback. Each has the details that worked, with gaps in [brackets] for the parts that change.
    • One checklist you run on every draft: facts, answer key, objective, level, timings, privacy, sources.

    The saved prompt makes the draft better; the checklist makes it safe to use. Share both with your department and you each save the time, and agree on the same checks.

    Try it: put in your own subject, age and lesson length, pick the tasks you'd use AI for, and tick through the checklist that appears. Copy the result into a document you keep.

    Interactive · Your AI routine: saved prompts and a checklist — try it in the lesson

    Notice that the checklist grows with the tasks: questions bring the answer key, planning brings timings, and privacy and sources are always on the list.

    Takeaway: save the prompts that work and run the same checks every time; that's what makes AI save you time.