Struggling with Lesson Plan Generators? Here’s How to Prompt for Better Results
Can AI Really Make Teaching Easier? Only If You Use It Right
If you haven’t been teaching on Mars for the last year and a half, you’ve probably been bombarded with ads and emails from a hundred different AI lesson planning generating tools. If you haven’t tried one yet, you are probably wondering if all the fuss is justified - can it really make your teaching life more manageable?
Though every teacher has different preferences and needs, the answer is a resounding YES. But like all good things, AI isn’t like waving a magic wand. To make it work, you need to put in some work.
If you want to use most lesson plan generators effectively, you must know how to prompt. So here is a 5-minute read to kick you off to a great start.
Want To Fall in Love with Your Lesson Plan Generator? It All Starts with Better Prompts
It's crazy to think that not too long ago, the word "prompt" was hardly ever used when now, you can’t escape it! So, what is a prompt, and how does it work?
In simple terms, prompting is our way of communicating with AI what we need. However, though we are able to communicate with it through natural conversation, AI doesn’t “think” like a human. When we send a prompt, the AI predicts the most likely response based on everything it has learned from massive amounts of text. Imagine a giant puzzle of words where the AI constantly looks for the best-fitting piece to complete the picture you’re asking for.
However, we tend to forget that AI doesn't have context, unlike humans. Context comes so naturally to us that when we interact with AI, we neglect to provide it with the complete background information required for it to give us precisely what we are looking for. Then, to overcome the gaps we’ve left in our prompts, the AI fills them with its best guess, which might not always be what we intended. That’s when our frustration kicks in because AI has been sold to us as the ultimate solution when, in reality, it is far from it.
Beyond the need for context, AI has a specific way of thinking. Imagine a new student in your classroom. You need to find the right way to teach them new material so that it plays to their strengths and ways of understanding. Even though you feel like you might be perfectly explaining to your AI tool what you want from it, understanding the hacks that play into its “way of thinking” (processing) can give you much better results.
The Do’s and Don’ts of AI Prompting: Tips from a Lesson Planning Expert
As someone working in the field of AI educational solutions, the main thing I do in my day-to-day job is to write prompts to get AI to design high-quality lessons and learning materials. I want to share with you my do’s and don’ts that help me get the best results:
Do’s:
Fill in the Gaps - As I mentioned, where there are gaps, AI starts to guess, and when it guesses, it tends to miss. Try to give the AI the context you take for granted - the age of your students, their characteristics, the type of instructional approach you’d want it to use, and the topics your students might find interesting. The less you leave the AI to guess, the higher your chances of getting what you need.
Personify Your AI - Give AI a role to shape its response. Asking it to act as a history professor, a debate coach, or a curriculum designer helps guide its output to match a specific style and level of expertise. By doing so, you are allowing it gather the most relevant information to draw from when it provides you with a reply.
Help the AI Reflect - Instead of asking AI to rewrite something immediately, have it analyze the original first. Phrasing your prompt as “First, identify weaknesses in this text, then improve it” leads to better, more thoughtful revisions.
Don’t
Don't Be Vague – The more general your prompt, the more generic the response. If you want helpful results, be clear about what you need. For example, if you ask it to “create a lesson plan on photosynthesis for middle school students” you are giving AI a vague assignment. It’s better to be more specific, for example: “Create a 7th-grade science lesson plan on photosynthesis, focusing on how plants convert sunlight into energy. Incorporate cooperative learning structures to make the lesson engaging.”
Don’t Overload with Multiple Requests at Once – When we request multiple things from AI, we assume it can prioritize them naturally, but the AI doesn’t have that capability. So as a result, when it's overloaded with instructions, it acts like an overwhelmed student who randomly addresses some of their tasks while completely forgetting others. Limit your request to what’s most vital for you so you don't leave the AI too much to handle.
Don't Underestimate Iteration – AI-generated responses aren’t always perfect on the first try. Instead of giving up on it, refine your prompts by adding specific feedback or asking for variations. When you tell AI to reiterate its response, guide it on approaching your request differently. For example, ask the AI to think outside the box or to base its answer on relevant references. By specifying how the AI should approach the response—whether through creativity, structured reasoning, or source-based answers—you guide it toward generating a more accurate and useful result.
Do I Really Need to Learn Prompting to Use an Lesson Plan Generator?
You might think that using an AI lesson plan generator means mastering the art of writing perfect prompts. But that’s not actually the case. While good prompting can help, some AI tools remove the complexity altogether.
These are called No-Prompt AI tools, designed to take the guesswork out of prompting by guiding the AI for you. Instead of making you figure out exactly how to ask for the lesson plan you need, these tools already include expert-level prompting that helps AI build on best teaching practices based on the age, subject, and methodology you’ve chosen.
Radius is one example of a No-Prompt AI tool. It doesn’t expect teachers to fine-tune their prompts—it guides you through the process with scaffolded prompting, helping you provide just enough context so the AI can generate structured, high-quality lesson plans without extra effort on your part.
At the end of the day, AI should make lesson planning easier, not harder. Whether you want to refine your prompting skills or prefer a No-Prompt tool like Radius, the goal is the same: less time spent planning, more time spent teaching.
Conclusion: Mastering Prompts for Better Lesson Plans
Lesson plan generators can be powerful teaching assistants, but only if you know how to communicate effectively with them. AI isn’t magic—it follows patterns, and without clear guidance, it guesses rather than truly understands. You can unlock much more accurate, engaging, and useful lesson plans by refining your prompts—providing context, specifying approach, and guiding AI’s thinking.
That said, not every teacher wants to master prompting, and you don’t have to. Tools like Radius integrate expert prompting behind the scenes, making high-quality AI-generated lesson plans accessible without the need for detailed instructions. Whether you choose to refine your prompting skills or use a no-prompt AI tool, understanding how AI works will help you get the best results with less effort.
FAQ
Do I need to be good at writing prompts to use a lesson plan generator?
Not necessarily! While knowing how to prompt effectively can improve results, some AI tools, like No-Prompt AI tools such as Radius, take care of the complexity for you. These tools include built-in expert prompting, so you can simply provide basic details like the topic, age group, and teaching method, and the AI will generate a structured lesson plan without requiring precise wording.
Why does AI sometimes give me a lesson plan that feels… off?
What’s the biggest misconception about AI lesson planning?