Teaching English Toolbox - OPEN ACCESS SANDBOX

Lesson Planning

General Planning

Zurich University of Teacher Education students get tips and models for lesson planning through their mentoring team. These can be used for English lessons as well.

Here are some further suggestions:

AI tips

Try using AI to help you write your lesson plans so you can really focus on teaching. You can think about the TYPE of lesson you would like such as: 

  • Project-based
  • Task-based
  • UDL
  • RTI
  • Test Teach Test
  • Flipped classroom
  • Backwards planning
  • Webb's Depth of Knowledge
  • Bloom’s
  • Socratic
  • ….

Here is an example: Using Webb's depth of knowledge, create a 45-minute lesson plan on the topic of food stereotypes of different cultures for a class of twenty eleven-year-old children who are mostly at a Common European Framework of Reference A2 level but five children speak English fluently and at home. Learners should clearly focus on speaking and there should be some controlled and open speaking activities for all levels. The language aims should focus on why something is a stereotype and there should a clear grammar point and functional language throughout the lesson. Start with an anticipatory set or a bellringer to get the students motivated and end with a Classroom Assessment Technique that is NOT an exit card.

Keep in mind: YOU have to TEACH the lesson, NOT AI! SO......practice giving instructions by talking out the lesson. A good part of teaching is being confident, so if you did not plan the lesson yourself, you don't OWN the lesson and the only way to OWN the lesson is to talk it out, think about alternatives, and be cautious about the output as many things repeat and are not as creative as YOU!!  Or try one lesson using AI for your planning and one lesson where you DON'T and compare some of the differences!

Does ChatGPT understand TBL? A little bit! You can use this document to get the general gist, but there are some issues so be sure to read the criticism and questions!!

Some useful tools

  • Twee: This tool is amazing but one issue is that the questions generated do not go very deep.
  • Most quizzing systems, e.g. Formative or Wayground have AI generators to help create questions on various topics. SUGGESTION: Write your OWN questions first and then COMPARE to what is generated. Merge the two!
  • Magic School and Diffit are well loved by American teachers.

Tip : Claude (in Laura Buechel's humble opinion) formats in the most useful manner and has the most useful products for her classes, for example here you can see some taboo cards that were generated. She has also used Claude for "I have, Who has", Frayer model and mingle cards!

Here is an example of a Claude-generated Frayer card with the prompt "Create a Frayer model card for an eleven-year-old child with the word "stereotype". You could specify the language level or that there should be images in one field or words in another language in another field. Keep in mind, however, though this is useful as an example, it is always better if learners create these themselves.