MODULE 3: CREATING EFFECTIVE LESSON PLANS WITH AI AND DESIGN THINKING
Introduction
Module three of this specialization course covers using generic artificial intelligence and design thinking to create effective lesson plans. Therefore, I was very excited to put into practice what I had learned in the previous modules and how certain tools would help me increase performance and quality in creating such lesson plans, taking into account the needs and abilities of the students. In addition, I learned how to use Teachy to create any lesson plan from scratch, taking into account the level and learning characteristics appropriate for the students. I learned how to compare long artificial intelligence models using the LMArena platform, which helps us create lesson plans using two different artificial intelligences to give two results for the same request. Besides, I learned how to build a specific ‘Gem’ to create lesson plans according to El Salvador's national curriculum. I also studied and learned how to use the different features available in Google AI Studio, such as talking to Gemini live, generating images and audio, and a feature that really caught my attention was building apps with Gemini.
Teachy
Teachy: Creating Lesson Plans with AI in Minutes
My experience with Teachy, a tool that is revolutionizing the way teachers plan their classes, was incredible. If you are like me and sometimes feel that you do not have enough time to create those perfect lesson plans, keep reading. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use this amazing tool.
Step 1: My First Contact with Teachy
The first thing I did, as with any new tool, was to go to Teachy's official website. I searched for it on Google and arrived at the home page. I was greeted by a clean design and a tempting promise: “Less time preparing, more time teaching.” That really drew my attention. If you already have an account, simply log in with your email and password. But if you are new, like I was, I looked for the “Sign Up” or “Start Free” button. The process was super simple: I just had to enter my email address and create a password, and in a couple of clicks I was in.
Step 2: Discovering Where to Create My Lesson Plan
Once I logged in, I found a fairly intuitive control panel. There were several options, but my main goal was to create a lesson plan. I quickly found an option that said “Lesson Plan.” I clicked there, and it took me directly to the interface where the magic begins.
Step 3: Feeding the AI with My Ideas
In this part, Teachy asked me to give it some details about the lesson plan I wanted. Hence, think of this as giving your AI personal assistant the appropriate “instructions.”
The first thing it asked me for was the topic. For my trial, I decided to write about the topic “Simple past tense.” I chose the grade level I was planning for, which in this case was “10th grade.” I also set the length of time I wanted the lesson to last, which was “45 minutes.” I really liked the methodology, as Teachy gave me options for different teaching methodologies. This is amazing because not all classes are the same; I had options such as “Active learning” or “Lecture-based learning,” among others. This really helps the AI shape the activities. Then, I selected the subject; in my case, it was “English.”
Although it was optional, I always recommend setting objectives. I wrote something like: “The students will be able to formulate affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentences using the simple past tense.” This gave the AI a clear and precise direction for the lesson I wanted to create. On the other hand, some of the more advanced options allowed me to add details such as the number of students, whether there were any special needs such as adapting for students with ADHD, etc. I found the last one incredible. In addition, I can describe what resources I would have available in the classroom. The more information you provide to the AI, the more personalized the plan will be.
Step 4: The Magic Happens!
Once I filled in all the fields, I looked for the magic button called “Generate,” and in a matter of seconds, Teachy's AI generated an effective and comprehensive lesson plan on “The Simple Past.”
Step 5: My Personal Touch
Although the plan generated by Teachy is impressive, it should always be reviewed and adjusted to your own style and the specific needs of your students. Therefore, I reviewed the entire plan, from the objectives to the activities and assessment, making sure that everything made sense and was coherent. In addition, Teachy allowed me to edit the text directly, and I was able to change the wording, add my own examples, remove activities that I did not think were appropriate, or even ask the AI to give me more ideas for activities if I felt something was missing. It is like having an amazing draft that you then refine. On the other hand, I realized that Teachy could also generate supplementary materials, such as slides or quizzes. That's a huge time saver.
Step 6: Save and Done
Finally, when I was satisfied with my plan, I saved the document and downloaded it as a Word file. It also gave me the option to download it as a PDF, which is perfect for printing or sharing. As a result, this practice challenged my teaching approach by allowing me to spend more time teaching and less time creating materials. Therefore, I was really surprised at how quick and easy it is to create a complete and well-structured lesson plan using artificial intelligence properly. In the future, I plan to implement this incredible tool for creating my future lessons, as it will change the way I plan by focusing on the students' level, appropriate methodologies, and learning contexts. Teachy will undoubtedly help me save valuable time and focus on what really matters, which is teaching my students.
LMArena
I found LMArena to be an excellent tool, as it helps us compare long artificial intelligence models such as Gemini, Qwen, ChatGPT, Deepseek, etc. Therefore, I was fascinated by the fact that I could make a request such as the following prompt to the AI: “Write a lesson plan about the conditional tenses.” Include scaffolding activities for students who might need additional explanations about the topic.’’ Consequently, I accepted the terms and ended up with two results of lesson plans from two different AI models, and I had to decide which version was the best and which one best suited the needs of my students.
This challenged my critical thinking skills in identifying appropriate and well-structured classroom lessons, taking into account both versions of the lesson plans generated by AI. In addition, this tool has opened the door for me to discover new artificial intelligence models that may be better than others due to their performance and effectiveness in creating study materials for teaching English as a foreign language.
In the future, I will use this tool to create lessons on certain topics that my students find most difficult, as I can instruct the AI to create lesson plans that take into account the deficiencies I have observed in my students so that they can overcome them and improve significantly with innovative teaching techniques such as scaffolding, project-based learning, cooperative learning, gamification, the flipped classroom, problem-based learning, and learning-based thinking, effective feedback, among others.
Lesson Plans
A lesson plan is my personal, detailed map for each class. It is where I write down the path I am going to follow, the destination I want to reach with my students and what they will learn, and how I am going to verify that they have actually arrived there. It is my guide to having a clear, organized, and effective class. Thus, I found it interesting how we developed lesson plans following El Salvador's national curriculum, as I was not very familiar with it. Therefore, I had to study and learn about it and what the different phases and subphases of this type of lesson plan consist of. Consequently, I found the national curriculum to be very well structured, as it establishes that each class should last 45 minutes and that each class is composed of phases, which are: I activate, I practice, and I produce. Within each type of phase, there are sub-phases, which are pre, during, and post activity, each of which should last 15 minutes, giving a total of 45 minutes per class.
In module three, we were asked to work in groups to create a lesson plan structured in line with El Salvador's national curriculum and based on unit 4, ‘My house’, from pre-A1 for high school students. Therefore, we set ourselves the task of working together to integrate our prompting skills and create a “Gem” that specifically helped us generate lesson plans in accordance with the national curriculum and its established format. As a result, we were able to create a prompt for that “Gem” and thus maximize our work in generating lesson plans; we reviewed and corrected some errors and ensured that every aspect of the lessons was in line with the El Salvador curriculum. It should be noted that we also added our personal touch to the activities. In addition, we used AI to create different study materials such as images, readings, audio, presentations tailored to each class, etc.
Creating lessons using artificial intelligence challenged me greatly in terms of the traditional structure and format I had in mind for the lesson plans I created and developed in my practice as an English teacher at the university. Therefore, I had one more challenge, which was to respect the national curriculum of El Salvador. I must admit that at first I struggled a bit to understand the total hours and how to fit them into the creation of the assigned lessons, yet in the end I was able to understand and assimilate the structure and format of each class. In the future, I plan to implement this technique of creating “Gems” for the generation of personalized lesson plans in accordance with the established curriculum, as it can be used for technical English related to tourism, health, business etc.
Link to lesson plans:
Google AI Studio
I found Google AI Studio to be a fabulous platform where I can interact with Google's advanced language models. When I first heard the term “Google AI Studio,” I assumed it would be like Gemini, but with a wide variety of tools in one place. As a result, I wasn't as lost as I thought, since the platform offers me several features such as chatting and talking with advanced Gemini models, exploring models to create high-quality images, audio, and videos; the only downside is that image and video creation is limited. Fortunately, this platform has another amazing feature that shocked me, as it allows us to build applications from scratch without needing to be programming experts. However, it is important to note that we must apply all the knowledge acquired in prompting, as we need to be very specific in the description of the application we want to create.
Using Google AI Studio for educational purposes brings with it many opportunities to create innovative teaching materials in a short amount of time. For example, if I want to create reading exercises from scratch, I no longer have to worry about it. I just ask the AI something like this: “Generate a reading passage about the future of space travel for B1-level English learners; include vocabulary related to technology and exploration.” Therefore, I can create the materials in minutes. On the other hand, if I need to simplify a grammatical topic for a student who is having trouble with it, I can simply ask Google AI Studio for help using a prompt such as the following: “Explain the difference between ‘present perfect’ and ‘past simple’ in a way that is easy for an A2-level student to understand.” In a matter of seconds, I had come up with an accurate explanation that will help my student better understand the grammar between the present perfect and past simple tenses in an effective way.
Link for difference between ‘present perfect’ and 'past simple':
Link to the reading practice generated in Google AI Studio:
Furthermore, I learned how to create activities using Google AI Studio, such as “The Visual Virtuoso - AI-Powered Image Generation” and “Ordering Lunch - A Role-Play and Fill-in-the-Blank Exercise.” These activities were designed and created in a working group during a one-hour class.
Moreover, I developed a group activity and we learned how to create an application with a pedagogical focus from scratch and without any prior knowledge of programming, as AI did the work of programming our app according to our detailed prompt, allowing us to further develop our knowledge of prompting. The final product was an app that will help students practice and improve their listening skills at both beginner and advanced levels; we decided to call our app “Magic Listener.”
This platform challenged my approach to creating richer and more personalized English learning experiences for my students, increasing my effectiveness in generating teaching materials from scratch. Therefore, in the future, Google AI Studio will undoubtedly be an essential extension of my teaching toolkit for creating engaging and captivating activities for my future students, always taking into account their needs and interests. In addition, I will change the way I prepare my EFL classes.
This picture was created using Gemini AI.
My experience with Module Three ‘Creating Effective Lesson Plans with AI and Design Thinking’ has been exceptional, showing me the immense potential of artificial intelligence and design thinking to revolutionize education. It is clear that these tools are not just about efficiency; they're about enhancing the quality and relevance of our teaching. I am excited to move beyond traditional methods and adopt a smart, data-driven, and highly personalized instructional design. I have learned to make the most of artificial intelligence to quickly and effectively generate my educational content, together with the iterative and problem-solving nature of design thinking for effective pedagogy. This has marked a significant change, as it allows me to dedicate more time to teaching itself and less to time-consuming preparation, which ultimately benefits student engagement and learning outcomes.
Additionally, the knowledge I have gained from this module will profoundly influence my teaching methods in several key ways using tools such as Teachy and Google AI Studio since I can effortlessly generate differentiated materials tailored to individual student needs, learning styles, and even specific challenges like ADHD. This will enable me to address the different needs of the classroom much more effectively than before, ensuring that no student is left behind.
Besides, by automating the initial draft of lesson plans and supplementary materials, I will significantly reduce planning time. This new efficiency will allow me to focus on what really matters: observing student progress, providing meaningful feedback, and engaging in deeper interaction in the classroom. This transforms my role from content creator to learning facilitator, truly focusing on the student. My experience in creating a “gem” for El Salvador's national curriculum has provided me with a model for quickly creating highly specific content that is aligned with the curriculum. This means that I can confidently develop specialized English lessons (for tourism, health) that meet national standards while also being dynamic and responsive to students' interests.
For instance, I will apply what I have learned directly to a unit on complex grammatical structures, such as the conditional tenses, which students often find challenging; for example, I will use LMArena to generate multiple lesson plans on conditional tenses from different AI models, specifically prompting for scaffolding activities designed to address common misconceptions; comparing the outputs will allow me to select the most effective, nuanced approach for students needing additional support.
Further, if a student is struggling with the distinction between for example the second and third conditional, I would use Google AI Studio to generate a simplified, A2-level explanation or a unique reading passage specifically focusing on that distinction, instantly addressing their individual learning gap. Therefore, I could also quickly create new "fill-in-the-blank" exercises or role-play scenarios, much like the "Ordering Lunch" activity, to provide targeted practice. Also, I would integrate our group's “Magic Listener” app to reinforce correct usage and aid in listening comprehension of conditional sentences and improve their overall listening skills. These applications demonstrate how the module's insights will transform my classes into dynamic, responsive, and highly effective learning environments, truly putting the student at the center of the educational experience.
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