Getting started

3 prompts every teacher should try this week

Matt Dunn · April 27, 2026

Most teachers have tried AI by now. You've typed something into ChatGPT or Claude, scanned the output, and thought: that's not usable. Too generic. Wrong year level. Missing the point entirely.

The problem isn't the tool. It's the prompt. A vague request gets a vague answer, and vague answers create more work, not less.

Here are three prompts you can copy, paste, and use today. Each one solves a different everyday teaching problem, and each one works regardless of what you teach or which AI tool you prefer. They come from our course, Practical AI for Busy Teachers, where we walk teachers through dozens of workflows like these.

A lesson plan from a single learning intention

The most common mistake teachers make with AI planning is asking for too much at once. "Plan me a week of maths lessons" sounds efficient, but the output is surface-level and takes longer to fix than it would to write from scratch.

The fix is simple: one learning intention, one lesson.

Prompt structure

You are a [year level] [subject] teacher. Create a [duration] lesson plan with a clear learning intention, a starter activity, a main task, a plenary, and timing for each section. The learning intention is: [specific intention]. [Prior learning, class size, and any other relevant details.]

Copy-and-paste example

You are a Year 8 science teacher. Create a 50-minute lesson plan with a clear learning intention, a starter activity, a main investigation, a plenary, and timing for each section. The learning intention is: students can explain how evaporation and condensation are involved in the water cycle. This is lesson 3 of a 5-lesson unit. Students have covered what evaporation is and observed condensation in a practical. Mixed-ability class of 30, with 4 students on reading support.

The output will be specific enough to teach from with minimal editing. Compare that to what you'd get from "make me a lesson plan about the water cycle." The details you provide are what make the difference.

Three activity options for any topic

You know the feeling. It's Wednesday evening, you need an engaging activity for tomorrow, and you're stuck. AI can help here, but the trick is asking for options rather than a single answer.

When you ask for three activities, the AI has to generate genuinely different approaches. You then pick the best one, combine elements from two, or refine one further. It turns AI into a brainstorming partner, not a single-answer machine.

Prompt structure

You are a [year level] [subject] teacher. Create three different [activity type] activities about [topic] that will take [duration] each. Present each activity as a numbered option with a clear title and step-by-step instructions. [Any constraints: resources, prior knowledge, class details.]

Copy-and-paste example

You are a Year 5 classroom teacher. Create three different hands-on activities about fractions of a whole that will take 15 minutes each. Present each activity as a numbered option with a clear title and step-by-step instructions. Students understand halves and quarters but have not worked with thirds or fifths yet. Limited maths resources available, so activities should use everyday classroom materials.

You'll get three distinct options you can scan in a couple of minutes. If one is close but not quite right, tell the AI what to change. "Make option 2 work as a paired activity instead of students working independently" is all it takes.

A feedback comment bank (that keeps student data private)

Marking is where most teachers lose their evenings. AI can help, but there's an important boundary: never paste student names or student work into a public AI tool. That data ends up on external servers, and you can't control what happens to it.

The safer approach is to describe the assessment criteria and let AI generate a bank of comments you can select from and adapt. No student data leaves your computer.

Prompt structure

You are a [year level] [subject] teacher. Create a feedback comment bank for [assessment task]. For each of the following areas, provide [number] comments at each of the [achievement levels] levels: [list of areas]. Each comment should name what the student did, explain why it matters, and suggest a specific next step. Use encouraging, student-friendly language.

Copy-and-paste example

You are a Year 9 English teacher. Create a feedback comment bank for persuasive essays. For each of the following areas, provide 3 comments at each of the developing, proficient, and advanced levels: use of evidence, paragraph structure, and persuasive language. Each comment should name what the student did, explain why it matters, and suggest a specific next step. Use warm, encouraging language suitable for Year 9 students. Present in a table grouped by performance level.

You'll get a bank of 27 comments you can reuse across a whole class. Select the one that fits each student, tweak the wording, and move on. It turns a two-hour marking session into a much shorter one, without compromising quality or privacy.

Why these prompts work

You might have noticed that all three prompts follow the same structure. That's not an accident. Each one uses a framework called RTFC: Role, Task, Format, Context.

The RTFC Framework

Role tells the AI who to act as, which shapes the tone and level.

Task specifies exactly what you want.

Format describes how the output should look.

Context provides the details that make the output specific to your class.

It's a simple structure, and once you see it, you can apply it to almost anything: report comments, parent emails, unit plans, quiz questions, differentiated readings. This is one of the first things teachers learn in Practical AI for Busy Teachers, and it underpins every workflow in the course.

In a future article, we'll share a technique that takes your prompts even further, one that gets the AI to do the hard thinking for you so you get better results with less effort on your end. Keep an eye out for that one.

Try one this week

Pick whichever prompt matches your most pressing need right now. Copy it, swap in your own details, and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, or whichever tool you have access to. Notice the difference between what you get back and what you've been getting from vague, one-line prompts.