AI Lesson Plans

An AI lesson plan takes what you're teaching — a textbook chapter, a set of standards, a topic and grade level — and turns it into a ready-to-teach plan. Scholarly reads your material and drafts learning objectives, a paced sequence of activities, the materials you'll need, and a way to check for understanding, all laid out in one clean document.

Lesson plans are built to give you a real starting point, not a blank template. The AI pulls out what your source material actually covers and structures it the way a teacher plans — objectives first, then a timed flow of activities, then assessment — so you can adjust the timing, swap an activity, and walk into class.

When to use a lesson plan

A lesson plan is the right tool when you need to plan and teach a class or session. Reach for it when you're:

• A teacher building tomorrow's lesson from a chapter or a set of standards.
• A tutor mapping out a focused one-on-one session.
• A TA planning a discussion section or lab.
• Turning a dense reading into an objectives-and-activities flow you can teach from.

If you instead want a document for students to read and review, generate a Study Guide. If you want practice pages for students to work through, generate a Worksheet. Many educators make a lesson plan and a matching quiz from the same source.

Creating a AI Lesson Plan

Open the Lesson Plan tile on your home page create grid, or pick it from the New menu. The create window lets you build a lesson plan from any of these starting points:

• Upload — Drag in PDFs, Word documents, or PowerPoints from your computer — a chapter, a standards document, or your slides.
• Library — Pick a PDF or file you've already uploaded to Scholarly.
• Google Drive — Connect Google Drive and choose the exact files — Docs, Slides, PDFs, Word docs, or PowerPoints — without downloading and re-uploading. See Uploading Content.
• Link — Paste a website or PDF URL and the AI pulls in the content.
• Prompt — Skip files entirely and describe what you're teaching, like "45-minute lesson plan on the water cycle for 5th grade." Great when you don't have a source on hand yet.

You can combine sources — for example, pick a chapter from your library and add a prompt with the grade level and period length to steer the plan.

Customize before you generate

After choosing your sources, the customize step lets you shape the lesson plan:

• Theme — Pick the look of the finished PDF. Every lesson plan is professionally typeset, and you can choose from four themes:

• Language — Generate the lesson plan in your preferred language.
• AI model — Some models are reserved for paid plans and show a lock badge. See Choosing an AI Model.
• Custom instructions — A free-text field for specific directions, like "Make it a 50-minute period for 9th graders" or "Include a group activity and keep it printable."

Click Generate Lesson Plan and the work runs in the background — you can close the window and keep working. You'll be notified when it's ready, and it appears under Background Tasks while it generates.

What you get

Your finished lesson plan is a professionally typeset, downloadable PDF that lands in your library like any other content item. It opens with clear learning objectives, then a timed sequence of activities — a warm-up, direct instruction, guided practice — followed by the materials you'll need and an assessment or check for understanding, laid out in the theme you picked. Open it and you can:

• Read and teach from it in the PDF viewer, with chat alongside to ask follow-up questions or request changes to any section.
• Download it to keep or print for class.
• Share it with a link so a co-teacher or department can view it.
• Turn it into more teaching material — from the plan's follow-up actions you can spin up Flashcards, a quiz, a study guide, or a podcast from the same content, no re-uploading required.

Because the output is a real PDF in your library, everything you can do with an uploaded PDF you can do with your lesson plan. See the PDF guide for the full set of viewer and conversion options.

Tips

• Richer sources make fuller plans. A full chapter produces a more detailed lesson than a single slide; a one-line prompt produces a broad overview.
• Say your period length and grade. Use custom instructions to set the class length and student level so the activity timing fits your real schedule.
• Build the whole lesson from one source. Generate the plan, then a matching quiz or worksheet from the same material so students practice exactly what you taught.
• Keep a unit together. Group a topic's lesson plan, worksheets, and source PDFs in one folder so everything for that class is in one place.

Frequently asked questions

What can I make a lesson plan from?

Uploaded PDFs, Word docs, and PowerPoints; files already in your library; Google Drive files; a website or PDF link; or just a typed topic and grade level. You can mix several sources in one plan.

Who is this for?

Teachers, tutors, and TAs planning a class or session. It works for any subject or grade — describe your class in the prompt or custom instructions and the plan adapts to it.

How long does it take?

Generation runs in the background and usually takes a few minutes. You don't need to wait on the screen — keep working and you'll be notified when it's ready.

Can I edit and print the lesson plan?

Yes. Every lesson plan is a PDF you can download, print, or share with a link. It lands in your library like any other file, so you can adjust your instructions and regenerate it, or ask in chat to change a section.

Is it free?

You can create lesson plans on the free plan using your shared lifetime AI creation credits. Those free credits do not reset. Paid plans raise those limits and support longer source documents. Limits depend on your plan — see Plans and Limits.