Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Lesson Plan Designer agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
The Lesson Plan Designer is an agent skill that turns a topic and a class profile into a structured lesson plan delivered as a Word document. It is written for teachers who need a draft for a specific grade and lesson length, and for student teachers learning the standard structure of objectives, timed stages and assessment. By the end of this guide you will know what an agent skill is, how to install this one, how to ask for a plan in a way the skill can act on, and what to check before using the output in a real class.
Lesson Plan Designergenspark-ai/genoffice · Apache-2.0 Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Get the lesson-plan ZIP from the skill page on this site.
- 2Unzip the folder. Unzip the package so that SKILL.md sits inside a lesson-plan folder.
- 3Place the skill. Move the folder to ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or to a project's .claude/skills/ folder for one project.
- 4Or upload it in the apps. In the Claude apps, go to Settings → Capabilities → Skills and upload the skill.
- 5Describe the lesson. Ask in plain language, for example for a 45-minute grade 8 physics lesson on buoyancy.
- 6Answer the follow-up questions. The agent asks once for anything missing, such as prior knowledge and whether a curriculum standard applies.
- 7Review and adjust. Check timings, activities and tier difficulty against your class, then complete the reflection after the lesson.
What is an agent skill and what does this one do?
An agent skill is a folder of instructions, packaged with a SKILL.md file, that an AI agent can load when a task matches the skill's description. This skill's SKILL.md tells the agent to act as a lesson-plan specialist.
Once it is active, the agent asks for anything missing (grade level and subject, lesson length, prior knowledge, and whether a textbook or curriculum standard applies). It then writes measurable objectives, a timed teaching process with activities, assessment methods, basic and advanced differentiated tasks, and a board plan. The result is packaged as a Word document with a blank reflection section for after the class.
- Objectives grouped as knowledge, skills and attitudes or competencies, using observable verbs.
- Stages (lead-in, new material, practice, recap, homework) whose minutes add up to the lesson length.
- A teaching-process table with teacher activity, student activity and a one-sentence rationale per step.
- Differentiated homework in basic and advanced tiers.
- A teaching reflection section left blank for you to complete.
How do you install the Lesson Plan skill?
Download the ZIP for lesson-plan from the skill page on this site and unzip it. The package contains SKILL.md. Then place the unzipped folder in one of these locations, depending on how you want to use it:
- Personal use across projects: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/.
- One project only: unzip into the project's .claude/skills/ folder.
- Claude apps: upload the skill under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
How do you trigger the skill with a natural request?
You do not need a special command. Describe the lesson in plain language and include the class profile: grade, subject, lesson length, and anything the students already know. The skill asks once for whatever is missing, so a short first message is enough.
The skill also handles rewriting. If you paste a slide deck or an old plan that lacks timing, student activities or assessment, ask for a rebuild. The agent first states what the original lacks, then rebuilds it in the standard structure.
What does a good request look like?
Specific requests produce plans you can use with fewer follow-up questions. These are the quick prompts the skill is built around:
- Design a 45-minute grade 8 physics lesson plan on buoyancy.
- Rewrite this slide deck into a lesson plan with activities and assessment.
- For a multi-period topic, say how many periods you have. The skill gives a period allocation table first, then writes each period as its own plan.
What do you need before you start?
You need a runtime that supports SKILL.md skills and Word document creation tools, because the SKILL.md relies on document tools being available to produce the .docx file. You also need enough class detail for the objectives to be meaningful: the grade level, class size, prior knowledge and common misconceptions, and lesson length.
If a textbook or curriculum standard applies, give the chapter or standard if you have it. The skill is instructed not to invent curriculum wording or page numbers. If you give none, it writes a placeholder such as "refer to the corresponding chapter of the textbook in use".
What about safety, scripts and network use?
According to the skill's listing, it runs no scripts and uses no network access. The package contains only SKILL.md, so the behaviour comes from instructions the agent follows, not from code that executes on your machine.
Treat the output as a draft. Timings and difficulty levels are estimates, and the skill itself leaves slack in the timing. Check every activity, example and tier against your actual students before teaching from it.
Tips for getting the most from the plan
Give the real class profile, especially misconceptions, because they shape the new-material activity. Review the period allocation for multi-lesson topics before accepting each period. Adjust activity timing and the difficulty of the advanced tier after you have seen how the class responds, and record those changes in the reflection section.
- Name the textbook chapter if you have one, so placeholders are minimal.
- Ask for changes to one stage at a time rather than rebuilding the whole plan.
- Keep practice plus recap at roughly a quarter of the lesson or more, as the skill's rules intend.
What people use it for
- Drafting a 45-minute grade 8 physics lesson on buoyancy with timed stages and a board plan.
- Rebuilding an old slide deck into a lesson plan that adds student activities and assessment.
- Planning a multi-period topic, starting with a period allocation table and then one plan per period.
- Preparing differentiated homework with basic and advanced tiers for mixed-ability classes.
- Helping a student teacher see how objectives, timed stages and assessment mapping fit together.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Lesson Plan Designer skill free to use?
The source lists the skill under Apache-2.0 licence, which is the licence to check for terms of use. It does not state any price, so check the skill page and your own runtime's terms for costs.
What do I need to run the lesson-plan skill?
You need a runtime that supports SKILL.md skills and Word document creation tools, since the skill produces a Word document. It runs no scripts and uses no network, according to its listing.
Where do I install the lesson-plan skill?
Unzip the downloaded package into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder for one project. In the Claude apps, upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
Will the skill invent curriculum standards or textbook page numbers?
No. The skill is instructed not to invent curriculum wording or page numbers. If you give none, it writes a placeholder such as 'refer to the corresponding chapter of the textbook in use'.
Can I use the generated plan without changes?
It is not recommended. Timings and difficulty levels are estimates that need adjusting to the actual students, so review the plan before teaching from it.
How is this different from asking a chatbot for a lesson plan?
The skill follows a fixed workflow: it asks for missing class details, writes measurable objectives, maps each objective to assessment, and outputs a Word document with a timed table and a blank reflection section. A general prompt may skip some of these steps.
New agent skills, repos and AI tools — every week
The best new skills and open-source projects, the fastest-growing repos, and one free prompt. Five minutes to read. Unsubscribe anytime.
Our verdict
Use this skill if you need a structured, timed lesson plan drafted quickly for a specific grade and class length, or if you are rebuilding a slide deck that lacks timing, activities or assessment. Pick something else if you need the plan to match official curriculum standards or textbook references, since the skill leaves those as placeholders. Any plan it produces should be checked and adjusted against your actual students before you teach it.
Download the skill