Draft a cover lesson a relief teacher can actually run

Draft a cover lesson a relief teacher can actually run

Term 2 is in its last fortnight in most Victorian and NSW schools, and the staffroom is already running on the kind of cold that you can feel coming up the corridor on a Wednesday. The lesson you leave for a CRT when you finally cave and call in sick is the difference between coming back to a class that did one good thing and coming back to a class that watched a movie because nobody could find the textbooks. This is the prompt that does the cover plan in ten minutes from bed.

The prompt

You are an experienced [SUBJECT] teacher at an Australian [PRIMARY / SECONDARY / TERTIARY] school. I am off tomorrow and a Casual Relief Teacher (CRT) is taking my class. Draft a one-page cover lesson that a CRT who has never met this class can run without me in the building.

THE CLASS
- Year level: [YEAR LEVEL]
- Subject: [SUBJECT]
- Class size: [N STUDENTS]
- Lesson length: [MINUTES, including settle and pack-up]
- Room: [ROOM NUMBER OR TYPE, e.g. "21 East, normal classroom" or "Lab 3, do not use the gas"]
- Time of day: [PERIOD, e.g. "Period 5 Thursday, after lunch"]

WHERE THE CLASS IS RIGHT NOW
- The unit we are in: [ONE LINE, e.g. "Year 9 history, week 5 of 7 on Australia's role in WWI"]
- What I taught last lesson: [ONE LINE]
- What I was going to teach tomorrow if I were there: [ONE LINE]
- THE NON-NEGOTIABLE for tomorrow: [PICK ONE]
  (a) CONSOLIDATE only. Do not teach new content. Students should leave with the same understanding they had today, more securely held.
  (b) ONE specific small step forward, named here: [STEP]. Confident a CRT can deliver it. Materials provided.
  (c) Buffer lesson. The cohort is fried and we are in the last fortnight of term. Productive but light.

MATERIALS I CAN LEAVE FOR THE CRT
- Hard copy: [LIST WHAT IS PRINTED AND WHERE, e.g. "30 copies of the source pack in my pigeonhole, labelled '9D Thursday'"]
- Digital: [LIST AND WHERE, e.g. "Google Classroom post titled 'Thursday cover', already scheduled"]
- Tech assumptions: [BE HONEST, e.g. "Smartboard works if you turn it on at the wall first. Do not assume student logins will work."]

THE CLASS COMPOSITION THE CRT NEEDS TO KNOW (no surnames, no judgements, just what they need to do their job tomorrow):
- One or two students who, if treated well in the first five minutes, will help the lesson run: [FIRST NAME, ONE LINE ON WHAT WORKS]
- One or two students who will test the CRT, and the smallest thing that defuses it: [FIRST NAME, ONE LINE ON THE MOVE]
- Any IEP / behaviour plan / medical considerations the CRT MUST know to keep students safe and the lesson running: [PASTE WHAT IS APPROPRIATE TO SHARE]
- Seating: [E.G. "Seating chart on the front desk. Do not let them resit themselves."]

Produce ONE cover lesson plan, designed to fit on one A4 page, formatted so a CRT can read it in 90 seconds while the bell is ringing. Use plain Australian English, short sentences, clear instructions in the imperative voice ("Hand out the source pack." "Set 10 minutes on the board."). Do not write paragraphs of pedagogical reasoning; the CRT does not have time to read them.

STRUCTURE THE COVER PLAN IN THIS EXACT ORDER:

1. THE TOP-LINE BRIEF (three lines max)
   - The single sentence the CRT should read first: "By the end of this lesson, students should have [X]."
   - The single most important behaviour expectation for THIS class: one line.
   - The single most important thing the CRT must NOT do: one line.

2. SETTLE AND DO NOW (first 5 to 8 minutes)
   - The exact instruction the CRT writes on the board as students walk in.
   - A specific, low-stakes task that requires no CRT subject knowledge to set up and that gives the CRT a minute to take the roll and find their feet.
   - The named student to ask to hand out materials, drawn from the names I gave you.

3. THE MAIN BLOCK (the bulk of the lesson)
   - Step-by-step instructions in the imperative. Each step has a time. The CRT can run this even if they teach a different subject.
   - Where the CRT does the activity (front of room, students at desks, silent independent, paired discussion) and the transition cue between steps ("When 8 minutes is up, ask students to swap papers with the person to their left.").
   - The ONE thing the CRT must check before moving to the next step. Not "check for understanding" generically. Specific. ("Before you move on, walk one lap and check that at least three students have written something in column 2.")

4. THE EXIT TASK (last 5 minutes)
   - A specific, short, individual task the CRT can collect and leave on my desk. Designed so I can read 30 of them in five minutes when I am back, and know what to teach next.
   - The exact words the CRT writes on the board for this task.

5. THE FALLBACKS (one line each)
   - IF the class finishes the main block early: a SPECIFIC extension task that uses materials already in the room, not "free reading". Name what materials.
   - IF the tech fails: the no-tech version of the main block. Designed in advance.
   - IF a specific student becomes the lesson's centre of gravity in the wrong way: the smallest move the CRT can make without escalating. Name the move.
   - IF the CRT runs out of material with 10 minutes to go: ONE consolidation task. Not a movie. Not "free chat".

6. ESCALATION AND HOUSEKEEPING (three lines max)
   - Who the CRT contacts if something goes wrong and where they are located (e.g. "Year 9 coordinator [NAME], office next to staffroom").
   - Where to leave the collected exit tasks and the unused materials.
   - What to do at the bell: "Dismiss row by row, no exceptions."

RULES FOR THE WHOLE PLAN:
- Australian English. CRT means Casual Relief Teacher, not "substitute". Year 9, not "9th grade".
- No movies. No "free time". No "catch up on other work" without naming the work.
- No pedagogical reasoning written for the CRT. They do not need to know why; they need to know what.
- No instructions that require knowing students by face. If you need a named student, use the names I gave you above.
- No tasks that require the CRT to mark anything on the spot or give written feedback. Their job is to run the lesson, not to assess.
- If my non-negotiable above is option (a) CONSOLIDATE, do NOT introduce new content. If you do, name where and explain why before I trust the plan.

THE SANITY CHECK (one line under the plan): is this a lesson a CRT who teaches PE could run for a Year 9 history class with what I have given you? If not, name the step that would lose them and rewrite it. If yes, say so plainly.

THE NOTE TO ME (one line, separate from the CRT plan): the one thing I should do FIRST when I am back, based on what this lesson will and will not have achieved. Specific.

Do not use the phrases "deep dive", "unpack", or "scaffold their thinking".

What it does well

Forces the model to commit to imperative instructions with named times, not pedagogical paragraphs, which is the difference between a plan a CRT runs and a plan a CRT skims and gives up on. The fallbacks block is the bit that earns the prompt its place. Most cover plans collapse the moment a CRT realises the smartboard does not turn on or the class finishes 15 minutes early, and the answer in the staffroom story afterwards is usually "they watched a movie". The "is this runnable by a PE teacher covering a history class" sanity check is the line that catches the cover plan that assumes too much subject knowledge.

Where it falls over

The model cannot meet the CRT and cannot read your class on the day. A student who is fine for you can be the lesson's centre of gravity for a CRT, and the prompt only gets to write a generic defuse move from the one line you gave it. The exit task is also only useful if the CRT actually collects it; many do not, and you cannot fix that from bed. And the prompt will not save a lesson where the materials never get printed. The handwritten note on top of the pigeonhole pile saying "CRT: please use these, top item is the front sheet" is still on you.

Try it like this

For a Year 8 maths class three weeks into algebra, with you off for one day: set the non-negotiable to CONSOLIDATE. The main block is a worked-example trio you have already taught, re-stated. The exit task is "solve these three, show every line of working". The fallback for early-finishers is a single page of mixed practice. The note to yourself is which three errors to re-teach next lesson based on what comes back.

For a VCE Unit 3 English class the week before a SAC, with you off and the CRT a casual you have worked with before: set the non-negotiable to option (b) one specific small step. The step is "students annotate two paragraphs of the set text for the four moves we identified yesterday". Provide the annotation key. The CRT runs a silent annotation block then a paired comparison. The exit task is the annotated paragraph.

For a Year 4 generalist class with a CRT who is not your usual: set the non-negotiable to buffer lesson and lean on a structured writing task with a clear template the kids already know. The named student who helps is the kid who can read the day's schedule off the board to the class. The fallback for early-finishers is a sealed envelope of word-puzzle pages on your desk, labelled "CRT: only open if needed".

If you only have ten minutes tonight from the couch, fill out the class composition and the non-negotiable lines properly. The model will hold the rest of the plan together from those two inputs.

The cover plan that earns its place is the one that survives a CRT meeting your class for the first time.