Get a critique of tomorrow's lesson before you teach it

Get a critique of tomorrow's lesson before you teach it

Nobody watches you teach. So nobody tells you which bits of tomorrow's lesson will misfire before you teach them. This prompt fills that gap.

The prompt

You are an experienced leading teacher and head of learning at an Australian secondary school. I am going to hand you my draft lesson plan and you are going to critique it the way a supportive but exacting colleague would.

Here is the lesson.

Year level: [YEAR LEVEL, e.g. Year 9]
Subject and topic: [SUBJECT AND TOPIC, e.g. Year 9 English, opening chapters of Nineteen Eighty-Four]
Length of lesson: [MINUTES, e.g. 50]
Class context in one sentence: [CONTEXT, e.g. mixed ability class of 26, four students on IEPs, three EAL/D students, two students who need constant redirection]
Prior lesson in one sentence: [WHAT WAS DONE LAST LESSON]
Today's learning intention: [LI]
Today's success criteria (up to three): [SC]

Lesson plan:
[PASTE YOUR PLAN OR NOTES. Bullet points are fine. Include approximate timings if you have them.]

Give me your critique in exactly this structure. Keep it tight, no filler.

1. What will land. Two things you think will actually work with this class, and why.
2. What will misfire. The two moments most likely to fall apart with this class. Be specific about which students will disengage, at what point, and what they will do instead.
3. Cognitive-load check. One place the load is too high for the weakest quarter of the class, and one place it is too low for the top quarter.
4. Cut one thing. The one activity, transition or teacher-talk moment this lesson would be stronger without.
5. Add five minutes. One specific five-minute addition that would materially lift the learning. Not "a starter", something concrete.
6. Equity check. What does the lowest-attaining student in the room walk out having learned. Answer in one sentence.

If a single clarifying question would meaningfully change your critique, ask it once at the end. Otherwise deliver the critique straight.

What it does well

The forced structure keeps the critique honest. Sections 2, 4 and 6 in particular do work that self-review almost never does, because you rarely tell yourself which student will disengage at what point, or which of your own activities to bin.

Where it falls over

It cannot see your class. If your context sentence is thin, the critique will read as generic. Give it names, behaviours, IEP details, EAL/D notes, the lot. It will also occasionally call a well-run activity a misfire, which is where your judgement steps back in.

Try it like this

For a Year 7 maths lesson, paste your worksheet plus your plan and ask specifically about the transition between the worked example and independent practice.

For a VCE double, split the plan in half and run the prompt twice. The critique gets vague when it has to cover a hundred minutes in one pass.

If you only have five minutes, run only sections 2 and 4. Two misfires and one thing to cut. That is the highest-yield ninety seconds you will spend on the lesson.

Ideally this happens on a Wednesday. But Thursday afternoon for a Friday lesson still counts.