Professional learning · Coaches, Teachers, Librarians · 50 minutes
Co-Plan in 20
A timed, listening-first protocol a coach and teacher use to redesign one upcoming lesson so students verify an AI answer or evaluate a source, and turn in proof that they did.
Most teachers have twenty minutes, not an afternoon, and most coaching conversations drift toward a tool before anyone has named the learning. Co-Plan in 20 sits in the Investigate and Innovate phase of the TCEA EIIR coaching cycle: a five-segment protocol that fits a planning period. The coach listens, uses the ARC moves (Acknowledge the reality, Reframe the problem from a student deficit to a design barrier, Commit to one high-leverage shift), redesigns one moment of the lesson, models it, and sets a date to look at student work. Participants run it in pairs on a real or persona lesson where students use AI output or online sources, then debrief what kept the conversation on the teacher's goal.
In this packet
- Handout A: Role Cards (cut-apart cards)
- Handout B: The Listening-First Script (reading)
- Handout C: Co-Planning Template (worksheet)
- Facilitator key (last page)
TCEA ELE indicators
- C1.1 I know how to mentor teachers in effective instructional practices.
- C2.1 I know how to guide teachers in meaningful technology integration.
- C1.2 I can provide constructive feedback to improve teaching strategies.
- C4.2 I can identify and address teachers' individual learning needs.
- AI4.1 I know how to promote critical thinking skills in relation to AI-generated information.
Full facilitator guide: mglearn.github.io/eles/activities/co-plan-in-20.html
Handout A for Co-Plan in 20
Role Cards
Cut apart. The teacher chooses a persona card (or brings a real lesson). Reveal the hidden detail only when the coach asks a question that earns it. Backs are for the facilitator.
Teacher Persona 1 · Grade 3 science
Upcoming lesson: animal adaptations (bats). You plan to project a chatbot the district approves and ask it questions the class suggests. Opening line: "The kids love asking it questions, but they believe everything it says." Hidden detail: a student asked if the chatbot was a real person, and you weren't sure how to answer.
Teacher Persona 2 · Grade 6 social studies
Upcoming lesson: research on the Spanish missions in Texas for a short presentation. Opening line: "They use whatever website comes up first and copy it." Hidden detail: last year a group cited a travel company's page full of errors and nobody noticed until the presentations.
Teacher Persona 3 · Grade 8 ELA
Upcoming lesson: argumentative essay on whether the school day should start later. Opening line: "They only pick sources that agree with them." Hidden detail: you would like them to use an AI chatbot to find counterarguments but worry it will write the essay for them.
Teacher Persona 4 · Grade 10 biology
Upcoming lesson: inheritance and Punnett squares. Opening line: "Half of them ask a chatbot to explain it and then can't do a problem." Hidden detail: you tried a chatbot explanation yourself and it mixed up dominant and recessive in one example, and you did not catch it the first time.
Teacher Persona 5 · Grade 11 U.S. history
Upcoming lesson: analyzing a primary source speech. Opening line: "They read an AI summary instead of the speech." Hidden detail: you are not against summaries; you just want them to know what gets lost.
Teacher Persona 6 · Higher Ed intro nutrition
Upcoming lesson: evaluating health claims. Opening line: "Students cite wellness influencers as if they were research." Hidden detail: several students are influencer fans, and you don't want them to feel mocked.
Coach card
Your job: keep the teacher's goal at the center. Use only listening stems in Segment 1. Paraphrase before Segment 3. Offer at most two ideas in Segment 3 and let the teacher choose. In Segment 4, model for the teacher's students, not for the teacher. End with a date.
Observer card
Tally coach questions and coach suggestions in each segment. Write the teacher's goal in the teacher's words. Note the minute when the evidence was first named. Report: "The goal was… The evidence was named at minute __. Questions: __. Suggestions: __."
Handout B for Co-Plan in 20
The Listening-First Script
Coaches: keep this in front of you. Clock times are guides; the order matters more than the minutes.
1Opening (say it word for word the first few times): "We have twenty minutes. My goal is that you leave with one change to this lesson and a date for us to look at student work together. You decide what changes. Tell me about the lesson."
2Segment 1 · Listen and Acknowledge (0–4 min). Questions only. "What will students be doing with information in this lesson?" · "Where does the information come from: a website, a textbook, a chatbot, each other?" · "What happened last time you taught it?" · "What worries you about it?" · Close by acknowledging the reality: "What I hear you saying is… Did I get that right?"
3Segment 2 · Reframe and name the evidence (4–8 min). Offer one reframe from student deficit to design barrier: "What if it isn't that they can't check, but that the lesson never asks them to? Where would a check fit?" The teacher may reject it; that is fine. Then: "If this lesson worked, what would you see on their paper or hear them say?" · "What would show you that a student checked something instead of trusting it?" Write the answer on Handout C before moving on.
4Segment 3 · Commit to one shift (8–15 min). "Where in the lesson do students first meet the information?" That is usually the moment to change. Offer at most two options: trace one claim to its source; compare an AI answer to a text; read laterally about who made a website; check the date and context. Keep the goal firm and the means flexible: "Every student checks one claim. How many ways could they show us: writing, a card sort, telling a partner with a stem, a sketch?" Then ask: "Does AI belong in this lesson at all? What would it add to the evidence?" Let the teacher decide.
5Segment 4 · Model it (15–18 min). "Can I show you what this might sound like for your students?" Think aloud for 60 seconds as if speaking to them: "The chatbot says bats are blind. I'm not going to trust that yet. Let's check our book. The book says bats can see, and many also use echolocation. So the chatbot got this one wrong." Then ask: "What would you keep? What would you change for your kids?"
6Segment 5 · Plan the measure (18–20 min). "What will students turn in that shows the check happened?" · "Which three samples will you bring me?" · "What question will we ask when we look at them?" · "When can we look together?" Write the date down before you stand up, and send any resource you promised within a day.
7Talk stems by grade band, if the shift includes student talk: Elementary, give voice to a reason: "I think… because…" · Middle, argue from evidence: "The source says…, which shows…" · High school, weigh viewpoints: "One source claims…, but another suggests…, so…"
8If the conversation drifts to a tool: "That might be the right tool. Before we pick it, what would it help students show?" If the teacher wants you to decide: "I have an idea, but you know these students. Which of these fits them better?" If time runs out: skip Segment 4, never Segment 5.
Handout C for Co-Plan in 20
Co-Planning Template
Fill this in together during the twenty minutes. The teacher keeps the original; the coach keeps a copy.
Segment 1 · Acknowledge: the teacher's goal and concern, in the teacher's words:
Segment 2 · Reframe: the concern restated as a design barrier the lesson can change (or the teacher's own reframe):
Segment 2 · What a strong student answer or product will contain (what we'd see on paper):
Segment 3 · Commit: the one shift, the verification move, and at least two ways students can show it (firm goal, flexible means):
Segment 3 · Does AI belong in this lesson? Our decision and our reason:
Segment 4 · What the teacher kept or changed from the coach's 60-second model:
Segment 5 · The artifact students turn in, the three samples we'll look at, our question for the work, and the date:
Facilitator only for Co-Plan in 20
Answer key and notes
Handout A: Role Cards
- Teacher Persona 1 · Grade 3 science
- Likely redesign: before asking the chatbot, the class reads a short nonfiction page on bats. After each answer, students hold up "book agrees" or "book doesn't say" cards. Artifact: the class tally chart and three students explaining their card.
- Teacher Persona 2 · Grade 6 social studies
- Likely redesign: students must read laterally about their first source (who runs it, what others say) before using it. Artifact: a one-line source note per slide: "We trust this because…"
- Teacher Persona 3 · Grade 8 ELA
- Likely redesign: students ask an approved chatbot for the strongest counterargument, then must find a real source that makes that argument and judge whether the chatbot represented it fairly. Artifact: the chatbot's counterargument, marked up, beside the real source.
- Teacher Persona 4 · Grade 10 biology
- Likely redesign: the teacher shows a printed chatbot explanation with the error left in. Students work a problem by hand, then find where the explanation goes wrong. Artifact: a corrected explanation with the error circled and a one-sentence fix.
- Teacher Persona 5 · Grade 11 U.S. history
- Likely redesign: students compare an AI summary to two paragraphs of the original speech and list what the summary left out or changed in tone. Artifact: a two-column comparison and a claim about what the summary misses.
- Teacher Persona 6 · Higher Ed intro nutrition
- Likely redesign: students pick a claim from a post they like, trace it to its original source, and report what the original says. Artifact: a trace note that respects the student's interest while checking the claim.
- Coach card
- Look-for: the teacher chooses the redesign, and the coach's model is 60 seconds or less.
- Observer card
- The observer role builds the coach's own self-reflection habit. Keep reports specific and kind.