How ChatGPT Helped Me Build an Entire High School Curriculum—From Scratch

When I walked into the classroom last year, I faced a challenge that would test every ounce of my experience: an emergency vacancy for a high school English III class. This wasn’t my usual wheelhouse. Worse still, there was no curriculum map or scope-and-sequence to guide me.

In over 20 years as an educator, I’d never faced a situation quite like this.

I had to build a complete curriculum from scratch.

Enter ChatGPT and Claude. These AI tools became my lifeline as I scrambled to create a meaningful, state-aligned, and student-relevant plan for the year. Without the luxury of pre-built prompts or projects (like today’s GPTs), I relied heavily on my own ingenuity to prompt, iterate, and refine.

Was it perfect? Far from it. But I managed to develop a thematic, project-based approach that worked for my students and met the standards.

Do I feel guilty for leaning on AI? Not at all. Do I feel less than a teacher because of it? Absolutely not.

What I created wasn’t polished or ideal—it was a “minimum viable curriculum.” But it was enough to guide my students and give them the structure they needed.

And sometimes, that’s the best we can do as professionals: adapt, leverage the tools at hand, and keep moving forward.

This experience didn’t just reaffirm my belief in the power of technology to support education. It reminded me that even with decades of experience, there’s always room for growth, creativity, and problem-solving.

If you’ve ever wondered how to navigate the chaos of an emergency teaching assignment—or how AI can support the modern classroom—I hope my story offers some inspiration.

Prompt #1:

“Background. Read the following information to fully understand the Atlantic High School course that I will be teaching. I have been provided the following: course description; Iowa Core College and Career Readiness Expectations; Purpose of the Content; local curricular areas of emphasis; and my instructor notes/preferences.

Official Course Description: English 3 is an extension of the curriculum of English 1 and 2. Coursework involves studying world literature, American literature, and nonfiction texts. English 3 also focuses on developing employability, analytical, and research skills. Students will work to improve written and verbal communication based on Iowa Core standards.

Iowa Core College and Career Readiness Expectations for Students: They demonstrate independence. They build strong content knowledge. They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline. They comprehend as well as critique. They value evidence. They use technology and digital media strategically and capably. They come to understand other perspectives and cultures. Iowa Core Anchor Standards for Reading To become college and career ready, students must grapple with works of exceptional craft and thought whose range extends across genres, cultures, and centuries. Such works offer profound insights into the human condition and serve as models for students’ own thinking and writing. Along with high-quality contemporary works, these texts should be chosen from among seminal U.S. documents, the classics of American literature, and the timeless dramas of Shakespeare. Through wide and deep reading of literature and literary nonfiction and thoughtful exposure to visual media of steadily increasing sophistication, students gain a reservoir of literary and cultural knowledge, references, and images; the ability to evaluate intricate arguments; and the capacity to surmount the challenges posed by complex texts.

Purpose of the Course: The purpose of this English III course is to prepare you to master tomorrow, today. We will build your skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening to equip you for future success in college, career, and civic life. Through studying world literature, American literature, and nonfiction texts, you will analyze diverse perspectives and examine how they relate to the future. You will have opportunities to evaluate complex texts, analyze arguments, and conduct research to expand your critical thinking abilities. By developing your capacity to comprehend challenging material, communicate effectively, and appreciate multiple viewpoints, this course aims to cultivate the knowledge, skills, and cultural awareness necessary for you to understand and help shape the futures of learning, work, technology, and humanity. The goal is for you to gain independence in using literacy to engage with and create the future.

This course also must ensure the following local curricular areas of emphasis: Employability Skills: Communication objectives met through speeches, presentations, podcasts, and formal writing assignments. Collaboration built through peer feedback, group discussions, museum exhibit projects. Time management and organization developed through long-term projects. Self-reflection activities to build intrapersonal skills.

Critical Thinking: Essential questions require deeper inquiry and analysis. Text selections prompt examination of complex themes from diverse perspectives. Assignments like literary analysis essays, debates, and comparative writing build evaluation skills. Projects allow creative expression and synthesis.

Analytical & Research Skills: Close reading and textual analysis are infused throughout. Nonfiction texts, articles, and historical documents are incorporated to build informational literacy. Research projects require gathering and integrating evidence from sources. Range of reading across fiction and nonfiction genres expands cultural literacy.

Instructor Notes: I want this course be based upon the recommendations of Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher. In essence, they highly suggest that today's English Language Arts teachers build instructional units, lessons, and activities around topics of high relevance and interest to our students. As such, my personal and professional interests center around topics related to where the intersection of the futures of work, future of technology, and the future of humanity collide. I want to ensure that students can explore these topics through fiction and non-fiction, canon texts and contemporary young adult literature, poems, essays, podcasts, new media, speeches, etc. This will help ensure that the outside world in which my students live can be brought into their learning environment. Then, they can begin to work through instructional activities in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and grammar to learn how they can "master tomorrow, today." The world is only getting more complex, technical, diverse, and non-linear in progress. Therefore, our students must work through understanding the world in which they live through the English Language Arts.

Your task is to read this course description and other background information for a high school course that I will offer at Atlantic High School. Then, you will assist me in creating various topics/sub-topics that we could explore during the 1st and 2nd semester based on the course description.

COMMAND: Your task is to assume the role of a content expert for high school English/Language Arts courses to assist me in the curriculum planning process.

Your first step is identify a bullet point list of potential topics and sub-topics that can becom the center point of various units used during the 2023-24 school year.”

Prompt #2:

In this prompt, I provided ChatGPT with information concerning the Iowa Core standards.

“here is some additional information from the Iowa Department of Education core learning standards that might also help provide greater curricular understanding.”

Prompt #3:

“now, with all this information please create a list of potential course "essential topics" and their corresponding sub-topics that can be selected for the basis of potential course instructional units.

1st Semester: 1. The Future of Work: Historical Perspectives on Work: Comparing the industrial age, the information age, and the emerging AI age through literature. Dystopian and Utopian Futures: Exploring how literature imagines the workplace of the future. Gig Economy and Freelancing: Non-fiction articles, personal narratives, and discussions on the pros and cons. 2. The Digital Revolution and Humanity: Digital Ethics: Stories, articles, and debates about surveillance, data privacy, and human rights in a digital age. The Human & Machine Partnership: Exploring AI in literature (e.g., Isaac Asimov’s robot stories) and its implications. The Digital Disconnect: Literature that talks about the pros and cons of an always-connected society. 3. Societal Responses to Rapid Technological Change: Historical Reactions: Literature from past technological revolutions, like the introduction of the printing press or the industrial revolution. Modern Day Reactions: Exploring societal reactions to current tech advancements through articles, essays, and debates. 4. Cultural Shifts & Technology: Cultural Preservation in a Digital Age: Exploration of cultures maintaining their identity amidst rapid technological progress. Cultural Fusions: How the digital age has fused cultures, as explored through literature and media.

2nd Semester: 1. Diverse Perspectives on the Future: Comparing Western and Eastern Predictions: Exploring literature from various regions about their visions for the future. Marginalized Voices: Delving into how minority groups perceive and are affected by advancements in tech and changing work landscapes. 2. The Nature of Reality in a Digital Age: Virtual Realities and Augmented Realities: Delving into literature that challenges our perception of reality. The Mind & Machine: Exploring the concept of consciousness in machines and humans. 3. Human Relationships in a Technological World: The Human Connection: Literature that showcases the struggle of maintaining genuine human connections amidst technology. Redefining Communities: How online communities, social media, and digital landscapes redefine the idea of "community". 4. Moral and Ethical Dilemmas of Advancement: The Ethics of AI: Through literature, discussing the implications of creating consciousness. Balancing Progress with Conservation: Literature and essays on the need to advance while preserving our planet and heritage. Cross-cutting Themes for Both Semesters: 1. Literature and Media Exploration: Introducing students to a mix of classical texts, contemporary young adult literature, podcasts, and new media that touch on the core themes. 2. Skills Development: Emphasis on employability, critical thinking, analytical, and research skills throughout the exploration of all topics.”

Prompt #4:

“I like to create an enduring, or essential, question for the entire course that students must work toward answering. It should evoke strong human curiosity, be open-ended enough that it requires students to continue evaluating their answer as the course progresses, and must be highly relevant to their life and application of the learnings. Your task is to create 10 possible essential questions that this course could be aligned to. Rank them in order from the most effective question to the least. Then, provide your overall recommendation with rationale.”

Prompt #5:

“this was very cool. so your next task is help me create a curriculum map for the entire first semester. first day of school is wednesday, August 23 and the semester ends on Friday, December 22. then, 2nd semester begins on Tuesday, January 3, 2024 and ends on Thursday, May 25, 2024. please note, August 23-25 are shortened days with class periods only 35 minutes each. After that, regular weekly schedules in 45-minute periods on Mondays, tuesdays, thursdays, and fridays. Wednesdays are only 30 minute long periods.”

Prompt #6:

“now, your task is to create the most effective and aligned essential question for each unit:”

Prompt #7:

“excellent work! Now, your task is to be help me begin creating a curricular "scope and sequence" to start planning more specific details for each unit and school day. but first some critically important background information. Class periods (M, T, R, F = 45 minutes); (W = 30 minutes) Each class will be designed similar to what Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle strongly recommend so there is daily application and integration for students to practice the following of which the class instructional period will be divided: Reading (time to read); Writing (daily notebook writing); Learning (text study or other minilesson); and Creating (time to work on an evolving written draft or student task/assignment/group work/project etc.) When mapping a full academic year of reading, the authors strong recommend that the year is divided in the following: a.) ongoing development of interest and independence in reading (50% of the school year); b.) opportunity to engage with a community of readers in book clubs (25% of the school year); and c.) power of a classroom of readers studying the same text at the same time (25% of the school year). When mapping a year of writing, they recommend that all learners move from "romance to precision to generalization." A romance or interest in the subject leads to the specifics of the subject, which leads us to generalize the understanding and connect it to other learnings. Students need to engage in the romantic attachment of the art of writing through daily quick writing that is ungraded. Then, they move into the learning and practicing of the precise moves of the genre. We then lead students to generalize the conventions of a genre to all forms of writing. We connect the thinking in one writing unit to the next--showing how in each unit writers repeat the same moves, no matter what they are composing.”

Prompt #8:

“great work. do this for every day of every unit for the entire school year now. feel free to recommend specific fiction, non-fiction, and other media sources that could be used (magazine articles, essays, newspaper articles, podcasts etc.) please be specific with the text title and/or author when doing so. you can startover and skip the first introductory days.”

Prompt #9:

“please follow this format/structure so it is clear what each segment is, recommended time allocation, activity, and recommended literature source. start over from the beginning with week 1 please.”

Prompt #10:

“now your task is to create a course syllabus that will be shared with enrolled students in this course, parents/guardians, and school administrators. Please write in descriptive writing style, English language.”

It made an error and I needed to reprompt it:
“please be sure to include this information into my syllabus so it accurately reflects the context and purpose of the this course: "English III (including Applied) Official Course Description: English 3 is an extension of the curriculum of English 1 and 2. Coursework involves studying world literature, American literature, and nonfiction texts. English 3 also focuses on developing employability, analytical, and research skills. Students will work to improve written and verbal communication based on Iowa Core standards. Purpose of the Course: The purpose of this English III course is to prepare you to master tomorrow, today. We will build your skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening to equip you for future success in college, career, and civic life. Through studying world literature, American literature, and nonfiction texts, you will analyze diverse perspectives and examine how they relate to the future. You will have opportunities to evaluate complex texts, analyze arguments, and conduct research to expand your critical thinking abilities. By developing your capacity to comprehend challenging material, communicate effectively, and appreciate multiple viewpoints, this course aims to cultivate the knowledge, skills, and cultural awareness necessary for you to understand and help shape the futures of learning, work, technology, and humanity. The goal is for you to gain independence in using literacy to engage with and create the future. Key Takeaways of the Course: Analyze complex texts across genres and formats to draw inferences, evaluate arguments, and synthesize information. Develop and communicate ideas effectively through writing, speaking, and multimedia presentations for diverse audiences and purposes. Conduct research to gather relevant information from multiple credible sources and integrate it into written, oral, and digital presentations. Engage with diverse perspectives through reading, listening, and discussion to expand cultural awareness and collaboration abilities. Build independence in reading comprehension, critical thinking, technology use, and self-directed learning to prepare for college, career, and civic participation. Apply and strengthen employability skills such as organization, communication, collaboration, and problem-solving through literacy activities. Possible Essential Question How can studying stories and texts from the past and present help prepare us for the future? Employability Skills: Communication objectives met through speeches, presentations, podcasts, and formal writing assignments. Collaboration built through peer feedback, group discussions, museum exhibit projects. Time management and organization developed through long-term projects. Self-reflection activities to build intrapersonal skills. Critical Thinking: Essential questions require deeper inquiry and analysis. Text selections prompt examination of complex themes from diverse perspectives. Assignments like literary analysis essays, debates, and comparative writing build evaluation skills. Projects allow creative expression and synthesis. Analytical & Research Skills: Close reading and textual analysis are infused throughout. Nonfiction texts, articles, and historical documents are incorporated to build informational literacy. Research projects require gathering and integrating evidence from sources. Range of reading across fiction and nonfiction genres expands cultural literacy. The combination of classic and contemporary literature, emphasis on future-focused skills, and activities tailored to students' interests and voices will ideally help them master the knowledge and capabilities needed to understand today's world and shape tomorrow's. Here's a summary of how our plan connects to the course purpose and key takeaways: The essential questions centered around literature's role in understanding life, self, and society relate directly to the goal of studying diverse perspectives to prepare for the future. The range of fiction and nonfiction texts, from classics to contemporary, provide opportunities to analyze complexity and evaluate arguments. The research projects, speeches, essays, and multimedia presentations align with building communication and research skills. Group discussions, collaborations, and activities with peer feedback support cultural awareness and teamwork. The long-term projects, reading comprehension, and analytical writing activities develop independence and critical thinking. The communication, collaboration, time management, and self-reflection components target employability skills. The essential questions, complex texts, analytical assignments, and debate activities build critical thinking. Close reading, diverse texts, research projects, and formal writing assignments align with building analytical and informational literacy skills." Next, I'll provide you with an overview of the scope and sequence so we can provide additional information to the family regarding reading sources that will be weaved into this class. Please write in descriptive writing style, English language.”

Final Words

Overall, the process took under an hour. It wasn’t perfect and needed fine-tuning.

But, it also provided me with a foundation that likely would have taken me days to plan out in this type of complexity.

It’s worth admitting, I made MAJOR revisions to these outputs. And in typical teacher-fashion, made changes almost immediately in the school year to reflect the needs of my students.

Was this entire process beneficial though? ABSOLUTELY!