Planning with Purpose and Precision - Curriculum Mapping with AI
A practical guide to using AI for long-term and unit planning, with real examples, clear prompts and curriculum-aligned strategies.
Welcome to AI for Teachers, a 12-part series designed to help you plan smarter, teach better, and make your workload more manageable. Whether you're new to AI or already exploring what it can do, this series will guide you step by step with real examples, practical tools, and research that matters.
🪡 This is not the only way to use AI in education – the possibilities are endless. This post is simply designed to show you one approach that might work for you, your learners, and your setting.
We’re starting where strong teaching begins: the curriculum map.
Curriculum mapping helps us sequence learning, make meaningful links, and bring clarity to our teaching. But let’s be honest, it’s time-consuming. Especially when you're trying to align multiple texts, skills, assessment objectives and wider curriculum themes across the year.
That’s where AI becomes a game changer. Not to replace teachers, but to support us. It helps speed up the parts that take too long and frees up time for creativity, collaboration and purposeful teaching.
✨ Whether you're using the British curriculum, CBSE, IB or Common Core — this approach can flex and fit. Simply tailor the objectives you input, and the process stays the same.
Why This Matters: From Research to Practice
💡 Teacher Clarity – Hattie (2009) ranks it among the highest-impact strategies, with an effect size of 0.75.
Clarity starts with curriculum design. When teachers have a clear plan, students know what they’re learning and why.
How AI helps:
AI makes curriculum clarity easier to achieve. It helps you sequence content, align skills, and ensure coverage without hours of manual planning. This frees you up to focus on your learners.
💡 Backward Design – Wiggins and McTighe (2005) show that starting with the outcomes improves coherence.
When you begin with what you want students to understand and be able to do, your curriculum becomes more intentional.
How AI helps:
AI supports backward design by helping you generate unit sequences that build toward a clearly defined outcome. You can start with your end goals and prompt AI to map the route back from there.
🔍 A quick note on responsible AI use:
AI-generated curriculum ideas should always be reviewed through a professional lens. Be aware of cultural context, bias in text recommendations, and alignment to your learners’ needs.
Planning the Year: Start with the Big Picture
Before diving into unit planning, take a step back. A well-sequenced curriculum map ensures that knowledge builds over time, reduces duplication, and opens space for meaningful connections between subjects. AI can support this process by helping you draft a clear, structured overview aligned to your curriculum objectives.
Step 1 – Gather Your Curriculum Objectives
Begin by identifying the core learning outcomes for your subject and year group. These could come from national curriculum documents, internal progression frameworks or examination specs. Be concise. Focus on the key knowledge and skills students need to master.
Why this matters:
AI is only as strong as the information you feed it. Vague or overly broad objectives will result in shallow or generic output. Clear objectives help generate a precise and relevant curriculum map.
How to approach this with AI:
Use bullet points or numbered lists for clarity
Remove redundant or overlapping outcomes
Highlight any specific tiered outcomes (e.g. for reading vs writing)
Include any recurring themes or golden threads
What to watch for:
✅ Overloaded inputs – avoid copying entire curriculum documents into your prompt
✅ Lack of focus – be specific about the term or year group
✅ Mixed domains – don’t mix knowledge, skills and dispositions unless AI is asked to sort them
Example prompt:
"Organise the following Year 7 English objectives into a year-long curriculum map with term themes, suggested texts, and main skills for reading and writing each term."
Step 2 – Structure the Year into Teachable Terms
Ask AI to group your objectives into a logical term-by-term structure. You can also ask for recommended texts or themes to match the focus of each term.
Why this matters:
This step creates the backbone of your curriculum map. It helps sequence content logically and ensures a balance of genre, skill and subject matter.
How to approach this with AI:
State the number of terms or weeks per term
Mention assessment windows or school events
Suggest core texts if you have any pre-decided
What to watch for:
✅ Repetition or skill overlap across terms
✅ Misaligned themes or text suggestions
✅ Lack of cultural or contextual fit
Example prompt:
"Divide the Year 7 English objectives into three terms of approximately 12 weeks each. Include suggested novel studies, non-fiction and poetry units with matching skills."
Step 3 – Build Progression and Spiralling In
Use follow-up prompts to ensure concepts and skills build over time. You can also include reminders to revisit key content and vocabulary.
Why this matters:
Sequencing is only effective if it deepens understanding. Revisiting key concepts and applying them in new contexts is critical to long-term learning.
How to approach this with AI:
Ask AI to highlight what is new vs what is reviewed
Include retrieval prompts or revision weeks
Identify where assessment feedback can inform planning
What to watch for:
✅ Surface coverage instead of depth
✅ Missed opportunities to revisit key concepts
✅ Weak links between reading and writing strands
Example prompt:
"Add notes to show where reading skills from Term 1 are reviewed in Terms 2 and 3. Include retrieval activities or linked assessments."
Step 4 – Export and Adapt for Your Setting
Once AI has generated your draft map, move it into your school’s long-term planning format. Use this version to add subject-specific tweaks, cultural links and real-world connections.
Why this matters:
The AI output is a draft. Your expertise turns it into something meaningful. This step ensures the plan reflects your school’s curriculum vision, learner context and inspection requirements.
How to approach this with AI:
Ask AI to format the plan into a table, doc or slide
Add term dates and holidays
Insert space for assessment notes or evidence columns
What to watch for:
✅ Passive adoption – treat the AI draft as editable, not final
✅ Missed alignment with whole-school foci
✅ Texts or topics that may not be appropriate in your region
Example prompt:
"Reformat this curriculum map into a table with columns for objectives, suggested texts, assessment points, and key vocabulary."
The Planning Partnership: What This Looks Like in Action
This example is based on two teacher case studies: a Year 5 teacher mapping a History unit on Ancient Egypt, and a Year 7 English teacher designing a novel study using A Monster Calls.
In both cases, the teachers began with their curriculum objectives and asked AI to help them draft a term-long map. They received a 6-week sequence with weekly outcomes, suggested cross-subject links, and formative checkpoints.
“It felt like I had a co-planner. AI gave me structure. I brought the professional judgement and creativity.”
Step-by-Step: Use AI to Plan a Single Unit
Once your year is mapped, AI can help you zoom into individual units and build a coherent weekly structure. This next process focuses on how to build out one unit — for example, a 6-week novel study or a 5-week Science investigation series.
Step 1 – Define Your Unit Focus
Begin by stating the topic, text or concept that anchors your unit. Clarify which year group you’re planning for, and list the specific learning objectives, concepts and skills involved. If possible, include key vocabulary and potential misconceptions.
Why this matters:
The more detailed your input, the better the unit map. AI is effective when it has a clear anchor and a well-defined scope.
How to approach this with AI:
State subject, year group and topic focus
Paste in curriculum objectives or lesson outcomes
Highlight terms that need explicit teaching
What to watch for:
✅ Overgeneralised focus (e.g. "novel study")
✅ Vague or multiple topics at once
✅ Missing skill alignment (reading, writing, analysis, etc.)
Example prompt:
"Plan a 6-week unit for Year 7 English using the novel A Monster Calls. Focus on character development, narrative techniques and emotional themes."
Step 2 – Generate a Weekly Unit Map
Ask AI to break the unit into weeks, with clear weekly outcomes, tasks and suggested assessment points. You can also request vocabulary or cross-curricular links.
Why this matters:
This provides a structured base you can adapt and build on. It helps visualise the shape of the unit and plan your resources accordingly.
How to approach this with AI:
Request 5–7 weekly breakdowns
Ask for lesson foci, task types and checkpoints
Include prompts for oracy, writing or reading
What to watch for:
✅ Tasks that are too repetitive or overly creative
✅ Lack of assessment variety
✅ Vocabulary that's too abstract or complex
Example prompt:
"Break this unit into 6 weekly lessons including reading analysis, one writing outcome, and a creative plenary. Add PSHE links."
Step 3 – Add Assessment and Retrieval
Ask AI to build in weekly formative tasks and a summative outcome at the end. You can include quizzes, writing tasks or student reflection.
Why this matters:
We don’t just want a teaching plan — we want to check for impact. Formative assessment helps track progress and inform feedback.
How to approach this with AI:
Ask for exit tickets, peer review, or mini-assessments
Link assessment tasks to objectives
Include cumulative review tasks
What to watch for:
✅ Assessment not aligned to the LO
✅ Too much emphasis on end-of-unit tasks
✅ Not enough informal checks for understanding
Example prompt:
"Add a formative task each week plus a final project where students create a character profile for Conor."
Step 4 – Differentiate a Core Task
Take a central task in the unit and ask AI to adapt it for different levels of learner readiness: support, on track, and stretch.
Why this matters:
Differentiation doesn’t have to mean writing three separate activities from scratch. AI can do the heavy lifting and help ensure all students access the same objective.
How to approach this with AI:
Define the original task first
Ask AI to keep the outcome consistent
Include scaffolds, language support or extension prompts
What to watch for:
✅ Over-complicated language for support
✅ Repetitive or superficial challenges
✅ Tasks that drift from the core objective
Example prompt:
"Rewrite the Week 4 writing task at three levels: support (sentence starters), on track (WAGOLL), and challenge (analytical paragraph with quotation integration)."
Step 5 – Personalise for Your Learners
Now take the plan and make it your own. Add real-world links, embed school-wide strategies and tweak vocabulary or timings to match your class profile.
Why this matters:
The AI provides the structure. Your expertise makes it resonate with your learners. This step is essential for classroom relevance.
How to approach this with AI:
Ask AI to add examples from your local context
Embed school routines (e.g. Think-Pair-Share, WALT/WILF)
Adjust for mixed-ability or multilingual learners
What to watch for:
✅ Generic references that feel disconnected
✅ Ignoring SEN/EAL adaptations
✅ Leaving vocabulary undefined
Example prompt:
"Adjust the vocabulary and examples in this unit to reflect a culturally diverse international school in the UAE."
Challenge: Step It Up
📚 Build a full term map
Choose one subject and ask AI to generate your next term's overview. Refine it, then share with your team.
🧠 Adapt one task three ways
Take a task you’ve already planned and ask AI to rewrite it for support, core and extension learners.
🌟 Custom GPT build
Create your own AI planning assistant with custom instructions. Train it to use your subject language, formatting style and school structure.
🧠 Advanced tip: Use GPT Builder to train a curriculum-aligned co-planner with your preferred language, format, and subject progression. It will remember your requirements each time you return.
Reflect and Share
💬 What’s your most time-consuming unit to plan? Could AI help you build the bones so you can focus on the details?
📸 Try it this week: create your own AI-generated curriculum map. Take a screenshot, tag a colleague, and let us know how it worked for you. Your example could be featured in an upcoming post!
Resources to Support You
📟 Free Resource
Editable curriculum map template + two filled examples (KS2 History and KS3 Science)
🔐 Paid Subscriber Exclusive
Curriculum Planning Toolkit
Pre-built long-term plans for three subjects
Editable curriculum progression ladders
🎓 Available in your subscriber dashboard
AI for Teachers – Blog Series
1. Planning with Purpose – AI and the Curriculum Map (You are here)
Use AI to map your curriculum for the year, then zoom in to plan high-impact, inclusive units.
2. Designing for Progression – Spot Gaps and Next Steps
Track how concepts build across year groups and use AI to analyse where progression breaks down.
3. Localise Your Curriculum – Adapting Content with AI
Adapt units to reflect local culture and identity using translation, rewriting and cultural relevance prompts.
4. From Idea to Impact – Planning Lessons with AI
Build full lesson sequences in minutes that reflect your curriculum intent.
5. Stretch and Scaffold – Differentiated Tasks with AI
Generate support and challenge versions of tasks that suit the range of learners in your classroom.
6. AI-Powered Kagan and Collaboration Tasks
Rework solo tasks into powerful peer-learning routines using cooperative structures.
7. Picture It – Visuals, Diagrams and Dual Coding with AI
Use AI to create visual aids and diagrams to support comprehension and long-term recall.
8. Formative in a Flash – Low-Stakes Checks with AI
Quickly create hinge questions, concept checks, and exit tickets aligned to Bloom’s and DOK.
9. Mastery Matters – Designing Summative Assessments
Build rubrics and performance tasks that align to your learning goals and mastery models.
10. Feedback Fast – Personalised Marking with AI
Speed up marking by creating personalised feedback that sounds like you.
11. Data Talks – Analyse Student Work and Trends with AI
Analyse student performance to inform future planning and adapt teaching strategies.
12. The AI Planning Workflow – From Intent to Impact
Combine everything into a weekly planning rhythm that saves time and improves focus.
🗓 Coming next: Designing for Progression – Spot Gaps and Next Steps
We’ll show how a KS3 Science lead used AI to build vertical progression maps and track development across key concepts.