Prompt Chain: Build a Full New Teacher Coaching Curriculum in One Session

What This Builds

You'll run a structured 6-prompt chain in Claude that produces a complete first-year teacher coaching curriculum: a full semester of coaching touchpoints, observation focuses, conversation frameworks, resource sets, and progress milestones — in one focused 2-hour session instead of 2-3 days of piecemeal development. The output is a ready-to-use curriculum you can reuse, adapt, and share with other coaches in your building.

Prerequisites

• Claude Pro subscription ({{tool:Claude.price}}) — the full chain requires Claude's longer context window
• A clear picture of your first-year teachers' current challenges (or a general new-teacher profile for your school context)
• Your coaching framework or model in mind (you'll reference it in prompts)
• 2 uninterrupted hours for a focused build session

The Concept

A "prompt chain" is a multi-step workflow where each prompt builds on the output of the previous one. Unlike a single big prompt, chaining lets you layer complexity: first you establish the teacher profile, then the learning sequence, then the session content, then the resources, then the assessment tools. Each step informs the next — the way a curriculum developer would work, but compressed into hours instead of weeks.

Build It Step by Step

Part 1: Define Your First-Year Teacher Profile

Start a new Claude conversation. Run Prompt 1:

Prompt 1 — Teacher Profile:

I'm building a coaching curriculum for first-year teachers at my school. Help me define the learner profile so we can design the curriculum around their actual needs.

My school context: [describe your school — grade levels, subject areas, student population, any relevant challenges]

Based on what you know about common first-year teacher challenges and the context I've described, answer these questions:
1. What are the 5 most common struggles for first-year teachers in the first semester?
2. What emotional arc do most first-year teachers follow (month-by-month)?
3. Which struggles benefit most from coaching support vs. which are better addressed through PD or mentoring?
4. What does "success" look like for a first-year teacher at the end of year one?

I'll use this profile to design the coaching curriculum in the next steps.

Read the output. Add any corrections or context: "Add that our school uses a science-of-reading approach for K-5 — this is a major adjustment for most new hires."

Part 2: Design the Semester-Long Coaching Sequence

Prompt 2 — Coaching Sequence:

Using the teacher profile we just developed, design a semester-long coaching sequence. The sequence should cover 16 weeks (September to January for a fall cohort, or January to June for a spring cohort).

For each 2-week period, specify:
- The coaching focus (what skill/challenge to address)
- The observation focus (what to watch for in the classroom)
- The coaching conversation goal (what the coach and teacher should discuss and decide)
- The emotional support need (what the teacher likely needs emotionally at this point in the year)

Format as a table: Week Range | Coaching Focus | Observation Focus | Conversation Goal | Emotional Support Need

Design the sequence so it:
- Starts with classroom management and relationships (urgent in September)
- Moves toward instruction and lesson design (once the class is functional)
- Ends with data-informed reflection (as the semester closes)
- Includes a natural relationship-building phase in weeks 1-2 before any formalized coaching begins

Part 3: Build the Session Content for Weeks 1-4 (Relationship Phase)

Prompt 3 — Session Scripts:

Now develop the detailed session content for the first 4 weeks of the coaching curriculum (the relationship-building and classroom environment phase).

For each 2-week coaching touchpoint in weeks 1-4, write:
1. A conversation opener the coach can use that establishes trust (not evaluation)
2. 3-4 coaching questions to guide reflection
3. One concrete tool or strategy to introduce
4. A "homework" the teacher tries before the next session

Make the conversation openers specific — not generic "How's it going?" but something that opens a real conversation about teaching.

Part 4: Build Resources for the Full Curriculum

Prompt 4 — Resource Library:

Based on the 16-week coaching sequence we designed, create a resource library for this curriculum.

For each of the 8 coaching focus areas we identified, create one quick-reference resource:
- A 1-page "coaching guide" with: 3 strategies for this skill, 2 common mistakes to avoid, and 1 example of what this skill looks like at beginner/intermediate/advanced levels
- Format each as a standalone page that can be printed and shared with the teacher after a coaching session

Start with the first 3 coaching focus areas.

After reviewing, ask for the remaining 5: "Continue with coaching focus areas 4-8."

Part 5: Build the Progress Milestones and Check-Ins

Prompt 5 — Assessment Tools:

Design the assessment and milestone-tracking system for this coaching curriculum.

Create:
1. A "Week 4 Check-in" conversation protocol — 10 questions to help coach and teacher assess early progress and adjust the coaching focus if needed
2. A "Midpoint Reflection" (Week 8) tool — a teacher self-assessment on the 5 core skills we've been coaching, with 1-5 scale and open reflection questions
3. An "End-of-Semester Coaching Summary" template — a 1-page document the coach completes summarizing the teacher's growth, remaining challenges, and recommended focus for the spring semester
4. A "Bright Spots" protocol for Week 16 — a closing coaching conversation that helps the teacher name their growth and set intentions for year two

Format each as a standalone document ready to print.

Part 6: Package the Complete Curriculum

Prompt 6 — Curriculum Document:

Now compile everything we've built into a complete, organized coaching curriculum document.

Create a table of contents and introduction section for the curriculum. The introduction should:
- Describe the philosophy behind this coaching approach (non-evaluative, strengths-based, teacher-driven)
- Explain how to use the curriculum (a guide for coaches)
- Describe the expected outcomes for teachers who complete it
- Include a "How to adapt this curriculum" section — how to modify timing, focus, or depth based on different school contexts

After writing the introduction and table of contents, summarize everything we've built across all 6 prompts as a section-by-section overview.

Real Example: Full Curriculum Build in One Session

Input: You're a literacy coach at a K-5 school with 4 new teachers this year. Two teach 1st grade (your most critical grade for literacy), one teaches 3rd, and one teaches 5th.

What you feed the chain:

• Prompt 1: "My school is an urban K-5 Title I school with 72% economically disadvantaged students. We implemented a structured literacy approach 2 years ago. Most new hires haven't been trained in science of reading and need to learn phonics instruction from scratch."
• Prompts 2-6: You run them as written above, adding specific context where it helps

What you end up with after 2 hours:

• A 16-week coaching sequence tailored to new teachers in a structured literacy school
• Session content and conversation scripts for all 8 coaching focus areas
• A resource library of 8 coaching guides on structured literacy and classroom management
• Three assessment tools (check-in, midpoint reflection, end-of-semester summary)
• A complete curriculum document with intro, ToC, and philosophy

Time this would normally take: 2-3 days of document development. Time with the prompt chain: 2 hours.

What to Do When It Breaks

• Output in later prompts loses context from earlier ones → Claude Pro's long context handles most cases, but if the conversation gets very long, start a new chat and paste in the key decisions from earlier prompts as context
• Curriculum feels generic → Go back to Prompt 1 and add more specific school context — the quality of all downstream prompts depends on how specific your initial profile is
• Session content is too long for practical use → Ask Claude to "create a 1-page quick-reference version of each coaching session guide — just the must-have elements"

Variations

• Simpler version: Run only Prompts 1-3 for a lighter coaching framework. You get the sequence and the early session content without the full resource library.
• Extended version: After completing the 6-prompt chain, run a 7th prompt: "Now adapt this curriculum for mid-career teachers in their first year at a new school — they have teaching experience but are new to our context and culture."

What to Do Next

• This week: Run the first 3 prompts to build your teacher profile and semester sequence — that alone is immediately useful
• This month: Complete the full chain and share the curriculum document with your principal or HR team — it can inform your new teacher induction program
• Advanced: Create a version of this curriculum for each coaching focus area in your school (literacy coaching curriculum, math coaching curriculum, ELL coaching curriculum) — you become a curriculum factory

Advanced guide for instructional coach professionals. These techniques use more sophisticated AI features that may require paid subscriptions.