Use Claude to Design PD Sessions from Research

1. Go to claude.ai
2. Click Sign up — use Google or email
3. Complete the setup — no credit card needed for the free tier

What you should see: The main Claude chat interface with a large text input at the bottom.

Claude produces better PD designs when you give it:

• Topic: What instructional focus is the session about? (e.g., "close reading in 6th grade ELA")
• Audience: Who are you designing for? (e.g., "K-2 teachers, mixed experience levels")
• Duration: How long is the session? (e.g., "60 minutes with a 10-minute break")
• Format: In-person, virtual, or hybrid?
• Context: Any relevant school/district factors? (e.g., "We're in year 1 of a new literacy curriculum — teachers feel overwhelmed")
• Outcome: What should teachers leave able to do? (e.g., "teachers can plan and lead a text annotation activity")

You don't need all of these — just topic, audience, and duration get you a solid starting point.

In Claude, type (or copy and customize) this prompt:

You're helping me design a professional development session. Here are the details:

- Topic: [your PD topic]
- Audience: [grade levels and subject areas of teachers attending]
- Duration: [session length]
- Format: [in-person / virtual / hybrid]
- Learning outcome: By the end of this session, teachers will be able to [specific skill or behavior]
- Context: [anything relevant about your school situation]

Please design a complete facilitator agenda including:
1. Session objectives (2-3 max)
2. Materials needed
3. Warm-up activity (5-10 min)
4. Core learning sequence (include timing for each segment)
5. Practice activity where teachers try the strategy themselves
6. Discussion questions for each section
7. Closing reflection
8. Suggested follow-up actions for teachers after the session

Claude will return a full session design. Read through it and:

• Check that the timing adds up to your total duration
• Verify the activities are realistic for your specific audience
• Look for anything that assumes resources you don't have
• Identify any activities you'd do differently based on knowing your staff

Then ask Claude to adjust specific parts:

• "The core activity is too complex for my teachers — simplify it"
• "Add a differentiation note for teachers who are already strong in this area"
• "Replace the small group discussion with a think-pair-share to keep it moving"

If you have research articles, district frameworks, or resource documents you want the session based on:

1. If using Claude Pro: click the paperclip icon in the chat window and upload PDFs
2. If using the free tier: paste the text of articles or key excerpts directly in your message
3. Tell Claude: "Design the session based on the research I've attached/pasted above, not general knowledge"

What you should see: Claude references specific ideas from your documents in the session design — activities grounded in the actual research you want to use.

Once the session design looks right:

1. Ask Claude: "Now reformat this as a clean one-page facilitator agenda with times on the left, activity description in the middle, and materials needed on the right"
2. Copy the formatted agenda into a Google Doc
3. Build your slides from the agenda (or use the Canva Level 2 guide to generate them faster)

1. After building 2-3 sessions, you'll notice which prompt structures work best for your style
2. Save your best PD design prompt in a Google Doc titled "PD Design Prompts"
3. For next year: the same session structure with updated research content is a 10-minute refresh, not a 4-hour rebuild