In my previous post, I discussed the Unit Design Framework I use when developing new learning units. In that post, I explained five key factors I consider when designing a unit: Knowledge & Skills, Thinking, Cognitive Conditions, Tools & Constraints, and Experience & Engagement.
I wrote that just before creating my new American Revolution unit for my Grade 10 World History course, so I thought I’d use it as an opportunity to create a case-study showing how I use the Framework to build the new unit from the top down. The goal was not to organize learning content, but rather to deliberately engineer the learning conditions that would help students think more deeply about and remember the content.
Through the process, I used ChatGPT as a planning partner to help organize content, challenge ideas, identify gaps, refine overall structure and stress-test my decisions before I even started planning a single lesson.
In this post, I will walk through the exact steps I took and show how the framework guided the design process from beginning to end.
Step 1: Establish the Framework Before Discussing Content
I already have my Unit Design Framework stored in my ChatGPT’s memory. Before doing anything else, I ask the AI to explain the framework back to me.
This serves two purposes: Firstly, it confirms that we’re both operating within the framework; and secondly, it brings those ideas back into the active conversation so they remain central throughout the planning process.
This step is important because without it, AI tends to provide generic responses, random lesson ideas, or suggest disconnected activities that don’t connect into a single cohesive unit.
Step 2: Identify Standards and Learning Goals
For this unit, I use a combination of AERO standards and Common Core historical thinking skills. However, these formal standards alone are not enough to design a unit.
I also wanted to identify both the knowledge and skills students should still possess six months after completing the course. In other words, what content do I want them to remember, and what thinking skills do I want them to use with that content.
After several rounds of discussion, two big questions began to emerge:
- What needs to happen for a population to revolt against its government?
- How do you create a government that is strong enough to govern, but limited enough to protect liberty?
I particularly liked these questions because the American Revolution is often studied in the context of other revolutions, including the French Revolution, so concepts taught here would be relevant down the line too.
These questions then became the foundation of the entire unit.
Step 3: Building the Unit Spine
At this point, I had the AI generate a comprehensive list of events and topics associated with the American Revolution. The results looked like a traditional textbook outline:
- Stamp Act
- Tea Act
- Boston Massacre
- Lexington and Concord
- Etc.
The list was obviously very useful, but it also highlighted the risk of merely teaching the Revolution as a series of events to be memorized. Instead, I wanted to identify the big picture themes running through the entire unit: the systems, pressures, decisions, cause-and-effect relationships, and so on.
After some discussion, we settled on a broader story:
- An established system
- Tensions within the system
- Competing perspectives
- Escalation
- Conflict
- Independence
- System failure
- System redesign
So this became the spine of the unit. This changed the unit from a series of events into a connected system. Instead of asking students to memorize what happened next, they’d rather be asked why events happened, what decisions were made, and what were the consequences.
Every lesson would then connect back to that spine.
Step 4: Build the Content Skeleton
Once the spine was clear, I then organized the content, knowledge and skills students would need throughout the unit. The unit naturally divided itself into three major parts:
- Part I: Why the Revolution Happened?
- Part II: Winning Independence
- Part III: Building a Nation
Initially, this produced a list of twelve potential lessons to include in this unit. For now, that number was okay because the goal was simply to identify the content that might be included in the unit.
Step 5: Identify Opportunities for Meaningful Experiences & AI Integration
One of my favourite parts of unit design is identifying opportunities for meaningful experiences (in other words, where can I create awesome games and activities that support the learning goals?) A personal goal of mine is to make the lessons unique, to add variety and excitement into the unit wherever possible, and to make everything memorable! I therefore look for opportunities where students can make decisions, evaluate trade-offs, defend positions, and experience conflict.
- The first main opportunity I saw was turning the Road to Revolution lesson into a simulation. I considered several types of simulations I’d done in the past, and decided that a choose-your-own-adventure decision-making simulation would be best suited here, so I flagged that lesson for that.
- The second opportunity I saw was creating simulated experiences in post-war nation building. Rather than simply reading about post-war problems, students would attempt to govern the new nation themselves while balancing Liberty vs Stability. This also provided an opportunity to integrate AI in a deliberate way. Like some other lessons I’ve done in the past, students would be provided with a master simulation prompt which they would paste into their AI assistants, and they would then engage in a simulation that adapts to their own decisions, creating a more dynamic learning experience.
- The third opportunity I identified at this stage was for the Constitutional Convention. Rather than memorizing passages from the Constitution, students would engage in a simulation where they had to analyze evidence, compare viewpoints, and ultimately decide if they agreed with the Constitution.
By this point, the unit had several highlight lessons directly connected to some of the most important learning goals.
Step 6: Refine the Structure and Give Every Lesson a Job
One thing I’ve learnt over the years is that more content doesn’t necessarily produce more learning. The idea is quality over quantity. So, after flagging the highlight lessons, I looked closely at each of the other lessons to justify their place in the unit.
- Why is this lesson here?
- What are its learning goals?
- Do these goals overlap with other lessons, or does any content overlap with other lessons?
- Does it connect back to the unit spine?
At this point, I reordered some lessons, combined others, and cut some content out. The original twelve lessons were cut down to eight, and then six. Then, when looking at the Revolutionary War lesson, I realized there was too much content, so I split that into Parts A and B, leaving me with 6 lessons taught over 7 classes.
After this, I looked at the learning goals again, and searched for opportunities to engineer even more learning conditions: Where could they analyze more perspectives? Where could they build cause-and-effect chains? Where could they weigh competing priorities and make their own decisions? And so on.
The Result
By the end of this process, I had not yet created a single slideshow, worksheet, or reading passage. What I did have was a complete blueprint for the unit:
- It had a cohesive narrative arc
- The standards and learning goals were addressed
- The knowledge and skills were mapped out
- The highlight lessons had been identified
- The role and integration of AI had been planned
- Every lesson had a clear purpose
Only then did I start planning lesson 1.
Final thoughts on my use of AI
AI did not build this unit for me, but the unit is much better thanks to the AI’s assistance. It was a helpful co-designer that helped me explore options, identify redundancies, establish a smooth workflow, and refine the structure much faster than I could have done alone. With the framework already loaded into its memory, it was able to work alongside me to engineer learning conditions to my satisfaction, and for me, that’s where AI is the most helpful in my teaching practice.
If you’re interested in seeing my completed unit on the American Revolution, please click here, or download Lesson 1 for free here.
Happy teaching!
Mr. G