Prompt Chaining: Create a Full Differentiated Unit in One Session

What This Builds

A multi-step prompt chain that takes a single general education unit plan and produces a complete differentiated version for your special education students — covering reading materials at multiple levels, adapted activities, modified assessments, and visual supports — in one 45-minute session instead of spread across multiple days of prep.

Prerequisites

• Claude Pro account ($20/month) — longer context needed for multi-step workflows
• A general education unit plan or lesson sequence (can get from your co-teacher)
• Notes on your students' IEP goals and disability profiles
• Google Drive folder to organize outputs
• MagicSchool.ai account for text leveling (free)

The Concept

Prompt chaining means the output of one AI prompt becomes the input for the next. Instead of treating AI like a search engine (one question = one answer), you're building a multi-step process where each step builds on the last — the way an experienced teacher might think through differentiation systematically.

For this workflow, the chain looks like: Unit Overview → Student Profile Analysis → Differentiated Activities → Modified Assessment → Visual Supports → Implementation Guide.

Each step is fast individually; combined, they produce a week of differentiated instruction.

Build It Step by Step

Part 1: Set Up Your Session

Open Claude Pro. Start a new conversation. Type this introduction:

I'm going to walk through a differentiation planning chain with you. I'll give you the general education unit plan, then we'll work through it step by step to create differentiated materials for my special education students. I'll tell you when I'm ready for the next step. Don't generate everything at once — wait for my "Go to Step [X]" signal.

This primes Claude to work methodically through your session rather than trying to do everything in one sprawling response.

Part 2: Step 1 — Unit Overview Analysis

Paste your general education unit plan (or a 3-4 sentence summary of it). Then type:

Step 1: Analyze this unit. Identify:
- The 3-5 core concepts all students must understand
- The 3 most reading/language-heavy elements (highest barrier for students with disabilities)
- The 2-3 elements most suitable for hands-on or visual learning
Keep each list to bullet points only.

What you should see: A clean analysis identifying where your students will struggle and where differentiation will have the most impact. This focuses your next steps.

Part 3: Step 2 — Student Profile Mapping

Next, describe your students. Type:

Step 2: Here are the disability profiles of my 4 special education students in this inclusion class:

Student A: Intellectual disability, reads at K-1 level, needs visual supports and physical manipulation, understands concepts when explained concretely
Student B: Autism spectrum, grade-level reader, needs explicit step-by-step instructions, strong with patterns and rules, struggles with open-ended tasks
Student C: Dyslexia/SLD reading, reads at 2nd grade level but strong comprehension when read aloud, needs text-to-speech access
Student D: ADHD, grade-level academically, needs chunked tasks, movement, and frequent check-ins

For each student, identify which of the "reading/language-heavy elements" from Step 1 will be their primary barrier, and what type of adaptation will most help them access the core concepts.

What you should see: A student-by-student breakdown of barriers and adaptation strategies — the planning document you'd normally create mentally but never write down.

Part 4: Step 3 — Generate Differentiated Activities

Now use the analysis to create the actual materials. Type:

Step 3: For the 3 core concepts you identified, create modified activity versions for each student profile:
- Student A (intellectual disability): concrete/visual/hands-on version
- Student B (autism): explicit step-by-step version with clear structure
- Student C (SLD reading): same-complexity version with audio-friendly format (text marked for read-aloud, key terms in bold)
- Student D (ADHD): chunked version broken into 3 short segments with a movement break built in

Format each as a brief activity description (3-5 sentences) suitable for printing as a student instruction card.

What you should see: 12 activity descriptions (4 students × 3 concepts) in print-ready format.

Part 5: Step 4 — Modified Assessment

Generate an adapted assessment. Type:

Step 4: The original unit assessment is: [describe it briefly — e.g., "15 multiple choice + 2 short answer paragraphs"].

Create a modified version for Student A (intellectual disability) that measures the same 3 core concepts using: picture/word matching, yes/no questions, and a draw-and-label task instead of written responses.

Also create an extended time/chunked version for Student D (ADHD): same questions, but broken into 3 sections of 5 questions each with a visual checkoff between sections.

Part 6: Step 5 — Visual Supports Checklist

Type:

Step 5: List the visual supports you recommend creating for this unit to support Students A and B. For each, describe what it is, what it shows, and which lesson it's used in. Keep the list to 5-7 items — the ones with the most impact.

What you should see: A prioritized list of visual supports (word walls, process charts, vocabulary picture cards, etc.) with enough description to create them in Canva.

Part 7: Assemble and Implement

Copy all outputs into a Google Doc organized by student. Use the visual supports list to create your Canva materials. Send the differentiated activity descriptions to be printed as instruction cards. Done — a full differentiated unit in one session.

Real Example: Social Studies Unit on Immigration

Unit: 5th grade, 2-week unit on immigration to the United States. General ed materials: chapter readings, timeline activity, compare/contrast essay.

After running the chain:

• Step 1 identifies: chapter readings (highest barrier), essay writing (high barrier), timeline sequencing (most accessible)
• Step 2 maps each student's primary challenge to those barriers
• Step 3 produces: picture-book style immigration story for Student A, numbered compare/contrast chart for Student B, read-aloud accessible version for Student C, 3-chunk reading + questions for Student D
• Step 4 produces: picture-word matching immigration assessment for Student A; chunked essay with sentence starters for Student D
• Step 5 produces: visual timeline template, immigration vocabulary picture cards, compare/contrast anchor chart

What you have: A complete differentiated unit with materials for all 4 students. Time: 45-60 minutes with Claude, then 30-45 minutes creating Canva visuals.

What that replaces: 2-3 evenings of manual differentiation work across the course of the unit.

What to Do When It Breaks

• Claude loses track of student profiles → Paste a brief "reminder" at the start of each step: "Reminder: 4 students, profiles from Step 2 above"
• Outputs are too long to use as student cards → Ask "shorten each activity description to 3 sentences maximum"
• Step 3 outputs aren't concrete enough → Follow up: "Make Student A's version more concrete — what physical objects would they touch/sort/move?"
• Session runs out of context → Save all previous outputs to a Google Doc before continuing; start a new session and paste the most recent step summary as context

Variations

• Simpler version: Run only Steps 1 and 3 — analyze the unit and generate differentiated activities — skip the assessment modification and visual supports for your first try
• Extended version: After completing the chain, ask Claude to "write teacher implementation notes explaining how to introduce each modified activity and common confusion points to watch for"

What to Do Next

• This week: Run one upcoming unit through this chain to test it; compare prep time to your usual differentiation approach
• This month: Refine the step prompts based on what outputs are most useful; save your best version in a Google Doc as your reusable template
• Advanced: Add a Step 0 at the beginning: "Review these 4 students' IEP goals and tell me which unit objectives directly address IEP goal areas for each student" — this aligns your differentiation to IEP accountability from the start

Advanced guide for special education teacher professionals. These techniques use more sophisticated AI features that may require paid subscriptions.