Skill: Sequence Curriculum

Use this skill when building a multi-session curriculum for an educator. A curriculum is not a list of topics — it's a dependency-aware learning journey that distributes skills across sessions, manages pacing, and adapts based on learner progress.

When to activate

• •Educator wants to plan multiple sessions: "I have 6 sessions over 3 weeks"
• •Educator asks for a curriculum, course plan, or session sequence
• •The curriculum-agent subagent is composing a multi-session plan

Prerequisites for curriculum design

Before sequencing, verify you have:

1. •Complete group profile — group file with interview context, constraints, and member list with skill assessments
2. •Skill graph — the relevant domain loaded from data/domains/{domain}/
3. •Session parameters — number of sessions, duration per session, frequency
4. •Learning objectives — target skills or Bloom's level the educator wants to reach

If any of these are missing, stop and gather them first.

Curriculum design methodology

1. Critical path analysis

Map target skills onto the dependency graph. The critical path is the longest chain of prerequisites from the group's current level to the target skills.

• •Identify which skills the group already has (assessed or inferred above 0.6)
• •Identify which skills are missing — these form the teaching frontier
• •Trace dependency chains from missing skills back to the group's current level
• •The longest chain determines the minimum number of sessions needed

2. Skill clustering

Group skills into teachable clusters — skills that share prerequisites and Bloom's level, and can be taught in the same session.

Clustering rules:

• •Skills in the same cluster should share at least one prerequisite
• •A cluster should span at most two adjacent Bloom's levels
• •A single session should cover 2–4 new skills (depending on duration and level)
• •Skills that are each other's prerequisites cannot be in the same cluster

3. Session distribution

Distribute skill clusters across sessions respecting:

Hard constraints:

• •Prerequisites must be taught before dependents (never teach B before A if A -> B)
• •Session duration limits (account for opening, closing, transitions — only 60–70% of session time is actual instruction)

Soft constraints:

• •Lower Bloom's levels first, higher later (knowledge -> comprehension -> application -> analysis -> synthesis -> evaluation)
• •Balance difficulty across sessions — don't front-load all the hard material
• •Leave room for review and practice, not just new content

4. Spiral curriculum approach

Don't teach a skill once and move on. Revisit skills at increasing depth:

• •Session N: Introduce skill at knowledge/comprehension level
• •Session N+1: Apply skill in a guided exercise (application level)
• •Session N+2: Integrate skill with others in a complex task (analysis/synthesis)

This means a skill may appear in multiple sessions at different Bloom's levels. Track which level was targeted in each session.

5. Spaced repetition

Space the revisits:

• •If a session introduces Skill A, the next session should open with a 5-minute review of Skill A before moving to new material
• •If the gap between sessions is more than 3 days, add a longer review segment
• •Critical prerequisites should be reviewed in at least 2 subsequent sessions

6. Interleaving

Don't teach all related skills back-to-back. Interleave different skill types within a session to improve retention:

• •Alternate between conceptual skills and practical skills
• •Alternate between individual work and group work
• •After a difficult new concept, follow with practice on a recently learned skill

7. Pace estimation

Estimate time per skill based on group level:

Adjustments:

• •Hands-on/applied skills take 1.5x longer than conceptual skills
• •If accessibility accommodations are needed, add 10–15% buffer
• •First session of a sequence needs extra time for orientation (5–10 min)

8. Cross-session connectors

Every session except the first should open with a connector to the previous session:

**[0:00–0:05] Opening — Connect to last session (5 min)**
Educator: "Last time, we learned [X]. Quick check: can someone tell me [review question]?"
Students: Brief recall exercise (cold call 2–3 students).
Watch for: If most students can't recall, extend this to 8 min with a quick pair-share.

Every session except the last should close with a preview:

**[closing] Preview — What's next (2 min)**
Educator: "Next time, we'll build on [today's skill] to learn [next skill].
Between now and then, try [optional low-stakes practice suggestion]."

Output structure

A curriculum document includes:

1. Curriculum overview

• •Title, group, domain, total sessions, total duration
• •Overall learning objectives mapped to target skills and Bloom's levels
• •Progression summary: "From [current level] to [target level] in [N] sessions"

2. Progression map

• •Visual or tabular representation of skills mapped across sessions
• •Dependency arrows showing why skills are ordered as they are
• •Bloom's level progression across the sequence

3. Session-by-session plans

For each session:

• •Session number, title, date (if known)
• •Target skills for this session
• •Bloom's level focus
• •Prerequisites (should be satisfied by prior sessions)
• •Cross-session connector (review of prior session)
• •Brief session outline (detailed lesson plans are composed separately)
• •Milestone checkpoint: "By the end of this session, students should be able to..."
• •Status: planned / in-progress / completed / needs-remediation

4. Milestone checkpoints

• •After each session, define what the group should be able to do
• •These form the assessment criteria for advance_curriculum

5. Adaptation notes

• •What to do if the group is ahead of schedule
• •What to do if the group falls behind
• •Which sessions can be compressed vs which are critical
• •Which skills are "nice to have" vs "must have"

Curriculum storage

Write curriculum documents to data/curricula/{slug}.md where slug is derived from the group name and domain.

Rules

• •Always read the skill graph before designing a curriculum
• •Always read all learner profiles to understand the group's starting point
• •Never design a curriculum that violates dependency ordering
• •Every session must have at least one clear milestone checkpoint
• •Include "what to cut" notes for every session — educators always run short on time
• •If the number of sessions is insufficient for the target skills, say so explicitly and recommend either reducing scope or adding sessions