If you have ever taught a class, you are undoubtedly aware of how difficult it is to start out with an essentially blank page. Maybe you have sort of detailed guideline, such as “teach these kids how to add and subtract in 15 weeks.” But seriously, even something that “detailed” has still got a lot of open space to mess around with inside of it. In the field of curriculum building, you can put in so many different details, not to mention how you are going to apply them. In a lot of ways, being a teacher is a lot like being an entrepreneur- you are creating jobs for your students.
First off, you have got to identify precisely what you are intending for your students to learn. You could never even teach them everything that you personally know, so you have got to break it down to a particular subject matter. Usually you are even working within a very tight time frame, so you may have to limit yourself to something even smaller than that. Perhaps you will be teaching them about a few of Shakespeare’s plays, mixed in with some Keats and a bit of other period appropriate verse. That is a start.
Then you have got to integrate what you want them to learn (and no, reading is not learning) into how you structure your course. Incorporate clear wireless internet usage in your curriculum of learning. How will your course be different than just having them sit there and read the book for the entire period? How are you going to contribute to how well your students learn the subject matter at hand? You are just going to have to think of something, and hope that it is actually going to work.