A class can be working toward the same learning goal while students need different kinds of support to get there. Some may need help understanding the vocabulary in a text. Others may need a worked example, a clearer set of instructions, or a task that asks them to take their thinking further.
Preparing those variations takes time. AI tools can help teachers adapt reading materials, draft scaffolds, generate practice activities, and develop extension tasks. The useful starting point is a specific learning need: what is getting in the way, and what adjustment might help?
Below are several AI tools for differentiated instruction, with examples of how you could use them. I have included general-purpose chatbots alongside education platforms because both can support this planning work. In each case, review the material against your learning goal before sharing it with students.
AI Tools for Differentiated Instruction at a Glance
| Tool | Main support | Example classroom use |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude | Flexible drafting and adaptation through prompts | Create different scaffolds for a shared task |
| Diffit | Adapted reading materials and activities | Prepare passages at different reading levels for a common discussion |
| MagicSchool | Text rewriting and classroom resource generation | Adapt a passage while retaining essential subject vocabulary |
| Brisk Teaching | Reading-level adjustment and translation | Adapt an existing article for a particular group |
| Eduaide | Editable resources and differentiation supports | Add guiding questions, scaffolds, or alternative question formats |
| SchoolAI | Teacher-designed AI learning Spaces | Set up guided practice and review students’ interactions |
1. AI Chatbots: ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude
ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude can help teachers create variations of a lesson resource. You can ask for vocabulary explanations, sentence starters, chunked instructions, practice questions, worked examples, or extension activities.
The quality of the request matters. “Differentiate this lesson” leaves many decisions open. Explain the learning goal, the difficulty students are experiencing, and what should remain unchanged.
For example, if students understand a science concept but struggle to organize an explanation, you could request a planning frame. If they already understand the core idea, you could ask for a new situation in which they need to apply it.
Sample prompt:
Adapt the task below for a Grade 7 science lesson.
Learning goal: Explain how a change in one part of a food web can affect other organisms.
Create three optional supports: a short glossary of essential terms, a planning organizer, and guiding questions. Keep the same learning goal and require students to explain the relationships themselves.
Also suggest an extension involving a new food-web scenario that requires students to justify a prediction. Use only the organisms and relationships in the material I provide. Label any additional information that would need checking.
Describe learning needs without entering identifiable student information. Use the school-approved service and account where required.
2. Diffit
Diffit focuses on adapting content and creating instructional resources. Its tools include reading passages and comprehension questions, and its differentiation guidance describes using different reading levels before bringing students together around a common discussion prompt.
This makes it worth exploring when you want students to investigate the same topic through more accessible reading materials. For a history lesson, for example, you could prepare versions of a background passage, then ask everyone to discuss the same historical question.
Check what changes between versions. Shorter sentences can help access, but an adaptation may also remove a qualification or example that students need. Reading-level labels are starting points for review; they do not tell you everything about a student’s ability to understand a particular topic.
3. MagicSchool
MagicSchool’s Text Rewriter lets teachers rewrite text for different reading levels and learning needs. You supply the original material and instructions for the adaptation.
One useful approach is to specify what must stay. You might ask for shorter sentences while retaining key scientific terms, or clearer instructions while keeping the original task requirements.
For instance, a geography passage could retain terms such as erosion and deposition, with brief explanations added beside them. This gives students access to the vocabulary they will encounter again in the lesson.
I would compare the revised passage with the original, checking both meaning and age appropriateness. Accessible language should still respect students’ age and the complexity of the topic.
4. Brisk Teaching
Brisk Teaching offers reading-level adjustment and translation tools. These are useful options to explore when you already have a resource and want to adapt it.
You might begin with an article selected for a lesson, then generate a version with more accessible language. A translated version could provide additional access for multilingual learners, alongside the subject vocabulary they are learning in the language of instruction.
Decide what the adaptation is intended to support. Translation may help a student engage with content, but it does not by itself reveal what they can read independently in another language. Check important terms and translated instructions before relying on them.
5. Eduaide
Eduaide provides an editable workspace for creating and adapting teaching resources. Its differentiation features include adjusting reading level, adding supports, changing question formats, and building scaffolds.
This broader approach is useful because differentiation can involve more than rewriting a passage. A student might need a sequence of prompts to begin a task, an organizer to connect ideas, or practice with one part of a process.
For example, you could develop a shared writing assignment and add optional support for planning evidence and explaining its relevance. Students ready to extend their thinking could examine a competing interpretation.
Review whether the support helps students do the intended thinking. An organizer that supplies the whole argument may remove the work you wanted them to practise.
6. SchoolAI
SchoolAI offers Spaces that teachers can design for student interaction, alongside a teacher dashboard called Mission Control. This gives it a different role from tools used mainly to prepare worksheets or adapted texts.
A possible use is guided practice on a topic students have already encountered. You could set up an activity intended to ask questions, offer hints, and give students opportunities to explain their answers.
Test the Space as a learner before using it. Check whether it gives away answers, whether its explanations are accurate, and whether students can complete the activity without meaningful engagement. Use the dashboard as a source of information to follow up on through student work and conversation.
Student-facing use also requires checking school approval, age requirements, and account arrangements.
How to Use AI for Differentiation Purposefully
Start with evidence from students’ work. Identify a particular need, choose an adjustment, and check what happens when students use it. A student may need vocabulary support in one lesson and a demanding extension in another.
Keep these questions in mind:
- What is the learning goal? Decide which knowledge or skill students need to develop.
- What needs adjusting? Consider language, instructions, practice, scaffolding, or challenge.
- What must stay? Preserve the reasoning and subject content essential to the goal.
- What will you observe? Look for evidence that the adjustment helps students participate and learn.
For me, the practical value of AI here is the ability to prepare and revise options more quickly. The teacher still decides which option fits, when support should be reduced, and what the next piece of student work tells us.
