How to Differentiate Instruction in the Age of AI: Strategies for Every Learner

What Differentiation Is — and Isn't

Differentiation has a reputation for being exhausting, mostly because of a misunderstanding. It doesn't mean writing thirty individual lesson plans. It means that everyone works toward the same learning goal, with different amounts of support and challenge along the way.

That distinction matters. If the lower group colors in a diagram while the higher group analyzes data, the two groups aren't learning the same thing, and the gap between them widens. Good differentiation keeps the objective fixed and changes the route.

What You Can Change

There are four levers, and you rarely need more than one at a time.

• Content — the material students work with: a shorter text, a glossary, a more complex source.
• Process — how they work on it: with a worked example, with a partner, with a step-by-step guide, or independently.
• Product — how they show what they've learned: a paragraph, a labeled diagram, an oral explanation.
• Support — what scaffolding is available: sentence starters, a word bank, a hint card.

The learning objective is not on the list. That stays the same for everyone.

Start With a Quick Check

You can't differentiate well by guessing who needs what. A short check before or at the start of a unit tells you far more than last year's grades: three questions on prerequisite knowledge, an exit ticket from the previous lesson, or a quick show of mini-whiteboards.

Groups formed from that evidence should be temporary. A student who needs support with fractions may be the strongest in the class at geometry. Regroup by topic, and avoid fixed "ability" tables that students quickly learn to read as a label.

The Tiered Task

The most practical technique is the tiered task: one activity, three versions.

Take a Grade 6 objective: identify the main idea of a nonfiction text and support it with evidence.

Supported version: A shorter passage on the topic with key vocabulary defined. Students choose the main idea from three options and underline two sentences that support it.

Core version: The grade-level passage. Students write the main idea in their own words and quote two pieces of supporting evidence.

Extended version: The same passage plus a second short text on the same subject. Students state the main idea of each and explain how the two authors' emphases differ.

All three groups practice the same skill. Nobody is doing "easier work" in the sense of different work — they're doing the same work with different amounts of help.

Where AI Saves Time

The reason tiered tasks are rare is that making three versions of everything takes three times as long. This is the part AI handles well: rewriting an existing text or task at a different level is exactly the kind of job a language model does quickly.

It's also worth being clear about what such a tool doesn't do. It doesn't know your students, track their progress, or decide who gets which version. It adapts the material you give it. The diagnosis and the grouping remain yours.

A sensible workflow:

1. Write or choose the core, on-level version of the task.
2. Paste it into an adapter and describe any specific needs — "several students are English language learners at an intermediate level," or "two students read well above grade level."
3. Review all three versions (see the checklist below).
4. Print and assign based on your quick check.

Check Every Version

Generated versions need a careful read before they reach students.

• Is the objective intact? The supported version should simplify the language and add scaffolding, not remove the thinking.
• Is the supported version respectful? Simpler doesn't mean childish. A fourteen-year-old reading at a lower level still wants age-appropriate content.
• Does the extended version go deeper, not just longer? More problems of the same kind isn't extension. Look for a harder question, a second source, or a request to justify.
• Are the facts still right? Simplifying can introduce errors. Check each version against the original.
• Do the versions look alike? Similar layout and length avoid marking out who has which sheet.

Low-Preparation Strategies

Not everything needs three worksheets. These take little or no extra preparation:

• Choice of product. Let students show understanding as a paragraph, a diagram, or a short recording.
• "Must, should, could." Mark tasks on one sheet as required, expected, and optional challenge.
• Hint cards. Put graded hints at the front of the room; students take one only if they need it.
• Open questions. "Find two numbers with a product of 24 — how many pairs can you find?" lets every student work at their own level.
• Flexible pairing. Sometimes pair similar students, sometimes mixed, depending on the task.

Common Pitfalls

• Permanent groups. Students live up, or down, to them.
• Lowered expectations. Support should be a ramp to the same goal, not a different destination.
• More work as "challenge." Fast finishers want something interesting, not extra.
• Trying to differentiate everything. One well-tiered task a week is more sustainable, and more effective, than a thin attempt every lesson.

Getting Started

Our Differentiated Instruction Adapter takes a lesson or worksheet you already have and produces below-level, on-level, and advanced versions, with an optional field for specific needs you want addressed.

Begin with a single task from next week. Run it through, check the three versions against the list above, and try them with one class. You'll learn quickly which adaptations your students respond to — and that knowledge will improve every tiered task you make afterwards.