Differentiating a single lesson for multiple ability groups is one of the most time-consuming parts of planning — and one where AI can genuinely help, because generating variations of the same content is exactly what it's good at.
A practical approach
Write your core task once, then ask AI to produce a simplified version (with more scaffolding, simpler vocabulary, or a visual structure) and an extension version (with an additional challenge or open-ended element). This turns one planning task into three, in roughly the time it used to take to do one.
Keep the assessment consistent
Make sure all versions are still assessing the same underlying skill or knowledge — it's easy for an AI-generated "simplified" version to accidentally test something different rather than the same thing more accessibly. Read all three versions side by side before using them.
A worked example
Core task: "Write three sentences describing the character's feelings, using at least one adjective in each." Simplified: same task, with a word bank of ten adjectives and a sentence starter provided. Extension: same task, but requiring evidence from the text to justify each adjective chosen. Notice all three assess the same skill — using adjectives to describe feelings — at three levels of scaffolding.
Key takeaways
- Write the core task once, then ask for simplified and extension versions.
- Check all versions still assess the same underlying skill.
- This typically turns one planning task into three in a fraction of the extra time.