There has been a lot of talk about AI for a while. Debates whether it is good or bad and if schools should ban artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT and others. As a reading and writing teacher I see so many avenues to using AI to teach critical thinking, build personalized text sets, and even use as scaffolding for teaching writing. My favorite tool is Diffit.me.
Diffit is able to ADAPT any reading, excerpt, or article for any reading level -to help all students access the content you’re teaching. Article, PDF, or excerpt for any reading level, you select the grade level after inserting text. This is great for:
- An article you found and want to use for your lesson, but is too hard for some (or all) of your readers
- Supporting students learning English
- Modifications for students with IEPs
- Enabling all students – regardless of reading level – to access grade level concepts, while providing curriculum-aligned reading practice in students’ zone of proximal development
- Differentiating reading passages for jigsaws and personalized reading instruction
Diffit is able to GENERATE short informational or narrative texts on any topic, for any reading level. This is perfect for:
- Building background knowledge so students are better prepared – and more engaged – in core content or class discussion
- Quick worksheets, homework, or curriculum-aligned readings, for anything
- Getting a short narrative text of any length, about a topic a student is interested in, that features key vocabulary or concepts you’re teaching
Check out this reading passage I created for September 11th about the Twin Towers to pair with a passage from Alan Grantz’s Ground Zero. Diffit provided the word bank and questions following the reading. Make a copy to use with your students.
We know that ChatGPT does not use citations or sources BUT Diffit does. When generating a reading, Diffit pulls from real cited sources!
- On a Generated Text using the “Literally Anything” tab
- Generate a text
- Click “Show Sources” and it will show all the sources it used to create the text.
- On an Adapted Article or Link
- “Show Sources” will include the source link and information for you.
- Pro-Tip: when generating a text, suggest which sources you want it to use. For example “The history of cats using articles from The New York Times”
Diffit is able to CREATE an automatically generated summary, comprehension checks, vocabulary words, and more to go with whatever text you’re working with. Provide a word bank with definitions and create different levels of questions based on your selections with Diffit. You can add images and export to Google.
You can give Diffit a prompt, question, topic, or concept and it will generate a leveled reading and resource set.
1. Search for a topic, term, or question here. Be as specific as possible!
2. Choose an approximate reading level for the output
Try it at Diffit.Me Below is a one pager to help you navigate the website. Here are some possibilities how to use Diffit, but the possibilities are endless:
Generate leveled readings that explain mathematical concepts.
Create a daily warm up with any topic you’d like by exporting your Diffit set to Google Forms!
Generate Open Ended questions on an article to help start a classroom discussion.
Personalized readings about high-interest topics to give students reading practice.
Level primary and secondary sources to help scaffold document analysis for all students.
Generate leveled readings and question sets on science concepts to help build background knowledge for students.
Level and translate readings for students to meet them where they are at.
Generate and incorporate leveled readings and questions into Station Rotations and Centers
Generate leveled readings with vocabulary lists you can use for Word Walls.
The Teaching Factor 