How to Differentiate Lessons with AI for Mixed-Ability Classes

Every teacher knows the problem: thirty students, one lesson, and a range that runs from “finished in five minutes” to “still stuck on question one.” Differentiation is the answer — but writing three versions of every activity by hand triples your workload. AI changes the maths: you write one activity, and AI turns it into three levels in minutes.

The trick is to ask for one lesson, three ways — not three different lessons. Every version teaches the same objective. What changes is the support, not the destination.

What you need before you start (5 minutes)

Have these three things ready:

1. One learning objective — what every student should be able to do by the end. Not “learn about volcanoes” but “explain how a volcano erupts, using three key terms.”
2. Your class in three groups — who needs extra support, who is the core of the class, and who finishes early. You do not need names, just the shape of the range: “5 struggling, 20 core, 5 fast finishers.”
3. Your source material — the text, the worksheet, or the topic. AI differentiates much better from real material than from a bare topic name.

Do not label the groups for students. The levels are your planning tool, not their identity. A student who needs support this week may be a fast finisher next week.

Step 1: Describe your class to the AI (2 minutes)

Tell the AI about the range, not just the topic. Copy and adapt this prompt:

The important sentence is “all three versions must teach the same objective.” Without it, AI writes three different lessons — and your class ends up learning three different things.

Two follow-ups that fix most problems:

• Same look: “Rewrite Version A so it looks the same as Version B on the page — same layout, same number of questions.”
• Right length: “Give Version C a task that takes 10 minutes, not 30.”

Step 2: Check each version like a teacher (5 minutes)

Read all three versions before you print anything:

• Same objective? Every version should lead to the same learning objective. If Version A teaches something else, rewrite it.
• Is Version A actually easier — or just shorter? Shorter is not easier. Easier means more scaffolding: sentence starters, a worked example, key words defined.
• Is Version C actually harder — or just more work? More of the same is not a challenge. A challenge asks students to explain, compare, or apply — not to do ten more questions.
• Would you be embarrassed to hand Version A to a student? If it looks babyish, students will know it is the “easy” one. Fix the look before you fix the content.

Fix problems in the chat with a specific instruction: “Version A looks too different from Version B. Make it the same length and the same layout.” That works far better than “make it better.”

Step 3: Run it in class (10 minutes of planning, then it runs itself)

1. Give every student the version that fits them — quietly. No announcements, no coloured groups, no “this is the easy one.”
2. Let students move up a level if they finish early. A student who finishes Version B in five minutes should be able to pick up Version C without asking permission.
3. Bring the class back together at the end. Same objective, same discussion — the three versions were just three different roads to the same place.
4. Keep the versions. Next time you teach the topic, you already have all three — you only adjust the ones that did not work.

The goal is not three perfect worksheets. The goal is a class where nobody is bored and nobody is lost, and you did not spend your evening writing three separate lessons.

Step 4: Build a small bank of differentiated activities (5 minutes a week)

Once you have done this for one topic, keep going:

• Save each set of three versions in one document, labelled by topic and objective.
• Each week, differentiate one more activity. After a month, you have a bank that covers your most-taught topics.
• Share the bank with colleagues — and ask them to add theirs. A shared bank is worth ten times a private one.

Differentiation stops being extra work the moment it becomes a habit. The first set takes twenty minutes. The tenth takes five.

A complete example

Here is the prompt filled in, so you can see what “specific” looks like:

That becomes one reading activity, three ways: Version A has the same text with sentence starters and a worked example; Version B has the standard questions; Version C asks students to explain what would happen if a volcano erupted near their town. Same text, same objective, three paths through it. The same structure works for any subject — change the topic and the objective, and the steps stay the same.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Writing three different lessons instead of one lesson, three ways. If the versions teach different objectives, you have tripled your work and split your class.
• Labelling groups in front of students. “Low group” and “high group” stick. Keep the levels invisible — same topic, same look, different scaffolding.
• Making the easy version look babyish. Bigger fonts, cartoon pictures, fewer questions — students notice, and it shames the students who need it most.
• Forgetting the fast finishers. A student who finishes in five minutes and has nothing to do will find something to do — and it will not be learning.
• Differentiating everything, every day. Start with one activity a week. Differentiation done badly for everything is worse than differentiation done well for one thing.

FAQ

Does differentiation mean three separate lesson plans?

No — one objective, three paths. You plan one lesson, and the three versions are just different levels of support on the way to the same destination.

Will students notice the levels?

Not if you do it well. Same topic, same layout, same number of questions — the difference is in the scaffolding, not in the look. That is why the “same look” follow-up matters.

Can AI write IEPs or formal support plans?

No. IEPs and formal support plans are legal documents that belong to you, your school, and the student’s family. AI can draft suggestions for classroom support, but the formal plan is a human decision.

What about English learners?

AI can simplify the language of an activity, or translate instructions — but check the result yourself. A simplified version that changes the meaning is worse than the original. Keep key terms in English, with definitions, so learners build subject vocabulary.