Differentiation Without the Overwhelm: Tested and Proven
Can one AI prompt really replace hours of planning? See how teachers are cutting prep time while keeping every student challenged
Hey there,
Differentiation shouldn’t require a PhD in workflow management.
This is a podcast overview of the entire newsletter in case that you prefer to listen to it in this format. This podcast overview was created with NotebookLM.
This is part of our ongoing series on the real pain points, desires, and uncertainties teachers deal with every day. I’m answering the question I hear most often: “Is this going to make differentiation easier, or am I adding another complicated tool to learn?” Most “solutions” just add more work. I tested something different. A 6th grade teacher used one simple prompt with ChatGPT and got a complete week of differentiated lessons in ten minutes. No dashboard. No tutorial videos. Five questions and done.
Today’s post is sponsored By: Project Pals
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Here’s what I’m covering today:
Simple AI tools beat the “powerful” platforms every time
A real example—complete 5-day inference unit with three levels
What teachers are doing with AI behind the scenes (case studies + research)
Let me show you what’s possible.
If you’re drowning in lesson plans and wondering how to actually differentiate without losing your mind, then here are the resources you need to dig into to make this work:
Weekly Resource List:
How to Master Differentiated Reading Instruction With AI: A Step-by-Step Guide for Teachers
AI Differentiation Tools Comparison (6 min read) Which AI platforms actually help teachers differentiate without adding complexity
Lighten teacher workloads and reduce burnout with AI designed for education: How to expand learning opportunities, improve student outcomes, and support an educator team already stretched thin by administrative demands
My top ways to use AI for scaffolds, supports, and differentiated tasks: What it actually looks like to use AI for differentiation—not the polished version, but the real workflow.
AI-Powered SIMPLE Differentiated Lesson Planning: What actually works
Differentiation is hard because every tool we’ve been handed makes it ten times more work. They promise personalization and deliver seventeen dropdown menus, a dashboard that needs a PhD to navigate, and a setup process that eats your entire planning period.
What saves time: AI that does the grunt work you already know how to do. Making three reading levels from the same passage. Creating scaffolded versions of an assignment in 90 seconds. Tracking which students need what so you don’t keep a mental spreadsheet of 30 kids.
I’m including a prompt called the AI-Powered SIMPLE Differentiated Lesson Planning Assistant. Copy it into ChatGPT. Answer five questions. Get a week of lessons. Done.
A 6th grade ELA teacher used it to teach inference with short texts for a week. Ten minutes with ChatGPT. Complete 5-day unit. Three levels of differentiation every single day. Assessments, exit tickets, homework, modified reading materials at three levels. Everything ready to print.
Why this helps your classroom
You already differentiate manually. You know what struggling readers need, what on-level students can handle, what advanced learners are ready for. AI just handles the execution part. You stop spending Sunday nights creating three versions of everything. You stop tracking 30 individual needs in your head.
The cognitive load disappears. You test modifications right away instead of planning them for next week. And the tools need zero training. You use what you already have.
What teachers are doing
Two teachers at different grade levels wrote about how they use AI to build lessons behind the scenes. They’re not letting AI teach. They’re cutting out repetitive work. Read their process here.
RAND studied teachers using AI for differentiation. Teachers using simple, targeted AI tools spend less time on busywork and more time teaching. Full report here.
Regular classroom teachers. Not tech people.
How it works
Every output uses the same pattern: three levels. Support (struggling students), Core (on-level), Challenge (advanced). Each level changes ONE thing—vocabulary complexity, text length, number of problems, scaffolding amount, or independence expected.
All three levels target the same learning objective. Different paths, same destination. Real differentiation.
Everything is copy-paste ready. No editing. Print it or project it. Students know what to do. If a tool takes more than 5 minutes to learn, skip it.
That’s it.
Here’s what you learned today:
Simple AI tools do the grunt work without adding complexity
One prompt, ten minutes, complete week of three-level materials
Real teachers use this now to cut planning time
Pick one small thing—adjusting reading levels, creating an exit ticket—and let AI handle it. Add another next month if it works.
PS...If you’re enjoying Master AI For Teaching Success, please consider referring this edition to a friend. They’ll get access to our growing library of AI prompts and templates, plus our exclusive “Popular AI Tools Integration Guide For Teachers“ implementation guide.