{"course":{"slug":"ai-for-teachers","title":"AI for Teachers","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-for-teachers","level":"beginner","track":"work"},"lesson":{"slug":"worksheets-and-differentiation","title":"Worksheets, and three versions of them","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-for-teachers/worksheets-and-differentiation","position":18,"of":57,"minutes":8,"answer":"Name the axis (support, representation, extension) or you get dilution, and always work the sheet yourself.","keyIdea":"Name the axis (support, representation, extension) or you get dilution, and always work the sheet yourself."},"body":{"format":"markdown","text":"## The best use of your evening, and where it fails quietly\n\nMaking three versions of a worksheet by hand is about an hour. With AI it is roughly ten minutes of generating and fifteen of checking. That saved half hour is real, and for a tired teacher this is the most valuable thing on this course.\n\nThe checking is not optional. If you read nothing else here, read the last section.\n\n## Easier is not differentiated\n\nAsk for \"an easier version\" and you get fewer questions, shorter sentences, simpler words. The student who could not do question 3 still cannot do question 3. You removed volume, not the barrier.\n\nReal differentiation moves along one of three axes, and you have to name which one.\n\n**Support.** Same question, same numbers, more scaffolding. A worked example above it. The first step done for them. The formula written out. A sentence starter.\n\n**Representation.** Same idea, different form. A table instead of a paragraph. A number line. A diagram to label instead of a description to write.\n\n**Extension.** Same context, deeper demand. Not more questions: a harder question about the same situation, so the whole class stays in one conversation.\n\n## What that looks like\n\nBase question, Grade 6:\n\n> A shirt costs 800 rupees. The shop gives a 15% discount. What is the sale price?\n\n**Support version**: identical numbers, scaffolded:\n\n> Figure: \"Easier\" removed the volume, not the barrier. What \"make it easier\" gives you: Fewer questions; Shorter sentences; Simpler words; Smaller numbers; The same barrier, still there. The three axes, named in the prompt: Support: same numbers, four-step scaffold; Representation: a number line instead of a paragraph; Extension: a harder question about the same shirt; Distractors built from named mistakes. The student who could not do question 3 still cannot do question 3. Each of the three real axes keeps the whole class discussing one shirt, which is the difference between differentiating a class and splitting it. Name the axis in the prompt; \"make it easier\" never produces it.\n\n> A shirt costs 800 rupees. The shop gives a 15% discount.\n> Step 1: 10% of 800 is ______\n> Step 2: 5% is half of that, so 5% is ______\n> Step 3: The discount is ______\n> Step 4: The sale price is ______\n\n**Extension**: same shirt, harder thinking:\n\n> The shopkeeper paid 600 rupees for the shirt and wants to keep at least 120 rupees profit. What is the largest discount he can offer?\n\nAll three students are still discussing one shirt. That is the difference between differentiating a class and splitting it.\n\nPut the axis in the prompt. \"Rewrite this with the same numbers and a four-step scaffold; do not simplify the mathematics\" gets you the middle version. \"Make it easier\" never will.\n\n## Distractors are where it earns its keep\n\nIn a multiple choice question the wrong options are the assessment. Three obviously silly options and one right one tests reading, not understanding.\n\nSo do not ask for \"four options\". Ask for the errors:\n\n> Write four options: the correct answer, plus three wrong answers produced by these specific mistakes: adding instead of multiplying; forgetting to convert centimetres to metres; using the diameter where the radius is needed.\n\nNow a wrong answer tells you what the student did, and the tally on your desk is a teaching plan for tomorrow.\n\n## Tell it where your students live\n\nUnprompted it writes about baseball, yellow school buses and dollars. Give it the currency, the names, the market, the crops, the local transport. \"Use Nigerian names and naira. The setting is a small provisions shop, not a supermarket.\" It does this well and instantly. It just never does it unasked.\n\n## Work the sheet yourself\n\nFifteen minutes, before you print forty copies.\n\nAI worksheets fail in a particular and dangerous way: confidently, and consistently within themselves. Word problems whose numbers do not resolve. Comprehension questions whose answer is not actually in the passage. A matching exercise where two items both fit the same answer. An answer key that contradicts its own question.\n\nNone of this is visible by reading it. You have to do it. If you are handing forty children a page and calling it their practice, it is worth the fifteen minutes."},"check":{"question":"A teacher asks for an \"easier version\" of a worksheet and gets six questions instead of twelve, with simpler wording. A student who could not do the original still cannot do this one. What best explains that?","options":[{"text":"Shortening and simplifying the language removed volume, not the obstacle: the student was stuck at a particular step, and that step is still unsupported in the shorter version.","correct":true},{"text":"The simplification did not go far enough; the mathematics itself needed to be made less demanding.","correct":false,"tempting":"Equates differentiation with lowering the expectation, which changes what is being learned rather than how it is reached."},{"text":"Worksheets cannot differentiate: the student needs a different explanation from the teacher first.","correct":false,"tempting":"Assumes differentiation lives only in instruction, when a scaffolded task is one of the most direct places it can happen."},{"text":"The prompt never specified a reading age, so the language was still above the student's level.","correct":false,"tempting":"Treats readability as the default barrier, which is sometimes true and here distracts from the specific step the student could not take."}]},"prev":{"slug":"planning-with-ai","title":"Planning with AI, keeping the judgement","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-for-teachers/planning-with-ai"},"next":{"slug":"four-explanations-of-one-idea","title":"Four explanations of one idea","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-for-teachers/four-explanations-of-one-idea"},"authorship":"Founder and series editor: Dr Mustafa Mun. Written by AI models to a written standard. Exam keys checked blind by a second model: 3,665 of 3,666 agreed. Academic review invited.","review":{"status":"Draft, open for academic review"},"cite":"Addaly (2026) 'Worksheets, and three versions of them', in AI for Teachers. Edited by M. Mun. Addaly. Available at: https://addaly.com/learn/ai-for-teachers/worksheets-and-differentiation (Accessed: 31 October 2026).","licence":{"name":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"},"reader":{"schema":1,"title":"Worksheets, and three versions of them","courseTitle":"AI for Teachers","module":{"index":3,"slug":"planning-and-materials","title":"Planning and making materials"},"answer":null,"keyIdea":"Name the axis (support, representation, extension) or you get dilution, and always work the sheet yourself.","hero":{"kind":"figure","figure":{"t":"figure","label":"Figure","figure":{"left":{"title":"What “make it easier” gives you","items":["Fewer questions","Shorter sentences","Simpler words","Smaller numbers","The same barrier, still there"]},"type":"compare","right":{"title":"The three axes, named in the prompt","items":["Support: same numbers, four-step scaffold","Representation: a number line instead of a paragraph","Extension: a harder question about the same shirt","Distractors built from named mistakes"]},"title":"“Easier” removed the volume, not the barrier","caption":"The student who could not do question 3 still cannot do question 3. Each of the three real axes keeps the whole class discussing one shirt, which is the difference between differentiating a class and splitting it. Name the axis in the prompt; “make it easier” never produces it."},"alt":"Figure: “Easier” removed the volume, not the barrier. What “make it easier” gives you: Fewer questions; Shorter sentences; Simpler words; Smaller numbers; The same barrier, still there. The three axes, named in the prompt: Support: same numbers, four-step scaffold; Representation: a number line instead of a paragraph; Extension: a harder question about the same shirt; Distractors built from named mistakes. The student who could not do question 3 still cannot do question 3. Each of the three real axes keeps the whole class discussing one shirt, which is the difference between differentiating a class and splitting it. Name the axis in the prompt; “make it easier” never produces it."}},"blocks":[{"t":"h2","id":"the-best-use-of-your-evening-and-where-it-fails-quietly","runs":[{"text":"The best use of your evening, and where it fails quietly"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Making three versions of a worksheet by hand is about an hour. With AI it is roughly ten minutes of generating and fifteen of checking. That saved half hour is real, and for a tired teacher this is the most valuable thing on this course."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The checking is not optional. If you read nothing else here, read the last section."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"easier-is-not-differentiated","runs":[{"text":"Easier is not differentiated"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Ask for “an easier version” and you get fewer questions, shorter sentences, simpler words. The student who could not do question 3 still cannot do question 3. You removed volume, not the barrier."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Real differentiation moves along one of three axes, and you have to name which one."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Support.","b":true},{"text":" Same question, same numbers, more scaffolding. A worked example above it. The first step done for them. The formula written out. A sentence starter."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Representation.","b":true},{"text":" Same idea, different form. A table instead of a paragraph. A number line. A diagram to label instead of a description to write."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Extension.","b":true},{"text":" Same context, deeper demand. Not more questions: a harder question about the same situation, so the whole class stays in one conversation."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"what-that-looks-like","runs":[{"text":"What that looks like"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Base question, Grade 6:"}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"A shirt costs 800 rupees. The shop gives a 15% discount. What is the sale price?"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Support version","b":true},{"text":": identical numbers, scaffolded:"}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"A shirt costs 800 rupees. The shop gives a 15% discount."}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"Step 1: 10% of 800 is ______"}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"Step 2: 5% is half of that, so 5% is ______"}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"Step 3: The discount is ______"}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"Step 4: The sale price is ______"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Extension","b":true},{"text":": same shirt, harder thinking:"}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"The shopkeeper paid 600 rupees for the shirt and wants to keep at least 120 rupees profit. What is the largest discount he can offer?"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"All three students are still discussing one shirt. That is the difference between differentiating a class and splitting it."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Put the axis in the prompt. “Rewrite this with the same numbers and a four-step scaffold; do not simplify the mathematics” gets you the middle version. “Make it easier” never will."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"distractors-are-where-it-earns-its-keep","runs":[{"text":"Distractors are where it earns its keep"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"In a multiple choice question the wrong options are the assessment. Three obviously silly options and one right one tests reading, not understanding."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"So do not ask for “four options”. Ask for the errors:"}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"Write four options: the correct answer, plus three wrong answers produced by these specific mistakes: adding instead of multiplying; forgetting to convert centimetres to metres; using the diameter where the radius is needed."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Now a wrong answer tells you what the student did, and the tally on your desk is a teaching plan for tomorrow."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"tell-it-where-your-students-live","runs":[{"text":"Tell it where your students live"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Unprompted it writes about baseball, yellow school buses and dollars. Give it the currency, the names, the market, the crops, the local transport. “Use Nigerian names and naira. The setting is a small provisions shop, not a supermarket.” It does this well and instantly. It just never does it unasked."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"work-the-sheet-yourself","runs":[{"text":"Work the sheet yourself"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Fifteen minutes, before you print forty copies."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"AI worksheets fail in a particular and dangerous way: confidently, and consistently within themselves. Word problems whose numbers do not resolve. Comprehension questions whose answer is not actually in the passage. A matching exercise where two items both fit the same answer. An answer key that contradicts its own question."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"None of this is visible by reading it. You have to do it. If you are handing forty children a page and calling it their practice, it is worth the fifteen minutes."}]}],"check":{"question":[{"text":"A teacher asks for an “easier version” of a worksheet and gets six questions instead of twelve, with simpler wording. A student who could not do the original still cannot do this one. 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