Professional Development Deck
Welcome, Educators!
This Diffit Professional Development Deck is built to help you introduce Diffit and support teachers in using it confidently in the classroom. Every school is different, so we’ve designed this deck to be flexible and easy to adapt.
Here’s how you can use it:
We’ll keep updating this deck with new content as features roll out. You can always find linked videos on our YouTube Channel.
Got feedback or ideas? We’d love to hear from you: weloveteachers@diffit.me
Table of Contents
Resources
In this Deck
Resources to Get You Started:
Host a Donuts with Diffit: Lead a short Professional Development session for teachers, and we will send you a $25 Gift Card for snacks and all the training materials you need!
Become a Diffit Certified Educator: This self-paced course will teach you everything you need to know about Diffit for Teachers.
Dive Into Diffit
We recommend teachers follow along on their own devices when leading a PD with the following slides. Diffit PD’s work best when teachers get to stop and try it themselves.
Objective: Explore and learn how Diffit can create student-ready resources for your classroom.
Agenda:
Objective and Agenda
What does Diffit do?
Diffit helps you create differentiated, standards-aligned content and flexible activities—fast.
What does it generate?
Each Diffit resource includes:
Everything is fully customizable. You can edit, add, remove, or reorder to fit your lesson and support every learner.
Let’s make a student-ready resource…
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Let’s try it! Create a resource for your classroom using Literally Anything.
Change Student Activities
You can change the student activities:
Let’s Try It: Click “Change Activity” and select and activity for your students.
Customize your resource
Everything is customizable.
Let’s Try It: Edit, modify, and add content to your resource and activities.
Export to share with students
To share with students click “Export.” From there you can:
Let’s Try It: Export to the format of your choice and send it to the colleague.
Teachers use Diffit to…
Turn and Talk:
How might you use Diffit to generate resources for your students?
You can adapt or make resources in Diffit using all of the following:
Try it with content you already have
Let’s try it: Find an article and use that to create a resource.
You can add more student activities to a resource, including:
They are organized by content and activity type.
Add a Student Activity
Let’s Try It: Explore the activities library and select one to add to your activity.
You can translate and relevel the resources and activities you create.
To translate or relevel:
A new version will be created and the original version will be saved to “My Resources”
Translate and Adapt
Let’s Try It: Translate or relevel your activity. Then, find the original in “My Resources.”
My Resources
Teachers use Diffit with existing content to…
Turn and Talk:
How might you use Diffit with existing content you use in your classroom?
What does Diffit look like in the classroom?
Classroom Ideas
and Examples
Diffit in the Elementary Classroom
Tailored Reading Passages:
Teachers create reading passages on specific academic content that are appropriate for various elementary grade levels.
Supporting Gifted & Struggling Learners:
Educators differentiate materials for both gifted and struggling students, ensuring content is challenging yet accessible.
Engaging Activities:
Teachers use Diffit to create activities that keep reading exciting and support early literacy development.
Diffit in the Science Classroom
Reading in Science:
Teachers integrate reading assignments into science classes, using Diffit to create quick activities that relate to specific content and differentiate for reading levels.
Accessible Science Resources:
Educators adapt resources for science students, ensuring complex scientific topics are presented in an understandable format.
Content Reinforcement:
Teachers use Diffit to create supplemental materials and activities for various science units, aiding in student comprehension.
Diffit in the Social Studies Classroom
Introducing New Topics:
Generate quick overview materials for an easy introduction to new historical or social studies topics.
Current Events:
Adapt news articles and bring current events into the classroom. You can even align them to standards.
Differentiated Content:
Support incorporating literacy into social studies by providing leveled texts on historical figures or events.
Diffit in the Language Arts Classroom
Novel Studies Made Easy:
Quickly create summaries, vocabulary, and questions for novels like "The Giver."
Relevant Readings:
Easily bring relevant articles into lessons, creating leveled texts and follow-up activities for deeper understanding.
Daily Learning Boosts:
Teachers use Diffit to provide quick daily resources, helping students engage with informational articles for evidence-based responses.
Diffit in the World Language Classroom
Leveled & Translated Articles:
Adapt articles for the right reading level in the target language to bring more relevant topics into the classroom.
Comprehension Practice:
Create multiple-choice and short-answer questions for reading passages, allowing students to practice comprehension and writing skills.
Discussion Starters:
Generate open-ended questions that are perfect for group or class discussions, encouraging verbal communication and critical thinking in the target language.
Diffit in the Arts Classroom
Artist & Artwork Background:
Generate resource sets on specific artists or works of art, giving students more context and background knowledge.
Historical Context:
Create grade-appropriate readings on the historical time period a work of art comes from, providing essential background knowledge.
Discussion Prompts:
Generate open-ended questions based on articles about art, perfect for starting lively classroom discussions.
Diffit in the CTE Classroom
Create Relevant Readings:
Generate grade appropriate readings with key vocabulary and comprehension questions on technical topics for students.
Incorporate Current Events:
Incorporate more business news or current events by using Diffit to adapt the reading and create questions.
Daily Warm Ups:
Create a daily warm up with any topic you’d like by exporting your Diffit set to Google Forms!
Diffit in the Math Classroom
Concept Explanation:
Generate reading passages that explain mathematical concepts or problem-solving strategies.
Vocabulary for Word Problems:
Teachers use Diffit to create vocabulary lists for math terms found in word problems to enhance comprehension.
Supporting Math Literacy:
Teachers use Diffit to develop comprehension questions for descriptions of mathematical scenarios.
Diffit + Emergent Bilingual Students
Multilingual Support:
Diffit's translation features enable educators to provide materials in students' native languages, enhancing understanding and participation.
Scaffolding:
Many Diffit activities are designed for gradual release to independent work. Scaffolded activities chunk the reading and offer students multiple ways to show what they’ve learned.
Vocabulary Development:
Targeted vocabulary lists and contextualized examples help ELLs build their academic language skills.
Diffit for Instructional Frameworks & Strategies
Diffit for Differentiation
Adapting Core Texts: | Personalizing Learning: | Meeting Diverse Needs: |
Take a single article and instantly generate multiple versions at different reading levels, ensuring all students can access the same content. | Quickly create differentiated assignments, modifications, and accommodations tailored to individual student achievement levels, fostering success and confidence. | Adapt lessons on a daily basis to meet the varied learning needs within a single classroom. |
Diffit for Scaffolding
Gradual Release: | Chunking Content: | Foundational Skills: |
Create resources that support the gradual release model, moving students from guided practice to independent application. | Break down complex topics into smaller, more manageable parts with accompanying activities. | Generate vocabulary lists and summaries that provide foundational understanding before diving into deeper content. |
Diffit & Universal Design for Learning
Multiple Representations: | Flexible Engagement: | Varied Expression: |
Use Diffit to offer content at different reading levels and in various formats (text, summaries, graphic organizers) to represent information in diverse ways. | Create activities that cater to different student interests and learning preferences, increasing motivation and engagement. | Use Diffit to provide options for students to demonstrate their understanding, such as through written responses, discussions, or creative tasks. |
Diffit for MTSS and RTI
Targeted Interventions: | Progress Monitoring: | Scaffolded Support: |
Quickly create materials for small group instruction or individual interventions, addressing specific student needs identified through MTSS/RTI data. | Use Diffit's varied activities and assessment formats to monitor student progress at different tiers of support. | Use Diffit to provide scaffolded resources that help struggling learners access grade-level content within the MTSS framework. |
Diffit and Standards Based Learning
Standards-Aligned Resources: | Targeted Practice: | Curriculum Integration: |
Generate resources that aligned to state standards. Add standard-aligned questions for assessment and more. | Create activities and questions that help students practice skills and demonstrate understanding of specific standards. | Use Diffit to integrate standards into various subjects, making it easier to ensure comprehensive coverage. |
Diffit and The Four C’s
Communication | Collaboration | Critical Thinking: | Creativity |
Diffit has graphic organizers that help students articulate ideas effectively, both in writing and as preparation for verbal discussions. | Provide differentiated materials for group projects, ensuring all students can contribute meaningfully regardless of their reading level, fostering effective teamwork. | Generate more than just comprehension questions. Diffit can create activities that encourage students to analyze information, evaluate claims, and form well-reasoned judgments on complex topics. | Diffit has creative ways for students to summarize and document learning from Draw and Explain to Social Media Summary. |
Features Deep Dive
Step by step slides for individual features
Literally Anything
With Literally Anything you can give Diffit a prompt, question, topic, or concept and it will generate a reading and resources for that topic.
Start with a Book
Diffit can create resources to support chapter books or novels you are using in your classroom.
Article Links
Diffit can turn any article into a reading with student-ready resources.
Any Text or Excerpt
With PDF or Text you can copy a text or reading passage and it will adapt it into a leveled reading and resource set.
Start with a Vocabulary List
You can create a reading and resources from a list of vocabulary words:
Let’s Try It Out!
Create an Account
Show Sources on Resources
When generating a reading, Diffit uses real cited sources
Edit and Remove Sources
When using “Literally Anything,” you can exclude unwanted sources
Add Questions
For Multiple Choice and Short Answer Questions can add questions in multiple ways:
For Open Ended Prompts you can add questions by DOK Level or by using the custom option.
Modify Questions
Questions can be modified in a variety of ways, including
There is also a custom option where you can specify your own modifications by typing in custom instructions.
Add Vocabulary
You can add vocabulary terms to a resource set by selecting “Add Vocabulary”
Click generate to add the words.
Modify Vocabulary
The vocabulary list can be modified in a variety of ways, including;
There is also a custom option where you can specify your own modifications by typing in custom instructions.
Customize The Reading
The reading passage can be modified in a variety of ways, including;
There is also a custom option where you can specify your own modifications by typing in custom instructions.
Translate
Once you create a resource set, you can translate it into over 70 languages.
See Your Resource
To see previously generated Resources:
From here you can access the sets again, edit sets, create new ones, delete sets, and get a link to share with colleagues.