Diffit: an IA free tool to easily create resources for differentiation and inclusivity.
I’ve been meaning to write about this website for a few months. To be honest, it is not just this website I’d like to write about but some others as well. The problem with me is always lack of time. Juggling being a full-time teacher, a part-time tech coach, mum, housewife, friend, daughter, and blogger is difficult. You can relate, can’t you? Every time I swear I am going to write about them all, something comes across, and I feel I must write about that “something” first.
But today I have decided to forget about all the other things and write about Diffit. Why? Because I think it is a great tool and can help reduce your workload a lot, especially if you are a primary or secondary teacher and have students with different learning needs.
So, What is Diffit, and how can it help you? To put it simply, Diffit tailors learning for every student and easily convert any content to all reading levels.
It generates texts in three different ways:
By searching for a topic, theme or question
By pasting a URL of an article in a website or a YouTube Video
By copy/pasting a text
By uploading a PDF
You, then, choose
the reading level (from 2nd grade to 11+ grade-you can also keep the original text)
the language
More about Diffit to keep in mind
It has a very generous free version and works in 68 languages
Diffit magically adapts any text, topic, article, YouTube video with a URL to any reading level.
Besides the reading text, it also provides:
a summary of the text
key vocabulary words
multiple choice questions about the text (by default 3 questions) but you can add more) and the answers to the questions
short answer questions (again, by default it creates 3)
open-ended prompts
You can edit, add and copy the generated text and resources.
You can translate the adapted text into 68 languages, making your classroom more accessible to all students.
You can get the student activities in PDF format for free.
Picture this. Me announcing to my C1 students that the next lesson in the textbook was going to revolve around Politics. To be honest, any other year, I would have probably shared my students’ feeling of apathy or disinterest. But this year I was really looking forward to this lesson as AI is shaking things up in my English class!
Imagine my students’ jaws dropping when I announced a class debate featuring… wait for it… virtual versions of Biden and Trump! And both using the vocabulary we have been studying, revising and reinforcing.
In this lesson for C1 students, you will find
Tailor-made texts using specific vocabulary
Talking avatars reading these texts to create a listening comprehension activity
Mediation activity using the talking avatars and the texts
Speaking activity using target vocabulary
How I Did it
Using ChatGPT to Generate Text Using Target Vocabulary
Prompt: You are an English teacher. Write a text divided into paragraphs. Each paragraph should be preceded by a heading. The headings should be: economic policies and immigration policies. Write it from a Republican point of view. Write a short paragraph for each heading, using C1 English and include such as the verbs benefit, trigger, boost, undermine, bankrupt, to earn peanuts, to be into, compound, combat, and lead
I repeated the same prompt but asking ChatGPT to generate the text from a Democrat point of view.
Listening Comprehension: creating talking avatars to read the text
I created two separate talking avatars. I created Joe Biden and uploaded the text generated by ChatGPT, and then did the same for Donald Trump, and uploaded them to YouTube. This step was important as I wanted to use Twee.com to generate the comprehension questions, which you can find here.
And … we shouldn’t let the visit of these two politicians to our class go to waste, so the next step will be to use these talking avatars for a mediation activity, hitting several birds with one stone.
help students boost pronunciation
help students boost speaking and mediation skills
Steps:
Note:The day before, I asked my students to bring their earbuds and mobile phone s with a QR Code reader installed for the next class.
During the class, I organized the students into two groups – Republicans and Democrats – and paired them up accordingly. I handed out copies with Joe Biden to the Democrats and photocopies featuring Donald Trump to the Republicans.
Aim: engage in a mediation activity by conveying the information to the other candidate using your own words.
Instructions:
Scan the QR code to listen to the candidate reading the text. Repeat as many times as necessary until you feel confident in pronouncing the vocabulary correctly.
Take notes of what each candidate says. Note: You don’t have to copy word by word.
Time allotted for individual work in this part: 15 minutes
Finally, pair up students and ask them to retell their part, trying to use the target vocabulary. This part might take another 15 minutes.
Speaking: Retrieval Practice
Give students one minute to write in their notebooks all the vocabulary words they remember from this unit.
When the minute is up, ask the students to say their words and write the most interesting ones on the board.
Put the students in pairs or groups of three, underline two/three words and ask students the first questions, asking them to try to use all or some of the words underlined on the board.
How important is it for individuals to stay informed about current political events?
Do you think there’s a growing sense of disconnect between politicians and the people they represent? Why or why not?
What do you think are the most important qualities for a good leader?
Do you think that social media can be used to trigger political polarization? If so, how?
What are the most important factors that people consider when casting their vote?
Does the current political landscape adequately represent the diverse voices and needs of society? If not, what needs to change?
Are there particular areas of policy you’re interested in, like education, healthcare, or the environment?
Imagine being asked this question: If you were abducted by aliens, would you tell anybody? or this one, If you could switch lives with someone for a week, living their experiences and routines, who would it be and why? Imagine being prompted to use an alternative to IF in your answer like, for example, as long as or provided.
Fun, challenging and …. grammar-oriented
When preparing a lesson, I normally try to design activities that help students reinforce what we have been working with; more often than not, they have a communicative approach, as I firmly believe in giving students ample opportunity to put into practice what they’ve been studying.
And if there is one thing that clearly defines the way I teach is how I try to keep a balance between traditional teaching and the latest technology. These last weeks were all about AI; and today, we are going for traditional. The very traditional cards.
Materials:
Questions. One deck of cards featuring engaging and entertaining conversation questions, each formulated as a conditional sentence. These questions include prompts like:
If you were abducted by aliens, would you tell anybody? Why?
If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what advice would you give?
If you were granted two wishes, what would be your choices?
…etc
provided by ChatGPT, if I may say so.
2. Alternatives to IF: one set of cards containing alternatives to IF: provided (that), on condition that, supposing, as long as… etc.
Before the class, prepare a set with both types of cards for each group of 4 students.
Put students into groups of 3–5 students and give them a set of cards with questions and a set of cards with alternatives to If.
Instruct students to place the cards face down on the table
Ask each student to draw a Question Card and an If-Alternative Card, and allow them some thinking time.
Emphasize the importance of elaborating on their answers rather than providing brief responses. In their answers, they will have to try to use the words in the If-Alternative card and speak for about 2 minutes, at the end of which they should pose their question to the members of their group.
Rotate turns, repeating the procedure for each student.
With my students, we have done two rounds of questions
Artificial Intelligence- you can choose to embrace it or ignore it, but I assure you it is not going anywhere. It is here to stay, so I choose to love it and use it, to squeeze it and to have fun with it.
I am so into it that if I see something AI-related that seems like it can remotely be useful for my classes, I want to try it straight away. So, I had been experimenting with chatbots for a while but being a simple English teacher, all the platforms I tried were either too difficult, not free or not student friendly. And these things were essential not only for me, but also for the teachers I train. So, when I read about language chatbots in Lana Kandybovich’s blog ,ELTcation,I told myself “Let’s dive right in”. And I did.
You cannot believe how easy it is. It took me less than 30 minutes to create two chatbots, though I have to say that I had my buddy ChatGPT to lend me a helping hand in crafting the instructions.
Safe and Student-friendly as they don’t have to register, and it doesn’t share students’ data. Students can interact with text and audio.
Shareable. The chatbot can be shared with everyone, or you can create private sessions, just for your students, for example it can be set as homework. In this case, their interactions will be graded, If you wish so, and feedback offered. The interactions will never be shared with anyone but the owner of the chatbot.
Multipurpose. You can create a chatbot for almost anything you can think of and in ; you just need to write the right instructions and be specific about what you want your chatbot to do. You can even upload a document or your rubric so that the feedback is based on it.
Multilingual. It supports 50 languages
Customizable. You can personalize its appearance to match your classroom style. You can build your chatbot from scratch or have AI assist you.
It might not be perfect, but it certainly works for me.
So, to address one of the main problems my students have, I have created
1.Chatbot Magic: Boost Your Writing Skills,
In this tool, Cabal Scribe, the chat assistant, will help students enhance their writing. It analyses their text and provides feedback on grammar mistakes, spelling errors, and other identified issues. Its goal is to assist students in improving their writing. While it may not be as effective as a teacher, it can certainly be helpful when a teacher is not available. Feel free to click on the link to try it yourself and/or share it with your students.
2. Miss ChatAI: an English Language Practice Partner.
The aim of this chatbot is to interact with students by asking questions and providing answers on any topic they wish to discuss. The chatbot will also offer feedback on grammar and vocabulary mistakes or any other kinds of errors and suggest alternatives when necessary. Students can write sentences, questions, or paragraphs, and the chatbot will provide personalized feedback while continuing the conversation. In its initial interaction with a student, the chatbot will inquire about their English level to tailor its questions and responses appropriately. Once the conversation topic has been established, the chatbot will suggest vocabulary that is both related to the topic and appropriate for the student’s level. Feel free to click on the link to try it yourself and/or share it with your students.
It might not be your case, but most teachers, including myself, do not dedicate enough time to practise writing in class. And this needs to be fixed because students may simply get better if given the right guidance and enough practice. However, I think it’s crucial that we ask them to reflect on their errors and then, ask them to make the necessary corrections, rather than just correcting them ourselves.
This exercise you are about to read is fun, creative, and collaborative; it gets students out of their seats but most importantly, gives them an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and fix fossilized errors.
On Fossilized Errors
Fossilized errors are persistent mistakes that students make despite repeated correction. You know what I am talking about, don’t you? While teachers play an important role in identifying and correcting these errors, it is imperative for students to take ownership and conscientiously analyse and rectify their errors; that’s, in my experience, the most effective way to eliminate them. If you ask me and generally speaking, when students are given a composition with corrected errors, they just have a quick look at them, but they don’t truly reflect on their mistake and then, inevitably, they are bound to make the same mistake over and over again.
IMPORTANT:For this activity, I have used a classroom that has several small whiteboards on the walls. I am not going to deny that using these whiteboards is more appealing, but what if you don’t have these cute whiteboards? No problem, it will work just the same with A3 or A4 paper (the bigger, the better)
Step by Step
STEP 1: FORMING PAIRS AND GETTING A STORY STARTER
Pair up students.
Display the visual below and explain that the boxes contain different story starters. Ask pairs to choose a box. The sentence inside the box will be the beginning of their story. All pairs must choose a different box, meaning they will all have different beginnings.
I have asked each pair of students to stand next to a board (alternatively, as explained, a A3 or A4 sheet of paper ) and write the beginning of their story.
Give students about 5/6 minutes to continue the story in any way they fancy.
STEP 2: ADDING A RANDOM PROMPT AND A CONNECTOR OF CONTRAST
After approx 5 minutes, draw students’ attention and ask a volunteer for the whole class to
choose a box from the exercise below. Pairs will have to continue the story, incorporating the prompt in the box. Right after opening the box with the prompt,
click on the wheel (fed with connectors of contrast and purpose and some verbs) and ask them to continue the story using the connector/verb randomly picked in the wheel.
Give students 5 or 6 minutes to continue the story.
How many times have I repeated Step 2?
I have repeated this procedure three times (i.e. three prompts+ three connectors). Make sure you tell them when they need to finish their stories.
Step 3. Giving students Feedback on their Writing
Give students something to do while you quickly underline the mistakes in their writings. Keywords here: underline their mistakes. I don’t correct them, I underline them. This is vital if you want students to get rid of errors.
Step 4. Students correct their mistakes
Ask students to stand up in their pairs and comment, reflect and try to fix the underlined mistakes.
Important: I ask them not to delete the original text so that I can have it as a reference.
Step 5. Quickly give feedback on their corrections
Step 6. Students vote for the best story
Student stand up again, read their classmates’ stories, and individually vote for the best. They do it by drawing a heart next to the story they like best.
