For ESL Teachers ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll be using Diffit to take any article, story, or informational text — news article, current event, health information flyer, anything — and automatically produce a simplified, leveled version with comprehension questions in under 2 minutes. No more spending 45 minutes manually simplifying a reading for your lower-proficiency students. You'll paste in a URL (or text), choose a reading level, and download a ready-to-print worksheet.
What you'll need
What you should see: A clean interface with a text input area and options for source type (URL, YouTube, text, etc.)
Diffit works with multiple input types. For ESL teachers, the most useful are:
Option A — URL (fastest): Find an article on a news site or educational website. Copy the URL from your browser address bar. Paste it into the Diffit URL field.
Option B — Paste text: Copy text from any source (PDF, a curriculum guide, your own writing) and paste it into the "Text" field.
Option C — YouTube video: Paste a YouTube URL — Diffit will generate reading activities from the video's transcript.
After entering your source, select the reading level. Diffit uses grade-level equivalents (2nd grade, 5th grade, 8th grade, etc.) which correspond roughly to:
For adult ESL, start with 3rd or 4th grade for your A2 learners and 6th grade for your B1 learners.
What you should see: A reading level slider or dropdown. Experiment — you can generate multiple levels from the same article in seconds.
Click Generate. Diffit processes the text and creates:
What you should see: A formatted reading worksheet on screen, complete with comprehension questions. Review it — does the vocabulary match your learner level? Is the content accurate?
You can edit individual questions or the passage directly in Diffit before downloading. When satisfied:
What you should see: A professional-looking reading worksheet with the title, adapted reading, vocabulary section, and comprehension questions — ready to distribute.
For a multi-level class:
Both groups are learning from the same topic — just at their own level. This is the differentiation ESL teachers spend hours doing manually, done in 5 minutes total.