| By Amy Deslattes |
During one of my most challenging years as a high school ELA educator, I struggled to prepare lessons that met the needs of 100+ students across three grade levels. While differentiation was a commonly touted instructional strategy, I lacked the resources to implement it effectively.
Considering the large percentage of English language learners in my classroom, I needed to rethink how to approach differentiation. I understood that developing background knowledge for students was key to leveling the playing field before introducing them to complex texts. So, I spent hours searching my library’s shelves and the internet for easier-to-read content that would give them the context they needed before they could even attempt to engage with grade-level text.
Fast-forward to today, and educational technology is helping teachers seamlessly address the challenges I once intensely experienced in my classroom.
Differentiating with Current, Relevant Content
With Gale In Context: For Educators, teachers can quickly develop text sets to build background knowledge across a theme, topic, or unit. They have access to an extensive collection of current, curriculum-aligned content along with collaboration tools to work with other educators and share instructional materials across classrooms.
The latest enhancement gives teachers more flexibility to connect learners with differentiated content. With the new AI Leveler, teachers now have complete control to adjust the complexity of Gale’s texts, tailoring materials to engage students at every level. In a few clicks, teachers can find supplemental content, adjust the reading level, make direct edits, and share it with different groups of students.
This teacher-powered AI tool equips educators with more flexibility to meet students where they are and build the background knowledge they need to engage with complex, grade-level texts.
Scaffolding Reading Levels to Build Background Knowledge
One common mistake of using standard leveled reading material is not appropriately challenging students—and most don’t benefit from equitable access to complex, grade-level text. On-demand differentiation with the AI Leveler gives teachers more control to choose the right time to scaffold reading levels, providing more opportunities for students to engage with a variety of text types.
Teachers can use the AI Leveler to prepare below-grade-level readers with the critical background knowledge they need to grasp more complex text within the unit text set. By first providing differentiated entry points into the topic of study and then offering access to rigorous grade-level text, students can grapple with more challenging vocabulary, sentence structures, and passages under the teacher’s guidance. For example, if you’re teaching The Crucible, you can pull a reference article on McCarthyism, adjust it to your students’ reading levels, and share it with your class, all within For Educators. Each student then has a differentiated text to help them understand the historical context before diving into the complexities of Miller’s play.
Meeting In-the-Moment Needs
The difficulty with differentiation is that only the teacher understands each student’s instructional needs and how best to meet those needs while still providing access to high-quality, grade-level instructional content. The AI Leveler allows teachers to introduce effective instructional scaffolds that are student-specific and temporary, providing in-the-moment support as needed. Teachers can use scaffolds to meet each student where they are and then gradually remove them as students gain confidence and fluency when engaging with grade-level complex text.
Beyond giving teachers the ability to adjust Gale content to various reading levels, the AI Leveler also enables them to customize materials for different student groups or individual needs. Once a new leveled document is generated from the AI tool, teachers have total control to edit the content. Educators can add formatting or headings to support student comprehension, remove sections that aren’t relevant to their instruction, or ensure vocabulary needed for the lesson is incorporated in the text.
Making an Impact on Student Understanding & Literacy
Research has repeatedly demonstrated the impact of prior knowledge on reading comprehension. When readers increase their content knowledge and general understanding of a topic, they can more easily adjust to reading increasingly complex texts about that topic. By providing appropriate support while challenging students to tackle more complex texts, teachers can help them improve their reading skills, grow into more confident readers, and find joy in learning through reading.
Ready to use the power of AI to help your students build background knowledge and engage with more complex texts? Learn more about the new AI Leveler in Gale In Context: For Educators, or connect with your rep to see the tool in action.
About The Author
With nearly 25 years of experience in schools as a former high school ELA teacher, instructional coach, and administrator, Amy Deslattes brought rich insights into her role as an ELA subject matter expert at Gale.