AI Lesson Differentiator: User Manual

Welcome to the AI Lesson Differentiator! This guide will explain how to leverage the core roster-based differentiation features of the Chrome Extension to seamlessly generate student-specific lesson plan variations.

1. Roster-Based Differentiation (How it Works)

The AI Lesson Differentiator is a focused, single-pane utility designed to solve a major teaching pain point: taking your existing lesson plan or handout and automatically generating highly customized variations for individual student needs (IEPs, language goals, reading levels, etc.).

Step A: Initializing the Master Roster

If this is your first time using the extension, you will see a card prompting you to setup your roster. Click Create Master Roster Sheet.

The system will securely provision a new Google Spreadsheet directly in your Google Drive titled: AI Teacher Assistant Rosters (DO NOT DELETE).

WARNING: Do not rename or delete this master spreadsheet! The extension relies on this exact spreadsheet to securely fetch your student parameters without saving any data to external web databases.

Step B: Customizing Your Class Rosters

Click the Spreadsheet Link button (the arrow box icon next to the class selector) to open your roster sheet in Google Sheets. You will see three columns:

  1. Student Name: The name or ID of the student. (Note: Our system automatically scrubs these names to prevent demographic bias before sending them to the AI).
  2. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: Specify the student's target reading grade level (e.g., "At Grade Level", "3rd Grade", "8th Grade", "-1 Grade"). The system automatically adjusts sentence structure, reading complexity, and vocabulary choice to cleanly hit this readability mark.
  3. Transformation Directives: Explicit directives and commands for the AI regarding this student (e.g., "Translate to Spanish", "Add visual placeholder cards", "Simplify syntax", "Include summarizing Cornell notes").

To add more classes:

Simply duplicate the bottom tab in Google Sheets (named "Period 1" by default) and rename it (e.g., "Period 2", "Biology 101"). Fill out the student parameters for each class!

Step C: Executing the Pipeline

  1. Open the Chrome Extension.
  2. Select any Google Document in your Drive from the Master Document dropdown.
    • Active Tab Auto-Selection: If you are currently viewing a Google Doc in your active Chrome tab, the extension will automatically detect it and select it by default. You can still override this by choosing another document from the list.
  3. Select your class from the Class Period Roster dropdown. (Click "Refresh tabs" if you recently added new class sheets).
  4. Click Distribute Class Set to start the process.
  5. The extension will display a progress indicator while it generates and distributes the customized lessons.
NOTE: Generating custom plans is capped at a maximum of 20 students per batch to ensure optimal safety and performance. The system may take between 1 to 2 minutes to complete. Please leave the extension open while it runs!

When finished, the extension will display direct links under the Distributed Documents panel to every student's newly generated Google Doc, neatly filed in a custom folder matching your class roster's tab name!

2. Safety, Shield Errors, & Stateless Architecture

Safety Warnings & Flags

While generating documents, you may occasionally see a yellow warning banner appear in the preview or results panel.

Our system employs a secondary "Safety Agent" that audits every drafted document. If a lesson touches on sensitive historical themes, violent contextual reading material, or complex subjects, the Safety Agent flags it.

This does not delete the document. You retain total professional authority. The warning simply alerts you to explicitly review the flagged document before distributing it to your students.

Cryptic Shield Errors

You may sometimes encounter a cryptic error message mentioning a "Shield Service Block" or a "System Intent Violation" during a preview or distribution run.

This occurs because our backend runs a strict, real-time safety boundary (Shield Service) that scans user instructions and roster parameters to guard against prompt injections or unapproved policy violations. Because these safety models are non-deterministic, they can occasionally trigger false positives on completely legitimate lesson plan structures or student accommodations.

The Stateless Solution: Just Try Again!

If you hit one of these security blockages, the fix is remarkably simple: just click the button again or slightly rephrase the custom instructions in your roster sheet.