Modify Content - Transparency FAQ

Modify Content in Teach is a tool that helps educators quickly adapt and personalize existing lesson materials. Instead of creating new content from scratch, you can use this feature to align lessons to curriculum standards, differentiate instructions for various learning levels, adjust reading levels, and add supporting examples. Modify Content is designed to save time, increase flexibility, and ensure lessons are accessible and relevant for all students.

What can Modify Content do?

Modify Content provides educators with powerful tools to adapt and personalize existing lesson materials. Key features include:

Align to Standards — Quickly align lesson instructions and plans to curriculum standards, saving time and ensuring compliance.
Differentiate Instructions — Adapt directions for different learning levels and add scaffolds like hints or examples to support all students.
Adjust Reading Level — Instantly rewrite text to match a chosen grade level, maintaining meaning and key terms.
Simplify Vocabulary — Transform complex language into simpler words or add definitions for English language learners and struggling readers.
Add Supporting Examples — Easily add real-world examples to make lessons more relatable and meaningful.

Inputs and how each feature works

Each feature in Modify Content accepts either text input or document uploads (Word or PDF). Below is a summary of what input is expected and how each feature works:

Align to Standards

Input: Provide text (such as instructions or lesson ideas) or upload a Word/PDF file, and select one or more standards.

What it does: The tool adjusts the input text to align with the selected standard(s).

Differentiate Instructions

Input: Provide text or upload a Word/PDF file, select the grade level to target, choose scaffolding options (Step by Step, Example Answer, Hints), and decide on the desired length (shorter, same, or expanded).

What it does: The tool adapts the instructions to match the selected grade level, adds chosen scaffolds, and adjusts the length as specified.

Modify Reading Level

Input: Provide text or upload a Word/PDF file, select the target grade for reading level, and choose terms to preserve (or use suggested terms). Optionally, choose to automatically generate a glossary at the end of the reading text.

What it does: The tool rewrites the text to match the selected reading level, preserves important terms, and can add a glossary for student reference.

Add Supporting Examples

Input: Provide text or upload a Word/PDF file, choose the number of examples to add (1, 2, or 3), select the type of examples (Scientific, Historic, or Real World), and the depth of detail (Light, Moderate, or Deep).

What it does: The tool adds the specified number and type of examples to the lesson content, with the chosen level of detail.

What is Modify Content intended for?

Modify Content is intended for educators to quickly adapt and personalize existing lesson materials. This feature enables teachers to align lessons to curriculum standards, differentiate instructions for specific grade levels, modify reading levels, and add supporting examples—all using content they already have.

Educators must review and approve the modified content before it is finalized as a document. The feature always uses educator input for any content it generates.

What are the limitations of Modify Content?

Modify Content is not grounded in factual knowledge beyond what an educator provides, and while it writes in a fluent, grammatically correct way, the content it generates can be inaccurate or inappropriate. Educators must validate and review all modified lessons to ensure accuracy and relevance.

To improve the quality of the output, educators should provide clear and detailed input, such as a well-defined lesson description, document attachments, and educational standards. The document attachment feature is optimized for text-based content and may not perform as effectively with numeric or science-focused material.

How to minimize limitations:

Provide clear descriptions and reference material to guide the tool in generating contextually relevant lesson modifications.
Always review and validate modified lessons to confirm accuracy, relevance, and alignment with the specific needs of the classroom and lesson.
Avoid over-reliance on AI; use it as a complement to human ideas, not a replacement.
Recognize the system's limitations with numeric or highly technical/science-focused content.
Choose an appropriate tone and length that matches the needs of the educator.
Provide educators with training on how to effectively input data and interpret AI-generated outputs.
Share best practices for integrating modified lessons into teaching strategies.

Operational factors for effective and responsible use

Effective and responsible use of Modify Content requires thoughtful implementation of operational factors and careful configuration of settings. Key considerations include:

Clear and detailed inputs — Provide clear descriptions and reference material to guide the AI in generating contextually relevant lesson modifications.
Educator review and validation — Always review and validate AI-modified content to confirm accuracy, relevance, and alignment with the specific needs of the classroom and lesson.
Content type alignment — Recognize the system's limitations with numeric or highly technical/science-focused content.
Educator training — Provide educators with training on how to effectively input data and interpret AI-generated outputs. Share best practices for integrating modified lessons into teaching strategies.

Supported languages

Modify Content currently supports only en-US (English - United States). Other languages are not supported at this time.

For other locales in English used as input (such as EN-UK or EN-AU), the system will output in EN-US. Other languages may be available but have not been tested. The system hasn't been specifically evaluated for the wide variety of dialects and sociolects represented in English.

Generative AI models are trained using vast amounts of data, and that data is most often in English. This can sometimes result in better performance in English as compared to non-English languages. As with any deployment of generative AI models, we encourage users to be mindful of the limitations of these systems for their specific use case, and cultural and linguistic contexts.

Microsoft is planning to add more supported languages and locales. This article will be updated as additional languages are supported.

System evaluation

Modify Content is evaluated through extensive manual and automated testing, including custom datasets for offensive and malicious prompts and responses. The system is continuously evaluated with user feedback.

What should I do if I see unexpected or offensive output?

If you see offensive outputs, please submit feedback using the thumbs up/thumbs down feedback in the lesson outline so that safeguards can be improved. Microsoft takes this challenge seriously and is committed to addressing it.

Access and licensing

Modify Content is available only to educators with a Microsoft 365 license. The feature is automatically limited to these users and is not accessible to others without the required license.