A Look Back at the “Meeting the Needs of All Learners” Master Teacher Project

The pandemic has highlighted what educators have always known — that students come to school with diverse needs, and benefit from flexible, inclusive instructional strategies. From English learners to students with disabilities, to students who learn better through visual cues or by connecting to their life experience, all students benefit when teachers recognize their needs and provide differentiated instruction to help them succeed. Most strategies designed for one group of students can also help others — creating modifications need not be an add-on task!

This commitment to student-centered, equitable, flexible instruction is core to everything we do at BetterLesson. So in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, this year we selected 12 expert educators from the Kansas City area who are experienced in meeting the needs of all learners. These “Master Teachers”, as we call them, met regularly as a PLC as well as 1:1 with a BetterLesson coach in order to write several instructional strategies that help educators differentiate instruction. (Read more about the project here.) This is BetterLesson’s ninth Master Teacher Project.

We’re thrilled to present a recap of the Meeting the Needs of All Learners Master Teacher Project, and invite you to share these resources with educators far and wide!

Literacy Skills for All Subject Areas

Chop and Sample: Strategies to Support Comprehension

Think It, Say It, Write It

Comprehensible Input: Teaching Targeted Vocabulary

Using Mentor Texts and Frames to Teach Writing

Starting and Assessing Progress on the Lesson

Pre-Teaching to Support Content Mastery

Start, Stop, Continue Student Feedback Protocol

Master Teacher Blogs

6 of our Master Teachers wrote blogs to highlight their perspectives and strategies.

Meeting the Needs of All Learners: Modifications that Help All Students
By Rebecca Duguid, teacher at Brookside Charter, Kansas City, MO
See Rebecca’s strategies

Science for All Students: Bringing the Wind and Ocean to the Classroom
By Nicole Kremer, teacher in Kansas City Kansas Public Schools, KS

Strategies for English Learners: Supporting Elementary Students with Writing
By Lori Stark, teacher at Kansas City International Academy, Kansas City, MO
See Lori’s strategies

Strategies for Student Voice: Motivating Reluctant Learners
By A.J. Culey, teacher in the Shawnee Mission School District, KS
See A.J.’s strategy

Meeting the Needs of Visual Learners
By Katie Bruns, teacher at Brookside Charter, Kansas City, MO
See Katie’s strategies

Veteran Kansas City Teacher Shares 4 Strategies for Meeting the Needs of All Learners
By Kevin Stoda, teacher in the Hickman Mills School District, Kansas City, MO