Community reviews for BetterLesson

This website does a great job of curating lessons and resources that have been shared by expert teachers. Some have video from the explaining how or why the teacher chose to plan a certain sequence. Many resources that can be used “as is” in class to replicate the instructional sequence are also provided. In addition to searching by common core standard, you can search by keyword. Educators who join the Better Lesson community have the option of sharing lessons and resources as well. So, by joining the better lesson community you can participate in the sharing as well as benefit from what others have shared.

This would be a great resource for a team to use when building activities to use in a unit. Many, but not all, of the resources I found were common core aligned for language arts. This would be something to recommend to both a new teacher as well as someone with experience as a tool to use when planning instruction to both a small group or a whole group. Seeing how other master teachers teach a topic, certainly gives you ideas that you can easily incorporate. The educational material is easy to download and adapt if needed. By adding ideas to your collection for a unit, you could easily differentiate your lesson to meet the needs of all learners.

The fact that this is a free resource is astounding. I was very impressed with this teacher resource and have it on my top 10 list to share with teachers who are in need of a "fresh" lesson plan or a new way to teach a concept. Each lesson is Common Core aligned, includes resources, timing, questions, quizzes, video tutorials, overarching goals, and opportunities to provide feedback to the lessons. It is incredibly easy to get started and easy to identify lessons and tasks that will work for your group of students. It's structured very well (shows beginning of each part of the lesson and divides these parts based on type or part of lesson). I also liked that there is a list of Master Teachers within each grade level and subject I searched and that it was so easy to bounce between teachers based on the subject or lesson I was looking for. The ease in navigating the resource was especially valuable for me. I was ESPECIALLY impressed with how well you can search the Common Core standard (at various grade levels) and find the lesson that were aligned to that standard. There are a few that are not represented (generally in the word-work for the middle grades), but I anticipate this changing as more Master Teachers are added to the site and upload their lessons. I look forward to when they add the content areas (they are currently seeking Science educators from public and charter schools) to create a directory of science lesson plans. For now, they are limited to math and language arts/reading.

I think this is a great product for lesson planning. Sometimes I feel like my creativity has been taken from me, and this site helps me get it back. It is also great because each lesson is created with Common Core standards in mind. When you visit the site, you'll be given the option to explore work created by master teachers or just search subject and grade level. Master teachers have tons of lessons on their page, and it is easy to find a few that have perfect lessons for your class. The subject and grade level material can help you streamline your search. Overall, it's a great place to get ideas for your classroom. Sign up and explore.

The fact that this is a free resource is astounding. I was very impressed with this teacher resource and have it on my top 10 list to share with teachers who are in need of a "fresh" lesson plan or a new way to teach a concept. Each lesson is Common Core aligned, includes resources, timing, questions, quizzes, video tutorials, overarching goals, and opportunities to provide feedback to the lessons. It is incredibly easy to get started and easy to identify lessons and tasks that will work for your group of students. It's structured very well (shows beginning of each part of the lesson and divides these parts based on type or part of lesson). I also liked that there is a list of Master Teachers within each grade level and subject I searched and that it was so easy to bounce between teachers based on the subject or lesson I was looking for. The ease in navigating the resource was especially valuable for me. I was ESPECIALLY impressed with how well you can search the Common Core standard (at various grade levels) and find the lesson that were aligned to that standard. There are a few that are not represented (generally in the word-work for the middle grades), but I anticipate this changing as more Master Teachers are added to the site and upload their lessons. I look forward, also, to when they add the content areas (they are currently seeking Science educators from public and charter schools) to create a directory of science lesson plans. For now, they are limited to math and language arts/reading.

Disclaimer: I am a Master Teacher with the phenomenal NEA/Better Lesson Master Teacher Project, so I have a very personal experience with this amazing project. Please check out the new site! There are 132 of us and we were selected in an intensive, nationwide search. There are 5 teachers in grades K-12, ELA and Math, posting a year's worth of lessons. This is a heavily curated site. I spend an average of 20 hours on each lesson I post. Our goal is to build a living, breathing body of knowledge that will help teachers nationwide implement the new CCSS in ways that best fit their individual practice. Contact me for further information at atlantickitfox@gmail. com or check out the cc.betterlesson.com site. My direct link is http://cc.betterlesson.com/user/326834/jennifer-valentine/curriculum. I welcome any kind of feedback on the project! We want to build a nationwide collaborative community!