Susana Velasco always thought she designed lessons for her kindergarten students to help them meet the academic standards for their grade. But now she feels better equipped to adapt instruction to meet the needs of all the children in her class — a skill she has developed through her school’s participation in the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC). “I can be flexible with them, even my nonreaders and nonwriters,” says Velasco, who teaches at Florence Avenue Elementary School in South Los Angeles. Her students have been making booklets about the life cycle of plants in preparation for a larger project on what plants need to live. LDC gives teachers templates and tools that support students in doing more challenging work aligned to the Common Core. But