We know how important it is to meet students' needs, whether it is to stay in compliance of an IEP or 504 plan, or just to better honor their learning preferences. We want to make sure you know how to meet those needs with Kira!
This Knowledge Based article is based off of a Kira Webinar held on January 30th, 2025. The complete recording can be viewed on Zoom, with presentation deck available on Google Slides.
One of the most common questions we get from teachers is around how to differentiate their instruction to meet the needs of all students, including those with IEPs and 504 Plans.
We love seeing this asked - it’s so good to see teachers trying to do the best for their students! - and we want to help you meet their needs with Kira. IEPs and 504 Plans do not disqualify a student from participating in a CS class - they support them in doing it!
However, we need to put a big underscore on that I in IEP. These plans are individualized and no two students are going to have exactly the same needs. For that reason, there can’t just be one ‘IEP Plan’ for a Kira course. What we can do is provide our guidance, suggestions, and tools to help you and your students towards success.
Matching Common Accommodations/Modifications to Kira
We do our best to design products with a universal design for learning in mind; that is to say, we want to make sure our features are best practices that will serve all learners. Because of this, many common accommodations and modifications are already addressed by components of the platform.
Remember:jJust because something may help all students in your class doesn't mean that it isn't also meeting an accommodation or modification need for individualized education plans!
| Accommodation/Modification | Kira Feature |
| Provide copies of material to be copied from book or board. | Students have course saved in their Kira accounts, making a copy available at all times. |
| Taped materials | Videos for most steps and all major concepts with adjustable playback speed and language for captions and transcripts |
| Abbreviated assignments | Hide steps feature |
| Chunking/compacting | Content locking for individual students |
| Extra grade opportunities (e.x: re-do items missed) | ‘Ask to resubmit’ button with saved history |
| Manipulatives | Printable Platypus |
| Assistive Technology | AI Tutor, AI TA |
Differentiation Settings in the AI Tutor
The AI Tutor, available to students and teachers on all coding steps, has settings for different reading and support levels. These settings can be set for an entire section or individualized per student to meet them at their current reading level or support needs.
These settings can all be adjusted in your section settings.
Meanwhile, the AI Teaching Assistant - viewable in the 'Student Support Tab' on the teacher view of a course - is not a student facing resource, but rather provides individualized feedback to teachers to help them best serve their students.
Read Aloud Everywhere
Another common accommodation is read aloud, which can be difficult if you are the only teacher in the room. While videos solve for some of these problems, there may still be text on the page that students process better auditorily.
Luckily, many modern web browsers - including those like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge - have built-in reading features. In Google Chrome, for example, one only needs to highlight text and right click to have it read aloud.
If this is a common accommodation in your classroom, we recommend having students bring headphones or having some loanable class pairs that can be used if this is not already a part of your class flow.
Other Teaching Strategies for Common Accommodations
Some accommodations, like request for redirection, breaks, or preferential seating, will never have a platform solution. However, many of these can be solved in low-tech ways within your classroom!
| Breaks | Redirect | Seating |
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When in doubt, consult your IEP Team!
If you are not sure if you are meeting a student's need, remember that you always have building resources to turn to. Your school's IEP team may be familiar with your student, or students who have needed similar accommodations, and might have ideas that can help you. They can also let you know if something you are doing meets a listed accommodation.
Knowledge sharing is key - while your IEP team may have helpful ideas, they also may learn from you based on strategies that you have found success with in your own classroom.