Anisa_Mirza

10 ms·

1. 31.▲
   by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

   Omg yes! AR was the pioneer of reading program SaaS in schools (they had a huge exit too). Epic Reading (more commonly used by kids today in schools) came after that - similar idea of gamification to encourage reading. I definitely love the
2. 32.▲
   by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

   Really cool resources (esp msreads). Thank you! To clarify, while teacher budgets for SaaS tools and even core education materials are 100% pretty limited, for low income schools, the federal Title 1 budget funding helps compensate for loca
3. 33.▲
   by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

   To clarify you are against (or I guess not in favor of) art and theatre, story-telling etc. to improve learning outcomes and interest in reading? I can sense you're being super thoughtful in your followup and I feel I might be missing
4. 34.▲
   by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

   I love this - your commitment to being an engaged/active (reading) parent has totally paid off! To add some color here, that's kind of the equity problem we hope to address by being strictly B2B for now. Majority of our students t
5. 35.▲
   by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

   Great point and thank you for the kind feedback! The truth is all states (and cities within some states) are very different in their process for adopting new vendors. Funding per pupil in Southern states also varies greatly. For instance Fl
6. 36.▲
   by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

   I feel you on that (or rather, understand exactly what your wife means here). That’s kind of the reaction when kids read the ebooks now and then ‘meet’ the character (our actors who teach the lessons) in live video! They get so excited. Let
7. 37.▲
   by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

   Thank you. I love this question because it is a critical kpi for us, naturally. First, I would like to acknowledge that there is much debate in the edu academic community on the best way to measure reading improvements. The most popular is
8. 38.▲
   by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

   Made edits to help reflect this more clearly :) Appreciate you pointing that out!
9. 39.▲
   by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

   thank you!
10. 40.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    I agree. Always welcome incorporating the feedback from HN community! My initial reasoning was to highlight where my inspiration came from, not that we modeled Sesame Street :) Clearly was more confusing than helpful. Thanks!
11. 41.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Sorry to hear your disappointment. To be clear, this is not mandated at the District level. In NYC, each school acts as its own mini CEO, if you will. They have full autonomy to choose from any contracted vendor, of which there are many
12. 42.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    As for the final feedback on leaving the group instruction and taking a more B2C Duolingo approach (coupled with live actors), I think that's an interesting thought (and I LOVE Duolingo). I just do not philosophically want to start in
13. 43.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Thank you for taking the time to craft such a thoughtful response. Love your feedback. My comments in order below: - I'm honestly baffled by spending so much time on one book (program?) in a classroom context. I imagine some kids won&#
14. 44.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Oh no! there is an interactive video call (the live stream is not one way!) where the actor is live and students read with the actor, ask questions, go through the concepts in the episode and the book, and also do the lessons or craft toget
15. 45.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    we cannot share the interactive video calls (aka livestream) because it is illegal for us to share/showcase minors from our interactive classes sin the classroom. But yes, the live stream - think of it as a video conference where the a
16. 46.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    And I would LOVE to offer you B2C early access when that launches :) My email is anisa@litnerd.com (or I can get your email and add you to our early access list when we go B2C)
17. 47.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    This is all very valuable feedback. Esp the part re craft activity actually contributing to comprehension of the book/lesson rather than adhoc/random. We definitely build our own activities as part of our curriculum team to comple
18. 48.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    I would love that! My email is anisa@litnerd.com - can't wait to hear strategies that worked/didn't work for you and even share pitfalls we experienced and things we had to adapt within the very first few months that we launc
19. 49.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Dammit. I hit enter too soon! Re #1 and #2 omg I would love to sign you up when we go live for B2C and get your feedback as well! My email is anisa@litnerd.com
20. 50.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Hey! Thank you - I wanna start with #3 (and I apologize for any lack of clarity in my original post), So when adopted in a classroom, one period every week (the same period every week) is a Litnerd designated period. The first of the 4 Litn
21. 51.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Means a lot to hear that and super cool that you were doing something similar for other subjects! I have this strong thesis that if we can nail ELA (English Language Arts) that we can utilize this format of bringing subjects to life for mat
22. 52.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Thank you so much! So far, a lot of our early adoption public schools in NYC are concentrated in Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
23. 53.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    I'm thrilled to have our first elementary school teacher comment!! Yes! We have a team of educators and curriculum writers (broken up by Grades PreK-K, 1-2 and 3-5) that follow Common Core standards and build custom ELA curriculum on t
24. 54.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    I should also add, the format of our program is such that if you don't complete the assigned reading and worksheets, you will feel like you are missing out on what is happening in proceeding episodes. In this way, reading is layered in
25. 55.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Hey there! Thank for comment. I believe some of what we do did not come across? We are not just a video subscription tool. We literally lead 'read out loud' in the classroom while the teacher/actor is acting out the main char
26. 56.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    First off, thank you so much for considering gifting us to your niece and nephew!! Unfortunately we don’t open our B2C stream until another 6-8 months (as a new company, we want to really monitor our program and it’s correlation to learning
27. 57.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    We 100% have intention to open up our model to the homeschool community! For now, we wanted to continue testing and adapting our program in classrooms until we feel confident it is ready for more independent format (homeschool parents). I a
28. 58.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Thank you for the helpful feedback and for reading twice to understand our format.
29. 59.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Hey there! Thanks for the feedback- can you verify if the link works for you now https://www.loom.com/share/9ffc59f0d7ed4a66964003703bba7b94 If you are still having trouble, please let me know or feel free to drop me a
30. 60.▲
    by Anisa_Mirza 5y ago

    Thanks for your feedback. Might I ask what you are using currently when you refer to “other things out there”? Epic? AR? I ask because I am unfamiliar with any reading program that live streams actors and teachers into the classroom, re-ena