Launch HN: Litnerd (YC S21) – Teaching kids to read with the help of live actors
95 comments
> 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 as a fundamental core to the program.
This needs to be highlighted much more strongly, not be buried in the 2nd half of a paragraph in the middle of your pitch. It is the key that links what you are doing to the actual improvement of reading. I had to read through your writeup more than once to find it, which is a problem when trying to understand your plan.
This needs to be highlighted much more strongly, not be buried in the 2nd half of a paragraph in the middle of your pitch. It is the key that links what you are doing to the actual improvement of reading. I had to read through your writeup more than once to find it, which is a problem when trying to understand your plan.
Thank you for the helpful feedback and for reading twice to understand our format.
I want to second this feedback. It seemed disconnected until I got to that line.
Good luck!
Good luck!
thank you!
"if you are a parent, I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how you foster reading amongst your students/children"
From birth: We read to our son often.
August 2020: I saw a recommendation on HN for the book "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons".
Aug-Dec 2020: I spent 25-30 hours following that playbook. (15-20 mins per day, 5 days per week, 20 weeks.)
August 2021: Our son (now almost 5yo) reads beyond the level that will be expected of him when he finishes Kindergarten (2 years from now). Most important for me: he's improving (both decoding and comprehension) without our help. He just picks things he wants to read (from his bookshelf, from the library, or from the thrift store), and gets started. He'll re-read books he likes, and abandon others.
Anyone who can read at high school level can follow the instructions in the book I used. Assuming you can find people like that for minimum wage(?), it should be possible to teach N children to read for $500 * N. ($15/hr x 30 hrs = $450, plus some money for materials.)
To put that $500 into context: it's approximately the same as SFUSD spends per student per week.
If you can really teach every child to read, for $8 per student ($110k/14k = $8), that would be a game-changer.
From birth: We read to our son often.
August 2020: I saw a recommendation on HN for the book "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons".
Aug-Dec 2020: I spent 25-30 hours following that playbook. (15-20 mins per day, 5 days per week, 20 weeks.)
August 2021: Our son (now almost 5yo) reads beyond the level that will be expected of him when he finishes Kindergarten (2 years from now). Most important for me: he's improving (both decoding and comprehension) without our help. He just picks things he wants to read (from his bookshelf, from the library, or from the thrift store), and gets started. He'll re-read books he likes, and abandon others.
Anyone who can read at high school level can follow the instructions in the book I used. Assuming you can find people like that for minimum wage(?), it should be possible to teach N children to read for $500 * N. ($15/hr x 30 hrs = $450, plus some money for materials.)
To put that $500 into context: it's approximately the same as SFUSD spends per student per week.
If you can really teach every child to read, for $8 per student ($110k/14k = $8), that would be a game-changer.
Talking about cost: my son used a program called Reading Eggs for just around US 70$ per year (including math lessons!) and after 2-3 months he could read independently. I gave it to him in Kindergarten when we were in lockdown and he started relatively slowly (a new unit every two days for 15-20 minutes a day). In the beginning, I had to sit with him and help him navigate a little bit but after a few lessons, he could learn all alone. The lessons were designed so amusing and engaging, my son could stay on it all by himself. After a year, he was able to read on the level of grade 2 and his math level was also beyond his age.
We’re no native English speakers but my son went to an English speaking kindergarten. All seemed so natural and easy to me that I could not understand the fuss about teaching reading in America. I mean one could not get cheaper than that and giving tablets to millions children and problem solved!
We’re no native English speakers but my son went to an English speaking kindergarten. All seemed so natural and easy to me that I could not understand the fuss about teaching reading in America. I mean one could not get cheaper than that and giving tablets to millions children and problem solved!
I second that book. My father in law used it to teach my wife and her sister to read, and my eldest daughter. My youngest is not yet willing to follow the lessons though. We'll try again when she's 4.
Same here, really worked exceptionally well with our child. We just chipped away at a couple of lessons in the evenings most week days. Worked surprisingly well.
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 today come from Title 1 schools (ie schools where 92% of the population comes from low-income families and receive free breakfast and lunch programs). Both parents are rarely even around/present (which was the case for me growing up as well). If a parent is present, they are (on ave) working 2 jobs to make ends meet or English is not their fluent language. That's why the 42% of grade 4 students reading far below their level is highly skewed towards Title 1 school population (though reading is generally in decline across the board regardless of socioeconomic status). Litnerd provides a level playing field for students who don't have parents that can read to them and be as engaged as you are are with your son (which I 100% admire and commend you for). 65% of US schools are Title 1 classified schools. This is a problem that effects majority of Americans and a B2C first approach completely neglected this audience. Finally, for transparency, we charge the district between $30-50 per student for a full year's worth of materials (books, curriculum/lesson plans, live stream teachers/actors, video episodes, our SaaS tool etc).
Thanks for this detailed answer.
I'm lucky that I don't have to work two jobs, am a native English speaker etc., and this definitely isn't easy for many parents in tough circumstances.
What I don't understand: how is it that school districts spend so much money, yet can't teach kindergarteners to read?
If I wanted to run a kindergarten class of 30 kids, where the kids were looked after all day, and taught to read by the end of the year (36 weeks), then I'd need:
1) A space to teach them, with furniture ($2k/week?, i.e. $72k total).
2) Three adults ($75k/year each?, so $225k total).
3) Some books ($3k?).
That would cost $300k, or $10k per student per year. This is less than many school districts spend per child.
With that setup, at any time, you could have:
1 adult conducting a 1:1 reading lesson
2 adults keeping the other 29 kids occupied
Each kid would get 4 x 15 min reading lessons per week. So, even if they were to be absent for 30% of the school year, they would still have plenty of time for 100 lessons.
What am I missing? Is there other important stuff they do in kindergarten, that could not be covered well if you were to set things up this way?
I'm lucky that I don't have to work two jobs, am a native English speaker etc., and this definitely isn't easy for many parents in tough circumstances.
What I don't understand: how is it that school districts spend so much money, yet can't teach kindergarteners to read?
If I wanted to run a kindergarten class of 30 kids, where the kids were looked after all day, and taught to read by the end of the year (36 weeks), then I'd need:
1) A space to teach them, with furniture ($2k/week?, i.e. $72k total).
2) Three adults ($75k/year each?, so $225k total).
3) Some books ($3k?).
That would cost $300k, or $10k per student per year. This is less than many school districts spend per child.
With that setup, at any time, you could have:
1 adult conducting a 1:1 reading lesson
2 adults keeping the other 29 kids occupied
Each kid would get 4 x 15 min reading lessons per week. So, even if they were to be absent for 30% of the school year, they would still have plenty of time for 100 lessons.
What am I missing? Is there other important stuff they do in kindergarten, that could not be covered well if you were to set things up this way?
In fairness, schools spend approx $14k per student per year. So, your spend numbers are not far off. Unfortunately, even with that level of spend, school teachers are not paid nearly as much in salary! Of course there are many other inefficiencies that need improvement as well. But I know you already know that.
I like how you approach this though!
I like how you approach this though!
I would imagine the word "nerd" in litnerd is a bit of a putoff to the student population you're targeting. Is that not the case? Or are you also trying to get them to embrace that word as positive?
Thanks for question. In all honesty, out of 14k nyc students not 1 complaint about the name so far :) Litnerd is kind of a known endearing name librarians and English/literacy majors use describe each other. And on the other hand, we play up the “lit” aspect for the older kids. Because dungeons and dragon themed choose your own adventure stories is exactly that: lit :) Either way, we just haven’t had students of schools hate the name as much as I think some on HN have (which is totally cool. Happy to hear different views).
My wife is a Grade 1 teacher in Canada. She loves the concept. Two points:
* Please provide a copy of the physical book with the subscription (to rent for 3-ish weeks). Particularly for young students to recognize the joy of a physical book, to go through it on their own time in the classroom, and as a supplement to the digital formats/lessons.
* Make sure the craft activities are creative and not 'cookie-cutter'. Make sure the students have autonomy to go off the path. Be very intentional about how it relates to the story. Several teachers do craft projects for themselves where the art all comes out looking the same and has no outcomes associated with them.
With a baby on the way, we would love to have a B2C subscription to this sort of content.
* Please provide a copy of the physical book with the subscription (to rent for 3-ish weeks). Particularly for young students to recognize the joy of a physical book, to go through it on their own time in the classroom, and as a supplement to the digital formats/lessons.
* Make sure the craft activities are creative and not 'cookie-cutter'. Make sure the students have autonomy to go off the path. Be very intentional about how it relates to the story. Several teachers do craft projects for themselves where the art all comes out looking the same and has no outcomes associated with them.
With a baby on the way, we would love to have a B2C subscription to this sort of content.
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 complement learning objectives based on the book and continue to look for improvements/feedback to make this better! As for the physical book, it's currently really hard as a startup to provide physical books but maybe as we grow and scale we will be able to do so I hope!!
And I would LOVE to offer you B2C early access when that launches :) My email is [email protected] (or I can get your email and add you to our early access list when we go B2C)
The key point she made about including a physical book:
"Imagine a child's reaction when they're reading a physical book, and then the character comes to life on screen. THAT's the hook"
I know she had two similar teaching experiences this year, one was reading a book about Ivan the Gorilla, then showing a documentary about the actual Gorilla. And again with Harry Potter. This format really excites kids :)
"Imagine a child's reaction when they're reading a physical book, and then the character comes to life on screen. THAT's the hook"
I know she had two similar teaching experiences this year, one was reading a book about Ivan the Gorilla, then showing a documentary about the actual Gorilla. And again with Harry Potter. This format really excites kids :)
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 us close our seed round, grow a little more, and hit Series A milestones and I’m sure we will be adding more physical aspects to the book ;)
(Litnerd person here). My daughter’s school used Epic, and one of the things we found frustrating was that it was only “free” until 3PM and then if she wanted to continue reading we (the parents) had to buy a subscription (and it was not cheap IMHO). One of the things I love is that this is coming through the school, and will not cost the parents a dime. We cannot expect to impact literacy in lower income households by adding to their overtaxed budgets!
This looks like a really thoughtful resource, and I can tell you are hitting all the right marks when it comes to getting this into classrooms. As a first grade teacher, however, I all curious how you see Litnerd fitting into a balanced literacy program. In browsing your programs, I see language comprehension and social emotional learning but no phonics or phonemic awareness. Do you have plans to support these crucial reading skills as well?
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 top of each book and Litnerd program. We provide 2 lesson plans per week and a total of 8 lesson plans per program. We also create SEL lessons (again, based on the book) that follow NYSED competencies and 'Leader in Me' program language (since that is what most of our schools currently use for SEL). We hope to continue to improve overtime and I would definitely any feedback for us as we grow intros area!
TIL a new acronym word symbol lexeme: SEL: Social and Emotional Learning
> Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is an education practice that integrates social emotional skills into school curriculum. SEL is otherwise referred to as "socio-emotional learning" or "social-emotional literacy." When in practice, social emotional learning has equal emphasis on social and emotional skills to other subjects such as math, science, and reading.[1] The five main components of social emotional learning are self-awareness, self management, social awareness, responsible decision making, and relationship skills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_and_Emotional_Learning
For good measure, Common Core English Language Arts standards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core_State_Standards_In...
Khan Academy has 2nd-9th Grade ELA exercises: English & Language Arts: https://www.khanacademy.org/ela
Unfortunately AFAIU there's not a good way to explore the Khan Academy Kids curriculum graph; which definitely does include reading: https://learn.khanacademy.org/khan-academy-kids/
> The app engages kids in core subjects like early literacy, reading, writing, language, and math, while encouraging creativity and building social-emotional skills
In terms of Phonemic awareness and Phonological awareness, is there a good a survey of US and World reading programs and their evidence-based basis, if any??
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonemic_awareness :
> Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness in which listeners are able to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes, the smallest mental units of sound that help to differentiate units of meaning (morphemes). Separating the spoken word "cat" into three distinct phonemes, /k/, /æ/, and /t/, requires phonemic awareness. The National Reading Panel has found that phonemic awareness improves children's word reading and reading comprehension and helps children learn to spell.[1] Phonemic awareness is the basis for learning phonics.[2]
> Phonemic awareness and phonological awareness are often confused since they are interdependent. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual phonemes. *Phonological awareness includes this ability, but it also includes the ability to hear and manipulate larger units of sound, such as onsets and rimes and syllables.*
What are some of the more evidence-based (?) (early literacy,) reading curricula? OTOH: LETRS, Heggerty, PAL: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aen.wikipedia.org+%22l...
Looks like Cambium acquired e.g. Kurzweil Education in 2005?
More context:
Reading readiness in the United States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_readiness_in_the_Unite...
Emergent literacies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergent_literacies
An interactive IPA chart with videos and readings linked with RDF (e.g. ~WordNet RDF) would be great. From "Duolingo's language notes all on one page" https://westurner.github.io/hnlog/#comment-26430146 :
> An IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) reference would be helpful, too. After taking linguistics in college, I found these Sozo videos of US english IPA consonants and vowels that simultaneously show {the ipa symbol, example words, someone visually and auditorily producing the phoneme from 2 angles, and the spectrogram of the waveform} but a few or a configurable number of [spaced] repetitions would be helpful: https://youtu.be/Sw36F_UcIn8
> IDK how cartoonish or 3d of an "articulatory phonetic" model would reach the widest audience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articulatory_phonetics
> IPA chart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabe...
> IPA chart with audio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_vowel_chart_with_audio
> All of the IPA consonant chart played as a video: "International Phonetic Alphabet Consonant sounds (Pulmonic)- From Wikipedia.org" https://youtu.be/yFAITaBr6Tw
> I'll have to find the link of the site where they playback youtube videos with multiple languages' subtitles highlighted side-by-side along with the video.
>> [...] Found it: https://www.captionpop.com/
>> It looks like there are a few browser extensions for displaying multiple subtitles as well; e.g. "YouTube Dual Subtitles", "Two Captions for YouTube and Netflix"
Phonics programs really could reference IPA from the start: there are different sounds for the same letters; IPA is the most standard way to indicate how to pronounce words: it's in the old school dictionary, and now it's in the Google "define:" or just "define word" dictionary.
UN Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education: https://www.globalgoals.org/4-quality-education
> Target 4.6: Universal Literacy and Numeracy
> By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.
https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4 :
> Indicator 4.6.1: Percentage of population in a given age group achieving at least a fixed level of proficiency in functional (a) literacy and (b) numeracy skills, by sex
... Goals, Targets, and Indicators.
> Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is an education practice that integrates social emotional skills into school curriculum. SEL is otherwise referred to as "socio-emotional learning" or "social-emotional literacy." When in practice, social emotional learning has equal emphasis on social and emotional skills to other subjects such as math, science, and reading.[1] The five main components of social emotional learning are self-awareness, self management, social awareness, responsible decision making, and relationship skills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_and_Emotional_Learning
For good measure, Common Core English Language Arts standards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core_State_Standards_In...
Khan Academy has 2nd-9th Grade ELA exercises: English & Language Arts: https://www.khanacademy.org/ela
Unfortunately AFAIU there's not a good way to explore the Khan Academy Kids curriculum graph; which definitely does include reading: https://learn.khanacademy.org/khan-academy-kids/
> The app engages kids in core subjects like early literacy, reading, writing, language, and math, while encouraging creativity and building social-emotional skills
In terms of Phonemic awareness and Phonological awareness, is there a good a survey of US and World reading programs and their evidence-based basis, if any??
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonemic_awareness :
> Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness in which listeners are able to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes, the smallest mental units of sound that help to differentiate units of meaning (morphemes). Separating the spoken word "cat" into three distinct phonemes, /k/, /æ/, and /t/, requires phonemic awareness. The National Reading Panel has found that phonemic awareness improves children's word reading and reading comprehension and helps children learn to spell.[1] Phonemic awareness is the basis for learning phonics.[2]
> Phonemic awareness and phonological awareness are often confused since they are interdependent. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual phonemes. *Phonological awareness includes this ability, but it also includes the ability to hear and manipulate larger units of sound, such as onsets and rimes and syllables.*
What are some of the more evidence-based (?) (early literacy,) reading curricula? OTOH: LETRS, Heggerty, PAL: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aen.wikipedia.org+%22l...
Looks like Cambium acquired e.g. Kurzweil Education in 2005?
More context:
Reading readiness in the United States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_readiness_in_the_Unite...
Emergent literacies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergent_literacies
An interactive IPA chart with videos and readings linked with RDF (e.g. ~WordNet RDF) would be great. From "Duolingo's language notes all on one page" https://westurner.github.io/hnlog/#comment-26430146 :
> An IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) reference would be helpful, too. After taking linguistics in college, I found these Sozo videos of US english IPA consonants and vowels that simultaneously show {the ipa symbol, example words, someone visually and auditorily producing the phoneme from 2 angles, and the spectrogram of the waveform} but a few or a configurable number of [spaced] repetitions would be helpful: https://youtu.be/Sw36F_UcIn8
> IDK how cartoonish or 3d of an "articulatory phonetic" model would reach the widest audience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articulatory_phonetics
> IPA chart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabe...
> IPA chart with audio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_vowel_chart_with_audio
> All of the IPA consonant chart played as a video: "International Phonetic Alphabet Consonant sounds (Pulmonic)- From Wikipedia.org" https://youtu.be/yFAITaBr6Tw
> I'll have to find the link of the site where they playback youtube videos with multiple languages' subtitles highlighted side-by-side along with the video.
>> [...] Found it: https://www.captionpop.com/
>> It looks like there are a few browser extensions for displaying multiple subtitles as well; e.g. "YouTube Dual Subtitles", "Two Captions for YouTube and Netflix"
Phonics programs really could reference IPA from the start: there are different sounds for the same letters; IPA is the most standard way to indicate how to pronounce words: it's in the old school dictionary, and now it's in the Google "define:" or just "define word" dictionary.
UN Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education: https://www.globalgoals.org/4-quality-education
> Target 4.6: Universal Literacy and Numeracy
> By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.
https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4 :
> Indicator 4.6.1: Percentage of population in a given age group achieving at least a fixed level of proficiency in functional (a) literacy and (b) numeracy skills, by sex
... Goals, Targets, and Indicators.
Which traversals of a curriculum graph are optimal or sufficient?
You can add https://schema.org/about and https://schema.org/educationalAlignment Linked Data to your [#OER] curriculum resources to increase discoverability, reusability.
Arne-Thompson-Uther Index code URN URIs could be helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarne%E2%80%93Thompson%E2%80%9...
> The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (ATU Index) is a catalogue of folktale types used in folklore studies.
Are there competencies linked to maybe a nested outline that we typically traverse in depth-first order? https://github.com/todotxt/todo.txt : Todo.txt format has +succinct @context labels. Some way to record and score our own paths objectively would be great.
You can add https://schema.org/about and https://schema.org/educationalAlignment Linked Data to your [#OER] curriculum resources to increase discoverability, reusability.
Arne-Thompson-Uther Index code URN URIs could be helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarne%E2%80%93Thompson%E2%80%9...
> The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (ATU Index) is a catalogue of folktale types used in folklore studies.
Are there competencies linked to maybe a nested outline that we typically traverse in depth-first order? https://github.com/todotxt/todo.txt : Todo.txt format has +succinct @context labels. Some way to record and score our own paths objectively would be great.
There exist books about raising a read-aloud family; promoting a culture of randomly reading aloud. To whoever, for example.
Writing letters, too.
Writing letters, too.
> What are some of the more evidence-based (?) (early literacy,) reading curricula? OTOH: LETRS, Heggerty, PAL
Looks like there are only 21 search results for: "LETRS" "Fundation" "Heggerty": https://www.google.com/search?q="LETRS"+"fundation"+"heggert...
What is the name for this category of curricula?
Perhaps the US Department of Education or similar could compare early reading programs in a wiki[pedia] page, according to criteria to include measures of evidence-basedness? Just like https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/ has "aggregate data for each institution [&] Includes information on institutional characteristics, enrollment, student aid, costs, and student outcomes."
From YouTube, it looks like there are cool hand motions for Heggerty.
Looks like there are only 21 search results for: "LETRS" "Fundation" "Heggerty": https://www.google.com/search?q="LETRS"+"fundation"+"heggert...
What is the name for this category of curricula?
Perhaps the US Department of Education or similar could compare early reading programs in a wiki[pedia] page, according to criteria to include measures of evidence-basedness? Just like https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/ has "aggregate data for each institution [&] Includes information on institutional characteristics, enrollment, student aid, costs, and student outcomes."
From YouTube, it looks like there are cool hand motions for Heggerty.
I'm a parent that just taught my 4yo preschooler to read. So I'm not really your target user, but I watched the walkthrough and read the website, and here are my reactions. Hopefully something here is useful for you:
- I'm honestly baffled by spending so much time on one book (program?) in a classroom context. I imagine some kids won't be interested in the particular story, but it will go on for an entire month. I could see this damaging interest.
- The pace seems incredibly slow. To learn to read, you need to read a lot. But this is one book per month?
- The more stories a child is exposed to, the more chances there are to encounter something especially captivating for that child, and to spark an interest.
- It's hard to believe how much participation there will be without seeing an example class and interactions between the students & actor. The videos on the site make it seem like a completely passive experience.
- Craft activities seem like a distraction from reading unless the activities are grounded in literacy (e.g. letter/word games or creations). Even then I'm kind of skeptical.
- I predict you'll end up changing the name "litnerd". Being a nerd is cool on HN, but elsewhere?
All that said, I'm a fan of your mission and understand that learning to read in a classroom is going to look a lot different than learning 1:1. But I wonder if you could leave the group instruction to teachers and go direct to kids with a more Duolingo ABC-like experience, but include live instructors/actors. It'd be sort of like reading with a remote parent. Instructors could act out the story as you're doing with litnerd, but also unstick kids with reading help and mini-lessons. Basically, build a literacy-specific Young Lady's Illustrated Primer from A Diamond Age with gig economy ractors.
- I'm honestly baffled by spending so much time on one book (program?) in a classroom context. I imagine some kids won't be interested in the particular story, but it will go on for an entire month. I could see this damaging interest.
- The pace seems incredibly slow. To learn to read, you need to read a lot. But this is one book per month?
- The more stories a child is exposed to, the more chances there are to encounter something especially captivating for that child, and to spark an interest.
- It's hard to believe how much participation there will be without seeing an example class and interactions between the students & actor. The videos on the site make it seem like a completely passive experience.
- Craft activities seem like a distraction from reading unless the activities are grounded in literacy (e.g. letter/word games or creations). Even then I'm kind of skeptical.
- I predict you'll end up changing the name "litnerd". Being a nerd is cool on HN, but elsewhere?
All that said, I'm a fan of your mission and understand that learning to read in a classroom is going to look a lot different than learning 1:1. But I wonder if you could leave the group instruction to teachers and go direct to kids with a more Duolingo ABC-like experience, but include live instructors/actors. It'd be sort of like reading with a remote parent. Instructors could act out the story as you're doing with litnerd, but also unstick kids with reading help and mini-lessons. Basically, build a literacy-specific Young Lady's Illustrated Primer from A Diamond Age with gig economy ractors.
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't be interested in the particular story, but it will go on for an entire month. I could see this damaging interest.
So the program time is actually 4 active periods on one book. For longer books (higher grades and more difficult Lexile scale will have some extra designated time to ensure students can finish the book but on average it is 4 periods. This includes the watching of episodes, reading out loud, lesson plans that have to be covered as part of ELA (English Language Arts) instruction anyway. High engagement level has been core to our early success but interestingly, one of the main points for improvement from teachers is that our program can feel rushed (ie desire for more designated time). We're still working through the kinks :)
- The pace seems incredibly slow. To learn to read, you need to read a lot. But this is one book per month?
Yup. We only target 9 books ie 1 book per month. Of course, we hope that students would read far more but going from no reading to some reading and carving out "reading time" to develop the habit of reading is where we come into play. Of course schools can and should continue to foster take-home reading and after school or within school time reading outside of this.
- The more stories a child is exposed to, the more chances there are to encounter something especially captivating for that child, and to spark an interest.
I agree with this.
- It's hard to believe how much participation there will be without seeing an example class and interactions between the students & actor. The videos on the site make it seem like a completely passive experience.
Legally, we cannot share that footage at all. So I'll just have to accept your disbelief here even though I wish badly I could show you otherwise :)
- Craft activities seem like a distraction from reading unless the activities are grounded in literacy (e.g. letter/word games or creations). Even then I'm kind of skeptical.
Respectfully, I don't exactly agree with that. Esp for younger ages, craft activity is a form of sensory learning. We use craft activities built to help showcase comprehension of the unit as opposed to just phonetics (though there is that aspect too). I think just evaluating our students comprehension in one medium form is limited (again, esp for younger ages).
- I predict you'll end up changing the name "litnerd". Being a nerd is cool on HN, but elsewhere?
Come on! The cat and everything? (Lit)nerds rule! ;)
- I'm honestly baffled by spending so much time on one book (program?) in a classroom context. I imagine some kids won't be interested in the particular story, but it will go on for an entire month. I could see this damaging interest.
So the program time is actually 4 active periods on one book. For longer books (higher grades and more difficult Lexile scale will have some extra designated time to ensure students can finish the book but on average it is 4 periods. This includes the watching of episodes, reading out loud, lesson plans that have to be covered as part of ELA (English Language Arts) instruction anyway. High engagement level has been core to our early success but interestingly, one of the main points for improvement from teachers is that our program can feel rushed (ie desire for more designated time). We're still working through the kinks :)
- The pace seems incredibly slow. To learn to read, you need to read a lot. But this is one book per month?
Yup. We only target 9 books ie 1 book per month. Of course, we hope that students would read far more but going from no reading to some reading and carving out "reading time" to develop the habit of reading is where we come into play. Of course schools can and should continue to foster take-home reading and after school or within school time reading outside of this.
- The more stories a child is exposed to, the more chances there are to encounter something especially captivating for that child, and to spark an interest.
I agree with this.
- It's hard to believe how much participation there will be without seeing an example class and interactions between the students & actor. The videos on the site make it seem like a completely passive experience.
Legally, we cannot share that footage at all. So I'll just have to accept your disbelief here even though I wish badly I could show you otherwise :)
- Craft activities seem like a distraction from reading unless the activities are grounded in literacy (e.g. letter/word games or creations). Even then I'm kind of skeptical.
Respectfully, I don't exactly agree with that. Esp for younger ages, craft activity is a form of sensory learning. We use craft activities built to help showcase comprehension of the unit as opposed to just phonetics (though there is that aspect too). I think just evaluating our students comprehension in one medium form is limited (again, esp for younger ages).
- I predict you'll end up changing the name "litnerd". Being a nerd is cool on HN, but elsewhere?
Come on! The cat and everything? (Lit)nerds rule! ;)
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 the B2C go-to-market space. Majority of the kids we serve come from Title 1 schools (low income families). Presuming access to internet or even access to quiet reading space is something that doesn't always reflect the students we serve. 65% of NYC public schools are Title 1 schools. The equity aspect of being part of structured classroom time is really important to me at this time. Doesn't mean we cannot add B2C down the road though! By the way, The 'Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer' looks dope! Just purchased on amazon to check it out!
Given your interest in hiring art and theatre professionals to support education I think you'll love The Diamond Age. It's so relevant to what you're doing I'd assumed you must have already read it!
I'm definitely coming at this from my own parent perspective and my some of feedback is probably more a reaction to the realities of classroom instruction than about Litnerd specifically.
I'm going to push on your deflection to legal obstacles to sharing footage though. Get parent permission and make a better example video! :)
I'm going to push on your deflection to legal obstacles to sharing footage though. Get parent permission and make a better example video! :)
With regard to sharing a video of example class couldn't you set one up with paid signed off kids - they do this on Colbert all the time so there must be somewhere you can get these kids who don't mind being on TV?
Def agree about the name. Kids are assholes, and extremely self conscious. Anyone who thinks they're not aware of social concepts like being cool vs being a nerd are in for a bad time. But hey, Skool is kool, right?
Awesome stuff Anisa -- there used to be a program back when I was in elementary school called "accelerated readers' program" which really helped me become a better reader. Basically you read a book and you can take a test after reading that book and based on the level of difficulty of that book / how well you did on the test, you would get points. And those points would get your prizes (like coupons to Chuck-E-Cheese or to a movie). Top weekly readers also got shout outs over the PA system during morning announcements. Great way to gamify reading and helped me a lot. Maybe that concept can be inspo for something here!
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 idea of gamification, the only thing I would add as feedback we have noted from parents is that Epic and AR would push kids to read 'fast' books within the Lexile range they had to stay in, rather than books that might be more interesting to them. The tests also weren't the greatest to measure comprehension because of their format. Having said that, I definitely love the idea of gamification inspired vey AR and we intend on having some of that in our program too!
I'm still grinning that you know and used AR! So cool.
I definitely love the idea of gamification, the only thing I would add as feedback we have noted from parents is that Epic and AR would push kids to read 'fast' books within the Lexile range they had to stay in, rather than books that might be more interesting to them. The tests also weren't the greatest to measure comprehension because of their format. Having said that, I definitely love the idea of gamification inspired vey AR and we intend on having some of that in our program too!
I'm still grinning that you know and used AR! So cool.
I LOVED that program! That and the MS Readathon were totally my things! At the time you don't realizing they are using game theory, but as an adult you look back and think "that was really smart". Very much food for thought.
"1 in 8 Americans is functionally illiterate. Like any skill, reading is a habit. If you grew up in a household where you did not see your parents reading, you likely do not develop the habit.This correlates to the socio-economic divide. Two thirds of American students who lack reading skills by the end of fourth grade will rely on welfare as adults."
All of this was so very striking to read. Causation =/= Correlation aside, I'm so glad some tech startups are taking on such foundational societal issues in a way that makes them a profit. I'm really hoping school boards play ball, and play ball fast.
All of this was so very striking to read. Causation =/= Correlation aside, I'm so glad some tech startups are taking on such foundational societal issues in a way that makes them a profit. I'm really hoping school boards play ball, and play ball fast.
Coupled with teachers working unpaid hours it is somewhat frightening (even if you are not a parent). And we wonder why our society has issues that are so divisive? There is a line between those who are well educated and informed, and those who are not, that starts in elementary school!
My niece and nephew are learning to read, and are currently home schooled. I would love to give them a gift card or subscription for their birthday so that they can access this content. Is that possible?
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 outcomes in the classroom before we spread wider to the B2C setting). I would love to email you early access and some sort of early adopter discount when we’re ready! my email is [email protected]
I'm interested to know if this actually works at getting students better at reading. Since litnerd already has some 14k students, have you run any studies or recorded any metrics that show that litnerd is really helping kids learn to read better than the traditional strategies?
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 Lexile level. However, this method has also received a lot of growing criticism in academic circles.
At Litnerd, today we measure learning outcomes in a few ways:
1) Increasing reading time amongst students. We measure time spent reading per student and have seen 63% increase here so far. Albeit our measuring methods still need improvement. I want to just ensure I communicate that a big value prop for teachers is that our program encourages structured reading habits. This is why time spent reading matters.
2) Increasing comprehension. Here we measure outcomes based on quizzes and lesson plans that are part of our course. I don't like this as the primary means but schools do measure learning outcomes based on testing per so and we adopt this method for now though intend on adding more ways to creatively measure this.
3) Engagement in the classroom! All of our live stream sessions are recorded and we actively measure how engaged students are in the class, if they are raising their hand to participate, are they having fun with the actors or is it boring etc.
Ultimately we need more than 4-5 months to be able to credibly report back on Lexile level improvement amongst students. But in the next 12 months we should have enough data to confidently report back on this metric directly!
At Litnerd, today we measure learning outcomes in a few ways:
1) Increasing reading time amongst students. We measure time spent reading per student and have seen 63% increase here so far. Albeit our measuring methods still need improvement. I want to just ensure I communicate that a big value prop for teachers is that our program encourages structured reading habits. This is why time spent reading matters.
2) Increasing comprehension. Here we measure outcomes based on quizzes and lesson plans that are part of our course. I don't like this as the primary means but schools do measure learning outcomes based on testing per so and we adopt this method for now though intend on adding more ways to creatively measure this.
3) Engagement in the classroom! All of our live stream sessions are recorded and we actively measure how engaged students are in the class, if they are raising their hand to participate, are they having fun with the actors or is it boring etc.
Ultimately we need more than 4-5 months to be able to credibly report back on Lexile level improvement amongst students. But in the next 12 months we should have enough data to confidently report back on this metric directly!
Congrats Anisa! Kids need more ways to inspire them to read, and this is a great program!
I created programs for title 1 schools / kids in math and always wanted a cool way to inspire kids to be more curious and excited about reading.
Can’t wait to see Litnerd grow and reach more kids!
I created programs for title 1 schools / kids in math and always wanted a cool way to inspire kids to be more curious and excited about reading.
Can’t wait to see Litnerd grow and reach more kids!
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 math and science as well (fingers crossed).
What would pricing look like for homeschoolers or parents that want to participate but their school is not? Are you targeting that demo at all?
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 am hoping in the next 6-8 months we can launch B2C version!
Hi Anisa: Best wishes to you and your team. I am a parent and I try lot of different tools to help my kids with reading. Yes, the moment I bring up they often say its boring or lose interest. I am curious about what areas of your product be available for parents? If you can provide your email could share more about what I tried and what problems I face?
I would love that! My email is [email protected] - 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 launched. We hope to continue learning and adapting our program over the next 6-8 months at which point we hope to launch a B2C version!
My advice which holds true as an adult is to find stories that resonate. I learnt to read almost entirely reading books about football, all the way up to autobiographies at an early age. Now as an adult I read huge amounts of non-fiction but find fiction incredibly boring. I can't explain it but I would recommend trying lots of diff things until something sticks. Graphic novels
My feedback as a father of 3 in 1st grade, kinder, and preschool is that I could not figure out what was different about this then other things out there.
Good luck!
Good luck!
This is Reading Rainbow, the subscription version. As a parent of a very young reader, here are my thoughts.
- a video component to a reading program is a distraction, not a value-add, until around grade 4. young kids are mesmerized (this should be in all caps) by video, and before around grade 4 video will create a contest for kids' attention that reading will lose. they won't think "I want to read more so I can follow these programs" they will instead think "I want to watch tv".
- to teach kids to read, and to encourage them to enjoy reading, you need to read with them. there is no substitute for this. talking to them about reading, watching videos about reading, etc. are time wasted that could be spent patiently reading, together.
- a video component to a reading program is a distraction, not a value-add, until around grade 4. young kids are mesmerized (this should be in all caps) by video, and before around grade 4 video will create a contest for kids' attention that reading will lose. they won't think "I want to read more so I can follow these programs" they will instead think "I want to watch tv".
- to teach kids to read, and to encourage them to enjoy reading, you need to read with them. there is no substitute for this. talking to them about reading, watching videos about reading, etc. are time wasted that could be spent patiently reading, together.
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 character in the book. We have a weekly designated Litnerd period in the schools/classes we serve and we live-stream in our teachers/actors for an interactive session (the students participate and read live with the actor as well as complete written lesson plans, phonetic exercises etc). We are currently serving 14,000 students in this manner.
This did not come across at all for me either, until I watched the Loom. Personally I would love to see a short example of each teaching style supported in an actual classroom (reading out loud, recording, and live stream). Questions I had include: are the live streams interactive in any way? what features does the ebook contain (animations, background sounds, other effects)? and what level of quality are the recordings (do they have closed captioning available, how are the actors, etc)?
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 artist is in character and the students go through the lessons, answer questions based on the episode they watched earlier, read out loud, do the craft activity etc.
As for the ebook - no special effect (yet!) but working on that!
No close caption yet. We are 5 months old so definitely a lot of this will be what we look to add as our product offering grows. For now, we've been focussed on curriculum, episode content with actors, and scaling out our interactive teachers streamed into classrooms.
But yes, the live stream - think of it as a video conference where the artist is in character and the students go through the lessons, answer questions based on the episode they watched earlier, read out loud, do the craft activity etc.
As for the ebook - no special effect (yet!) but working on that!
No close caption yet. We are 5 months old so definitely a lot of this will be what we look to add as our product offering grows. For now, we've been focussed on curriculum, episode content with actors, and scaling out our interactive teachers streamed into classrooms.
>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.
Of course. But can you mock a session? Can you get volunteer children to participate?
>As for the ebook - no special effect (yet!) but working on that! No close caption yet.
Both of these are fine of course. But again a product demonstration showing the student experience would answer what is or isn't in the product :)
Of course. But can you mock a session? Can you get volunteer children to participate?
>As for the ebook - no special effect (yet!) but working on that! No close caption yet.
Both of these are fine of course. But again a product demonstration showing the student experience would answer what is or isn't in the product :)
I did miss that from the homepage.
And yet, I just watched the Loom and am not bullish on a model where kids have and are asked to read on devices and then are streamed supporting video content.
There may be a delta between effective and commercially viable, but sitting with a group of kids and reading to and with them, as a teaching method, is fundamentally not broken. It works really, really well!
Kids who don't get that experience struggle, and while I appreciate that you are trying something that may offer some kids who need it some additional reading experience, I don't see it as anything like Khan Academy for reading, which we all agree would be super.
And yet, I just watched the Loom and am not bullish on a model where kids have and are asked to read on devices and then are streamed supporting video content.
There may be a delta between effective and commercially viable, but sitting with a group of kids and reading to and with them, as a teaching method, is fundamentally not broken. It works really, really well!
Kids who don't get that experience struggle, and while I appreciate that you are trying something that may offer some kids who need it some additional reading experience, I don't see it as anything like Khan Academy for reading, which we all agree would be super.
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 together. Homeroom Teacher is also always present in the classroom while this happens. We can't share that of course because our students are minors and this is protected information (their faces and anything else that is identifiable data which in some cases even includes writings).
Oh it's live! That changes everything. I feel like your messaging copywriting on the website needs work. Most people don't read watch everything. What was your super short yc application summary?
Made edits to help reflect this more clearly :) Appreciate you pointing that out!
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 as a fundamental core to the program.
I've added some of what you wrote here to the text above in the hope of making the explanation clearer!
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-enacts the books into episodes with live actors in addition to lesson plans and ebook library.
This is a really cool idea. Kinda reminds me of Reading Rainbow, which I grew up on.
I'm curious how y'all plan to address one of the markets that need this the most -- public schools in the American South? Those schools are notoriously underfunded, so how do y'all plan to overcome budget issues? Sounds like you know what you're doing with the "budget line item process", so I'm curious to hear what you might have in mind.
I'm curious how y'all plan to address one of the markets that need this the most -- public schools in the American South? Those schools are notoriously underfunded, so how do y'all plan to overcome budget issues? Sounds like you know what you're doing with the "budget line item process", so I'm curious to hear what you might have in mind.
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 Florida and Texas are pretty well funded compared to other states in the South. We have only now started entering some state/cities outside of NYCDOE so i don’t feel I can give you the most scientific answer here (yet), except to say that all districts are kinda different (as I’m aware you already know). Any feedback or ideas are welcome!
I'm not an educator, only an individual with no children who is interested in education. I do some volunteer work for education non-profits, so not sure how much help I'd be about budget stuff. Was really just curious when I asked that question.
With that said, most of my knowledge is about Mississippi. We have tons of problems with our public education system. Budget constraints are always a big issue for teachers, and one that might make it difficult to adopt a new program. At a very high level: https://mississippitoday.org/2018/04/16/analysis-shows-state...
If you're trying to make an impact in Mississippi, the Barksdale Reading Institute works in this space: https://msreads.org/.
With that said, most of my knowledge is about Mississippi. We have tons of problems with our public education system. Budget constraints are always a big issue for teachers, and one that might make it difficult to adopt a new program. At a very high level: https://mississippitoday.org/2018/04/16/analysis-shows-state...
If you're trying to make an impact in Mississippi, the Barksdale Reading Institute works in this space: https://msreads.org/.
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 local principals to adopt programs like ours by allocating chunks of budget to help schools that need it most. Again, still learning as we grow.
Finally, love that you volunteer for edu orgs - if I may ask, which ones are you involved with?
Cool about Title 1!
In the past, I’ve worked for the Meridian Freedom Project: http://themeridianfreedomproject.org/ and Leap Frog: https://theleapfrogprogram.org/. Currently live in Birmingham, AL and each semester I volunteer for a creative writing program called DISCO: http://www.discobham.com/.
In the past, I’ve worked for the Meridian Freedom Project: http://themeridianfreedomproject.org/ and Leap Frog: https://theleapfrogprogram.org/. Currently live in Birmingham, AL and each semester I volunteer for a creative writing program called DISCO: http://www.discobham.com/.
1. Huge congrats on the launch and success!
2. Sign me up for the B2C offering for my 3 year old.
3. I’m a little confused on the delivery here. It seems that a teacher dedicates time during the day to have a live-streamed enactment of the story. Students then complete exercises relatively independently on their own devices?
2. Sign me up for the B2C offering for my 3 year old.
3. I’m a little confused on the delivery here. It seems that a teacher dedicates time during the day to have a live-streamed enactment of the story. Students then complete exercises relatively independently on their own devices?
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 Litnerd periods is a pre-recorded episode adaptation of the book (to get the kids excited and hooked), subsequent periods are an interactive video conference where our Resident Teaching Artist stay dressed in character from the episode and goes through the reading, comprehension, SEL and ELA curriculum + lesson plans, etc. The student respond back, interact - we literally are kinda Outschool in School while staying in character of the episode reenactment. There are 2-3 pre-recorded episodes/short form content students can watch as well (students in all our classrooms were donated chrome books from Google). But a big chunk of this is live, interactive on the Smart Screen in classrooms.
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 [email protected]
The linked loom.com URL doesn't seem to work for me - something about the https not working currently. Is there another place you can stick the walkthrough video so we can access it?
[I have a more than passing interest in literacy and pedagogy - it'd be Real Nice to see what you're doing.]
[I have a more than passing interest in literacy and pedagogy - it'd be Real Nice to see what you're doing.]
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 line [email protected]
If you are still having trouble, please let me know or feel free to drop me a line [email protected]
Love to see where this goes! Immediately reminded me of ractives from The Diamond Age.
Thank you! We’re committed and excited. You’re the second person to reference The Diamond Age today! :)
Just a heads up, but the website linked at the top (https://litnerd.com/) seems to be able to scroll for a while to the right, resulting in an empty page.
So the quotes are unreadable on mobile
Yep same here
This looks entertaining but it has almost nothing to do with teaching reading and literacy. I’m a little depressed by this, honestly. The failure of Sesame Street to educate beyond pre-reading is well documented and isn’t the model we should be pursuing in 1-12 and especially not via vendor lock-in at a district level.
What I’d love to see is someone who figures out how to scale and make attractive the approach of a method like 100 Easy Lessons. This is the book I give or recommend any parent whose child is struggling with reading (whether at home or at school.)
I’m a parent, and married to a parent and opinionated educator, for the record.
What I’d love to see is someone who figures out how to scale and make attractive the approach of a method like 100 Easy Lessons. This is the book I give or recommend any parent whose child is struggling with reading (whether at home or at school.)
I’m a parent, and married to a parent and opinionated educator, for the record.
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 reading tool or reading program options. They choose us by choice, and continue to use us, because of engagement levels, learning outcomes and response from teachers :)
I would love to make sure I understand your feedback and disappointment more clearly in hopes to learn from it, esp since you are an educator. While I reference Sesame Street - we are not Sesame Street (as I am sure you gathered from our description already). What parts of our program or model specifically are you depressed by? I would love to either address it or at least learn from your feedback. Cheers.
I would love to make sure I understand your feedback and disappointment more clearly in hopes to learn from it, esp since you are an educator. While I reference Sesame Street - we are not Sesame Street (as I am sure you gathered from our description already). What parts of our program or model specifically are you depressed by? I would love to either address it or at least learn from your feedback. Cheers.
Hmm - I think the reference to Sesame Street in the title might have been confusing some readers, so I've changed it in an attempt to highlight what's unique about your approach. Is that ok?
(Submitted title was "Launch HN: Litnerd (YC S21) – Sesame Street Inspired Reading Program for Schools")
(Submitted title was "Launch HN: Litnerd (YC S21) – Sesame Street Inspired Reading Program for Schools")
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!
Thanks; I’m glad to hear teachers have a choice.
I didn’t communicate well re: Sesame Street. I didn’t mean that your show is actually like Sesame Street, rather that the model is to use the entertainment value of the readers/actors/action to engage students until they start to read well due to other factors, rather than to directly teach those fundamentals and rely on the students’ delight in their fledgling skills to pull them further into good habits and teacher-guided reading.
I didn’t communicate well re: Sesame Street. I didn’t mean that your show is actually like Sesame Street, rather that the model is to use the entertainment value of the readers/actors/action to engage students until they start to read well due to other factors, rather than to directly teach those fundamentals and rely on the students’ delight in their fledgling skills to pull them further into good habits and teacher-guided reading.
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 your feedback, which is why I want to respectfully clarify.
If what I paraphrased above truly is your position, we will have to respectfully agree to disagree. Tons of research shows that the brain synapses grow stronger through active participation in the arts/story-telling/theatre. These essential activities at an early age can actually create new neural pathways and fortify those that are already present.
But again, I want to be careful to not miss your point because if you took the time to clarify, I want to make sure I beneifit from your feedback and sound like I'm ignoring it.
If what I paraphrased above truly is your position, we will have to respectfully agree to disagree. Tons of research shows that the brain synapses grow stronger through active participation in the arts/story-telling/theatre. These essential activities at an early age can actually create new neural pathways and fortify those that are already present.
But again, I want to be careful to not miss your point because if you took the time to clarify, I want to make sure I beneifit from your feedback and sound like I'm ignoring it.
Yes, I think that’s a fair summary. I agree we must disagree and I likewise have appreciated your thoughtful replies. :)
Look super cool, congrats Anisa! As someone who lives in NYC, and went to NYC public schools, I can attest how important something like this would be, especially for the schools that have limited resources.
Thank you so much! So far, a lot of our early adoption public schools in NYC are concentrated in Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
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This is super interesting. What do you think the shape of this project would look like if you were to scale to more people outside of the US? The problem, worldwide, is dramatic.
Thank you - that is so spot on. While in the US, there are 37 million elementary school students, it is interesting to note that around 505 million people speak English as a second language outside USA! For example growing up in Pakistan (South Asia) for my middle school years, English was very much taught (and in demand) at our schools and a language parents actively invested in for their kids. There is so much room for impact outside of the US!
I do see us growing up into a Byju-style global company in the future. Or, at least, those are our aspirations and ambitions at Litnerd! But first... we are committed to improving learning outcomes locally for our kids who need it most.
I do see us growing up into a Byju-style global company in the future. Or, at least, those are our aspirations and ambitions at Litnerd! But first... we are committed to improving learning outcomes locally for our kids who need it most.
I should add, I also think down the road (should we execute on our lofty ambitions) we aspire to have a book catalogue that is as diverse as, say Wattpad!
Congrats Anisa & team!
Great Anisa and team! All the best and my best wishes!
There are 37M elementary school students in America. Schools spend $20B on reading and supplemental education programs. Yet 42% of 4th grade students are reading at a 1st or 2nd grade proficiency level! The #1 reason students aren’t reading? They say it’s boring. We change that by bringing books to life. Think your favorite book turned into a tv-show style episode-by-episode reenactment, coupled with a complete curriculum and lesson plans.
1 in 8 Americans is functionally illiterate. Like any skill, reading is a habit. If you grew up in a household where you did not see your parents reading, you likely do not develop the habit. This correlates to the socio-economic divide. Two thirds of American students who lack reading skills by the end of fourth grade will rely on welfare as adults. To impact this, research suggests that we need to start at the earliest years.
I am passionate about the research in support of art and theatre as well as story-telling to improve childhood learning. Litnerd is the marriage of these interests. The inspiration comes from Sesame Street and Hamilton The Musical. In the late 60s, Joan Cooney decided to produce a children’s TV show that would influence children across America to learn to read—it became Sesame Street. Cooney researched her idea extensively, consulting with sociologists and scientists, and found that TV’s stickiness can be an important tool for education. Lin-Manuel Miranda took the story of Alexander Hamilton and brought it to life as a musical. Kids have learned more about Hamilton’s history thanks to Hamilton the Musical than any of their textbooks. In fact, this was the case so much that a program called EduHam is used to teach history in middle schools across the nation. When I heard that, the lightbulb went off and I decided to go all in on starting Litnerd.
We hire art and theatre professionals to recreate scenes directly from books in episode style format to bring the book to life, in a similar fashion to watching your favorite TV shows. We literally lead 'read out loud' in the classroom while the teacher/actor is acting out the main character in the book. We have a weekly designated Litnerd period in the schools/classes we serve and we live-stream in our teachers/actors for an interactive session (the students participate and read live with the actor as well as complete written lesson plans, phonetic exercises etc). We are currently serving 14,000 students in this manner.
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 later episodes. In this way, reading is layered in as a fundamental core to the program. Our program is part of scheduled classroom time.
A big part of our business involves curating content and materials that capture the interest and coolness-factor for elementary school students. We’ve found that students love choose-your-own-adventure style stories, especially ones involving mythical creatures—something about being able to have autonomy on the outcomes. So far, it seems to be working. We've even received fan mail from students! But we are obsessed with staying cool/relevant in our content.
Teachers like our product because it eases the burden placed on them. US teachers typically spend 4 to 10 hours a week (unpaid) planning their curriculum and $400-800 of their own money for classroom supplies. That's outrageous! When designing Litnerd, we wanted to ensure our product was not adding more work to their plate. Our programs are led by our own Resident Teaching Artists, who are live streamed into the classroom and remain in character to the episode as they teach the Litnerd curriculum built on top of the books. Our programs come with lesson plans, activity packets, curriculum correlations, educator resources, and complete ebooks.
Traditional K-12 education has extremely long sale cycles and is hard to break into. It can take years to become a contracted vendor, especially with large districts like NYC Department of Education. Because of my experience with my first YC backed startup that sold to government and nonprofits, coupled with my experience working at a large edtech company that built content for Higher Ed, I understand this sector and how to navigate the budget line item process.
Since launching in January, we have become contracted vendors with the New York City Department of Education (the largest education district in America). As a result, we’ve been growing at 60% MoM, are currently used by over 14k students in their classrooms and hit $110K in ARR. Our program is part of scheduled classroom time for elementary schools—not homework, and not extracurricular. Here’s a walkthrough video from a teacher’s perspective: https://www.loom.com/share/9ffc59f0d7ed4a66964003703bba7b94.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to share our story and mission with you. If you loved or struggled with reading as a kid, what factors do you think contributed? Also, if you have experience teachIng Elementary School or if you are a parent, I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how you foster reading amongst your students/children! I am excited to hear your feedback and ideas to help us inspire the next generation of readers.