Anatomy of an Assignment

Welcome to MenoLand!

MenoLand is where people come to learn what things mean.

While visiting AskMeno’s MenoLand community, you’ll get to meet a lot of our citizens, including some of our early-learner teachers and students. Comprising over 100 total hours of language comprehension instruction, each assignment explores one theme over the course of ten daily lessons. AskMeno is Science of Reading-aligned, grade-level appropriate (Pre-K-1st), state standards-based, and content-rich.

  • Our innovative and comprehensive supplemental curriculum provides 150 to 250 days of instruction (depending on the grade level), with each lesson requiring 30 minutes on average. That’s over 100 instructional hours of language comprehension for your students.

    Our goal is to introduce learners to 15 new tools across these assignments and help them learn what these tools are, what they do, and how to use them at home, in the classroom, and in the community. (A tool is an approach to learning how to think about a story’s theme.) MenoLand is a community where there are no bad questions. Wrong answers and other errors are all a part of the learning process. MenoLand also has a special visitor, a historical figure who will help students see, hear, and think about how he used these same tools in his life.

What’s inside

Here’s a summary of the major language comprehension objectives over the ten days of each assignment:

Day 1 - Activate Background Knowledge (effect size: .93)

On Day 1, we activate background knowledge through a series of activities and use the learner’s prior knowledge of the tool (theme) to gather 10% of the new tool information. Our goal is to build up the learner’s understanding of the tool to uncover the MenoLand narrative ending on Day 10. The lessons can be led in whole-group or small-group settings, or individually with an aid or Speed Language Pathologist.

    • John Hattie influence effect size by Visible Learning: 0.93 Strategy to integrate with prior knowledge; 0.82 Classroom discussion; 0.54 Interactive video; 0.53 cooperative learning; 0.52

    • High-Leverage Practices by Teaching Works: HLP1, HLP3, HLP10, HLP13, HLP14

Day 2 - Build Vocabulary (effect size: .63)

On Day 2, we introduce new vocabulary and help students learn the meaning of new words to expand their understanding of the tool. (20% of the Language Comprehension learning objectives met.)

Day 4 - Dialogue with George (effect size: .74)

Jumping ahead to Day 4, the teacher and the learners get to ask questions of our historical figure, George, powered by our patented conversation engine technology. Our goal is for the learners to use their background knowledge and new vocabulary to uncover the Spark (story ending) revealed after the next dialogue with George on Day 8. (40 % of the Language Comprehension objectives met.)

    • John Hattie influence effect size by Visible Learning: 0.84 Critical Thinking; 0.82 Classroom discussion; 0.74 curiosity; 0.61 Problem-solving teaching; 0.54 Interactive video; 0.53 cooperative learning; 0.52 Play programs; 0.47 Reading strategies; 0.44 Technology with elementary students

    • High-Leverage Practices by Teaching Works: HLP1, HLP10, HLP14

    • CLASS Measures: Regard for Child Perspectives, Positive Climate (Emotional Support); Instructional Learning Formats (Classroom Organization); Concept Development, Quality of Feedback, and Language Modeling (Instructional Support)

    • Language Comprehension Strands: Literacy Knowledge, Tier 2 Vocabulary, Verbal Reasoning, Language Structure, Background Knowledge

    • Supporting PD Article: Comprehension strategies

    • Supporting PD Article: Read Alouds with Analytic Talk

Days 7-9 - Interactive Read-Alouds (effect size: .84)

Jumping ahead again to Days 7 through 9, teachers lead students in digital and physical Read Aloud activities. The goal is to improve language comprehension by using story elements to find meaning. (Balance of Language Comprehension at the end of Day 9 is 90%.) Activities include interactive digital stories with gamification and a physical reading list that aligns with the assignment themes.

Day 10 - Comprehension Check (effect size .45)

On Day 10, students demonstrate understanding through an assessment. They also explore the story ending from the MenoLand narrative started on Day 1. Each lesson has a puzzle piece that will be fully completed on day 10 to reveal a culminating image. (100 % of the Language Comprehension objectives met.)

What you’ll get:

Class Toolbox

  • Scope and sequence, standards and high-leverage practices, activity walk-throughs, scripts, and best practices.

  • Physical supplemental curriculum box with all assignment materials, magnets, lesson plans, printable materials, puzzles, extension activities, scripts, take-home resources, and much more.

Digital Interactive Activities Library

  • Each assignment includes 10 days of activities, including dialogue with digital character, story elements game, activations activities, assessments, and much more.

  • Each assigment includes multiple activities that involve various elements of gamification and character interaction to movitate quality student participation in language objectives.

Tailored District and School Support

  • Access to on-demand training videos, live professional development sessions, and AskMeno teacher coach support. Teachers will have access to a comprehensive teacher resource library.

  • AskMeno is dedicated to measuring class progress toward language comprehension goals through providing district and school level reporting.

  • Each partner school will have access to email and in-app technical support.