RESULTS
IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS, SPRING of 2023
First Score Ave
Growth (Ave)
Median Growth
Last Score Ave
Mean Growth
5.6/16
+5.8
103.5%
+37.5%
11.1/16
+36.21%
Run by two 5th grade teachers in South Portland, Maine, for classes of 15 and 17 students from March to May of 2023. Included ND, IEP, 504, and ESL learners.
IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS, SPRING of 2024
First Score Ave
Growth (Ave)
Median Growth
Last Score Ave
Mean Growth
5.06/16
+5.53
109.2%
+34.375%
10.59/16
+34.58%
Run by a 5th grade teacher in South Portland, Maine, for 31 students from the fall of 2023 to spring of 2024. Included ND, IEP, 504, and ESL learners.
STUDENT SURVEY DATA
WHAT STUDENTS SAID:
PARENT SURVEY DATA
WHAT PARENTS SAID:
WHAT TEACHERS SAY:
“We just got done with parent-teacher conferences, and one of the things that the parents said to us quite regularly was that they loved Luna Uni because it was writing that met kids needs in 2023. It did everything that a kid would want education to be right now, so yes - it's more than just an obvious gamification.”
“… Friday live sessions are are unbelievable for our kids. In our particular District we have this thing called 21st century standards, [which] are one of my favorite things … it's communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity are the are the four big ones. That's what a live session is - an entire live session are those four standards, minimum. I mean, there's a million other standards that you're covering as well. Those live sessions just hit so many standards for our kids, and of course, they love them!”
“To differentiate we give challenge points. I have a chart in my on Google Docs where I will challenge each student for an extra Story Point [for working on] something that they should be working on. Whether it's adding dialogue or capitalizing all your letters or capitalizing ones that need to be capitalized … it's phenomenal. I have a few students that are ML - you know English Learners - and they do it in Portuguese, but they have the same structure and then we translate it into English, we read it out loud, and … then we fix it together. [Luna Uni] is available for everyone.”
“I mean beginning of the year - personal narrative - [this student] just couldn't do it. For all sorts of reasons, it just hit him the wrong way. He was struggling in so many ways, and then we started with Luna Uni and when he made a character who was him, but wasn't him? All of a sudden it was completely accessible, because when he was writing he wasn't writing about himself. It was unlocking a door in such a cool way. His mom could not stop at conferences about how she's never seen him like this with writing: this is the first time in his life that he's been this comfortable and this excited to actually write. And it's because it's not you, but it is you … It’s just like from where we started to where we are now is two entirely different worlds, [and] it's amazing to watch.”
WHAT TEACHERS SAY:
“Character slides … have been fascinating for our kids. We've used those to tie directly into some of the read alouds that Tyler and I do every single year, and we've used them for character analysis and what we've seen from our fifth graders is that they've been able to look at characters and story in a way that they've never done in years prior, and that I've ever seen in my years as an educator.
“They're starting to really understand a character and how an author creates a character: what their Drive is, what their downfall is, and and all of those little pieces. … When we have a read aloud, they have these sheets right in front of them: they draw a character when we meet a new character, they write down their drive or their downfall, and we discuss what makes their drive … I've just never seen the connection between writing and reading like this at this level … it's been a lot of fun.
“It's actually kind of funny - we do 30 minutes of writing during the day, but we've had some snow days, and when they go home, I get you know emails from parents: “Hey, my kids want to write Luna Uni, is that okay?” Absolutely! So they'll spend the whole snow day doing Luna Uni. It’s just been awesome - I've never seen students actually want to write before.”
“I had a kid go for February vacation to Florida, and when they came back they brought back their Journal that was filled - there were pages filled. I was like ‘Weren’t you in Florida, at Disney?’ and they're like ‘Yeah, but you know, in my down time I just did some Luna Uni stuff.’”
“The first reading we ever did, one of my higher students shared, and she's like ‘Oh, I think I did a two,’ and the rest of class said ‘No, it's a five!’ and she's like ‘Okay, well then maybe a four.’ And right after she did that, the rest of the students all were like ‘Okay I need to get going’ and they all just turned and started working on their writing even stronger than they were before, because they're seeing other students write. “