As part of Impact(Ed)'s commitment to increase literacy gains in its Girls’ Education Challenge partner schools, I designed a new video series aimed at developing foundational English literacy. In the series, which consists of 28 video segments, students follow along as the brother-sister duo of Khadija and Yasin stumble on a magical notebook that introduces them to a whole new animated world. Together with their new animal friends, Khadija and Yasin uncover exciting adventures while solving challenges that help them develop skills in areas such as phonemic awareness and phonics, vocabulary development, and fluency and comprehension. The videos, which are used in both classrooms and after-school reading clubs, are designed to not only develop specific reading skills, but also to present reading as a whole and to foster a love of and motivation to read.

Students are encouraged to actively participate in helping Yasin and Khadija navigate their adventures and teachers are trained to foster high student engagement by pausing for reflection and incorporating supplementary classroom literacy and reading activities. As the segments progress, the content increasingly provides an avenue for problem solving, imagining new ways of doing things, and critical thinking among learners.