Band of Brothers An Oral History of Hansons MMMBop and Their Debut Album. For students, the summer months represent freedom from the shackles of regimented learning. Test your knowledge with amazing and interesting facts, trivia, quizzes, and brain teaser games on MentalFloss. com. Kansas is an American rock band that became popular in the 1970s initially on albumoriented rock charts and later with hit singles such as Carry On Wayward Son and. Sea Angling News, May 2016. THAMES ESTUARY NEWS. Email editorseaanglingnews. com 3. THAMES ESTUARY REPORT by Lee Bollingbroke. A big improvement in weather has. For educators, they were becoming a problem. In the late 1. 97. When they returned to school in the fall, their literacy skills had noticeably plummeted. For a group of broadcasters and teachers, the solution was unusual Air a new program during the summer months, and use television as a means to get kids excited about opening up a book. The result was Reading Rainbow, a magazine style series that celebrated books by reading them out loud to viewers, then exploring their themes in on location segments. Hosted by Le. Var Burton, the show grew from modest trials at PBS affiliate WNED in Buffalo and Great Plains National out of Nebraska. It ran for 1. 50 episodes and 2. If Sesame Street taught kids the alphabet, Reading Rainbow helped them develop a love of words, paragraphs, and narratives. Despite Rainbows altruistic aim, the series was frequently in danger of halting production due to a lack of funds. Lacking merchandisable characters or licensing opportunities that boosted shows like Barney, its producers struggled to convince financiers of its importance. In 2. 00. 6, succumbing to a changing media and public television landscape, Rainbow shot its final episode. But the shows fansand Burtonnever gave up hope. With the Reading Rainbow brand once again visible via apps and electronic devices, Mental Floss reached out to several members of the production team to revisit its origins, the approach to the very static practice of reading for the dynamic medium of television, and how Burton didnt let little things like elephant snot discourage him from helping generations of kids learn to love reading. In a 1. 98. 4 survey by the Book Industry Study Group, young adults under 2. In 1. 97. 8, 7. 5 percent reported they read books. Six years later, the number was down to 6. In Buffalo, New York, and Lincoln, Nebraska, two public television employees grew fixated on how televisionlong thought to be a thief of a childs attentioncould be repurposed to combat the phenomenon. Twila Liggett Co Creator, Executive Producer I had been hired by ETV in Nebraska, which distributed programming to classrooms. One day my boss came to me and said, You know, wed like to make some television rather than just distribute it. So I started to think about something in the area of reading. Cecily Truett Producer Putting books on television wasnt unheard of. Captain Kangaroo had done it. It was Tony Buttino who conceived of the summer loss concept for television. Tony Buttino Co Creator, Executive Producer, Former Director of Educational Services, WNED I started looking into the summer reading loss phenomenon, which came out of research being done in California. The basic idea was Kids dont read during the summer. When they come back to school in the fall, teachers spend two to three weeks bringing them back to their past reading level. Pam Johnson Former Vice President, Education and Outreach, WNED The station would talk to their educational advisors, and what Tony kept hearing from professors, librarians, and teachers was that there needed to be something that explored a love of reading during those summer months. Having that capability early on puts kids on a path to doing well in school. Larry Lancit Director, Producer There was always interest in getting kids to read more, but this was more of a highly targeted mission. We wanted to make reading fun for kids and encourage them to participate. Buttino I started looking at programs that were available to run during the summer. One was called Ride the Reading Rocket, which we aired for a couple of years starting in 1. I didnt like the show, but it was something. Wed give out workbooks for classrooms that wanted to use them. Liggett There was a lot of stuff made for the classroom then, but it was not that great. Johnson Tony went back to 1. WNED first went on the air with live television. Youd have a nun come and read books, or a guy from the zoo come talk about science. It was seeding that notion. Buttino After Rocket, I went to see Fred Rogers. He turned us over to David Newell, who played Mr. Mc. Feely on Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and we shot some short wraparounds with him over the next few summers. Johnson WNED would take some preexisting shows and basically use them as experiments. They were all a precursor to Reading Rainbow. It was all building a case for why TV could be good for that kind of thing. WNED was like an incubator. Liggett I wanted to do something to mirror what I did in the classroom, which was read to kids out loud, get kids involved in the experience of reading, and have kids talk to each other about reading. Those became the three basic elements of Reading Rainbow. Buttino Before Reading Rainbow, we had the Television Library Club. That worked well, but eventually we started thinking, Well, what kind of show would we make if we had moneyLynne Ganek Writer The original mission was to create a summer series for inner city kids who couldnt go to camp to remain interested in reading. Larry, Cecily, and I sat down and said, Well, this could be more interesting if we took a different route. Buttino I basically copied some research that had been done for The Electric Company, which showed that if you can get kids in second grade to love to read, its a real turning point. Fifth grade might be a little too late. Liggett Nebraskas ETV and Great Plains wound up partnering with WNED in Buffalo. Ride the Reading Rocket was not fitting the bill anymore, so I suggested we take my idea and latch it onto the summer reading phenomenon. Johnson They compared notes and it really seemed like all roads were leading to the same thing. Different players were having different conceptions of how it might work out. Ellen Schecter Writer The question was How do you keep kids reading over the summer There were all these studies showing that reading plummeted, but not solutions. Ganek The idea was not to teach kids how to read, but to encourage a love of reading. Liggett It was never about sounding out words, but a love of narrative. It was the perfect follow up for kids who had moved beyond Sesame Street. Youd grab them with Sesame Street and then send them on to Reading Rainbow. Truett It was Tony who recognized the phenomenon, and Twila who said, Why not make a TV show about itLiggett Tony has been known to claim it was his idea, and I take no umbrage at that. Success has many mothers and failure is an orphan. Buttino The word creation is interesting. I would say I created it, but then Cecily and Twila and Larry came along and recreated it. If I hadnt done five summers pulling together what was important to the program, Im not sure how it would have come together. Ed Wiseman Producer What I remember is Ellen Schecter being the heart and soul of the show. Larry and Cecily organized it and put it together. Watching that dynamic with the three of them was wonderful. With Liggett and Buttino convinced that a show about reading was viable, its execution was left to Cecily Truett and Larry Lancit, a married couple who owned New York Citys Lancit Media. Having produced the kids show Studio See and medical education programming, the couple knew how to navigate informational television with imagination on a budget. Truett Tony introduced us to Twila and explained what the goal was, which was to keep kids interested in reading. I thought, Whoa, how do you do that on televisionSchecter We would sit around Cecily and Larrys apartment at West End Avenue and talk about what kind of show we wanted. Wiseman I remember getting a call to come meet with this producing couple who worked out of their apartment. I went there in a three piece suit, which is what I thought you did. They were so casual and relaxed. Truett I answered the door for Ed in a bathrobe. Ganek At the time, I was working for WNET in New York. Tony and Cecily hired me to be the associate producer when I was nine months pregnant. Liggett Cecily and Larry were responsible for the design of the show. They were and are brilliant producers. Ganek Cecily was good about allowing people to speak their mind and doing the same. Id have an idea and shed say, Lynne, that sucks canal water. Schecter An early idea was just to have people sitting around a library, but it was too static and boring.
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