The Loudest Roar
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’06 SESAME WORKSHOP 2006 ANNUAL REPORT SESAME WORKSHOP 2006 ANNUAL REPORT THE LOUDEST ROAR [ The potential for Sesame Street in India to make a positive change is enormous: 128 million children between the ages of 2 and 6 live in India and two-thirds lack access to early childhood care and education. ] DEPLOYING ELMO: UPSIDE DOWN: HELP FOR FAMILIES ABSTRACT THINKING DURING MILITARY GOES TO THE GYM DEPLOYMENT NEW ACTIVITIES IN WORD ON THE STREET: THE MIDDLE EAST NEW DIRECTIONS IN LITERACY LEARNING Galli Galli Sim Sim Mobile Community Viewing event, Dakshinpuri, Delhi President’s Letter Chamki INDIA Whether the “loudest roar” emanates from Boombah, the friendly lion of our newest Sesame Street coproduction in India, or one of the many other characters in Sesame Workshop’s global family, the message is the same: Educate a child; change the world. Sesame Workshop 2006 Annual Report 03 President’s Letter Educate a child, change the world — We’re talking ment reaches far beyond its own television audiences, about social change through Muppets, through songs and Miditech Pvt. Ltd., a gifted local production and stories children love and parents trust. We’re company,to launch Galli Galli Sim Sim on television joined around the world in this effort by unlikely (public, cable, and satellite) and through educational coalitions of government ministers, corporate leaders, outreach. This simultaneous launch was a first for us and social activists. Why? Because we all hope for a internationally and a strong testament to a shared better future, and that future begins with children. vision of reaching children in need. Also new is These shared convictions are Sesame Workshop India, our local One out of 6 children in proving especially powerful in non-governmental organization the world lives in India; 128 places where the challenges are so (NGO) which has already started million of them are between great, the animosity and acrimony the ages of 2 and 6. working with communities in the so high, that many feel them to Delhi area to help reach some of be insurmountable. AIDS is not the poorest children in India. insurmountable, ethnic conflict Early reports indicate that the and educational inequity are not series is doing well with the insurmountable.And media inter- audiences it’s intended to reach, ventions such as the Workshop’s and, equally gratifying, work has Takalani Sesame in South already begun on a second season. Africa, Alam Simsim in Egypt DEPLOYING ELMO and the Arab-speaking world, Closer to home, and again in and Rruga Sesam (in Albanian)/ August, we launched another Ulica Sezam (in Serbian) for the Workshop first — this time for children of Kosovo, are making a difference. the nearly 700,000 children under age 5 who have a POSITIVE CHANGE IN INDIA parent or parents on active military duty or in the That’s why we’re excited about Galli Galli Sim Sim, National Guard or Reserves. Sesame Street in India. The numbers alone make When a parent is deployed, the entire family is the potential for positive change enormous: 1 out of deployed — something that can be especially confusing 6 children in the world lives in India; 128 million of and frightening to a young child. Recognizing this, them are between the ages of 2 and 6. With uneven and with generous support from Wal-Mart Stores, economic and academic opportunity,a staggering 2 Inc., as well as The New York State Office of Mental out of 3 of these lack access to early childhood care Health and the Military Child Education Coalition, and education, while at the same time, a strong and we created “Talk, Listen, Connect: Helping Families growing middle- and upper-middle class has India During Military Deployment.” A bilingual English/ on track to become the world’s third largest economy. Spanish multimedia kit, “Talk, Listen, Connect” We’ve teamed with Turner Entertainment provides parents and other caregivers with practical Networks Asia, a visionary partner whose commit- strategies to help preschoolers cope with all the 04 Sesame Workshop 2006 Annual Report President’s Letter phases of deployment and build courage, hope, pride, and sacrifice resiliency during times of sepa- of our military families. Broadcast ration and change. on December 27 on PBS and In the first two weeks of hosted by Cuba Gooding Jr., production, a record-setting “When Parents Are Deployed” 100,000 kits were distributed is especially important today, free of charge to military families with more children waiting for through the Department of their active duty mother or Defense’s Military OneSource. father to come home than at As we go to press, 385,000 “Talk, Listen, Connect” kits any time since World War II. have been distributed through schools, child care NEW DIRECTIONS IN LITERACY LEARNING programs, family support centers, and other organi- Whether addressing the needs of children in military zations serving the needs of military families. And, families in this country or providing access to preschool in yet another first for us, the kits are now fully education where little exists in such places as India, available online at www.sesameworkshop.org/tlc. the key to the Workshop’s success — and by success Moreover, with support from the Corporation we mean our continuing impact on children — has for Public Broadcasting, we produced a behind- been our ability to integrate into everything we do the-scenes, half-hour special to acknowledge — new knowledge about how children learn and grow. and show our appreciation for — the extraordinary DEPLOYING ELMO [ Elmo and his friends are helping the 700,000 American children under age 5 who have a parent or parents on military duty cope with all the phases of deployment. ] President’s Letter For example, because we now know that building watch a related show or nothing at all. Given that vocabulary is vital to developing oral language skills, reading failure is distressingly stable (almost 90 in Sesame Street’s 38th season we’re placing a stronger percent of children identified as poor readers at the emphasis on words, not as print on screen, but in end of first grade are still identified as poor readers at relevant and contextualized ways — words our young the end of fourth grade), these outcomes are indeed viewers can use to express thoughts, observations promising news. and feelings. Building vocabulary,critical-thinking skills, and We have great news on this front from Pinky Dinky a sense of self-confidence and mastery is also what Doo, our multimedia literacy initiative for children drives our newest broadcast offering for preschoolers, ages 4 to 7 that airs daily in the United States on The Upside Down Show. Grounded in imaginative Noggin and on a variety of broadcast networks play,based on the belief that pretend play is one of around the world. Dr. Deborah Linebarger and her the most powerful ways for young children to learn, team at the Annenberg School for Communication The Upside Down Show premiered on Nick Jr. and at the University of Pennsylvania found that Pinky Noggin this October. After only nine weeks on the air, Dinky Doo enhances early literacy skills. What’s response to this eye-popping physical comedy featuring particularly exciting is that Pinky viewers from lower Shane Dundas and David Collins in a breakthrough income backgrounds perform significantly better interactive format has been great, with the afternoon on early literacy outcome measures than those who telecast ranking among the top two programs with 06 Sesame Workshop 2006 Annual Report President’s Letter preschoolers on Noggin. We look forward to continued technologies to help parents and children engage in positive ratings trends and the show’s promise to help literacy learning activities together. Last year, I children enter school ready to learn. reported on our work with Verizon to stream Sesame LITERACY LEARNING ON NEW PLATFORMS Street segments onto cell phones, making it possible I’m also pleased to report some of the new work we’re for parents and caregivers to advance their children’s doing with respect to literacy learning while, for example, learning on new platforms. waiting in line at the With funding from the U.S. grocery store. We’re also Department of Education looking at new handheld through PBS Ready-to- devices for use at home and Learn supplemental funds, in school, seeking to create we’ve been experimenting an experience engaging with cell phones as a means enough to motivate kids of encouraging parents to to want to use it on their engage their children in In the “Learning Letters With Elmo” own, yet powerful enough daily literacy activities. In study, 75 percent of low-income to teach literacy skills this “Learning Letters With parent participants reported that effectively.Even Sesame Elmo” study,75 percent of the alphabet clips transmitted over Street on TV has multiple low-income parent partici- the cell phone helped their children portals: It anchors pre- pants reported that the learn letters. school programming on alphabet clips transmitted PBS; it is available on over the cell phone helped their children learn letters. Sprout, the digital cable channel for preschoolers Perhaps most powerfully,all participants viewed this with 24/7 video-on-demand service; and Play With model as an effective way to support their children’s Me Sesame airs on Noggin every morning. The development, reporting that cell-phone delivery made point is that we’re working to make our content as it easy to fit literacy activities into their daily routine. available and accessible as possible. We want children The cell phone study is the latest in a series of and families to be able to access our content wherever efforts to take advantage of new “anytime, anywhere” they are, whenever they want.