Animating All Students

Back to School

24 http://www.languagemagazine.com September 2014 Back to School

Gregory van Zuyen reports on the way Terry Thoren and Rudy Verbeeck are using cartoons to help teach language skills and learning habits in class

One of the many challenges facing educators at this time of year is getting students back into the right behavioral mode for learning. It’s natural for students to slip out of “school habits” during the summer, but rein- stating good learning practices can be time- consuming and frustrating. Unfortunately, there’s now so much pressure on teachers to stick to the curriculum on a day-by-day basis that there’s little time to ease students back into the educational rhythm. Terry Thoren, the former CEO of Klasky Csupo, Inc. — the animation studio behind Nickelodeon’s world-famous Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys — is working with business partner Rudy Verbeeck to produce WonderGrove Learn an education website intended to be used in the classroom by educators to teach social skills, functional life skills and bilingualism. “We produced the twelve new back to school lessons to help make the transition back-to-school easier for students and educators alike. Because teaching appropriate behavior during the first few weeks of school encourages better behavior throughout the entire school year, the lessons are a strong foundation for our year-round tool for suc- cess,” explains Thoren. These back-to-school lessons address critical challenges that educators face when students transition to the first few weeks of a new school year. Each animated video mod- els behavior for students in pre-K through second grade, such as “listening when the teacher is talking,” “using polite words,” “lin- ing up quietly,” and “how to handle a bully.” WonderGrove Studios is also applying its animation to language development. Its Dual Language Enrichment Solution includes 150 September 2014 http://www.languagemagazine.com 25 Back to School

dards that can be used in a classroom “We’ve created today.” engaging, age- To develop the lessons, Thoren went straight to the source — the classrooms. appropriate “We worked with educators to define the characters core intention of each lesson. Then we created storylines that used our age-appropriate who reinforce characters to address each lesson. We pro- positive duced instructional animations to bring the stories to life. Then, we tested the animations behaviors in in the classrooms and made alterations and Spanish and edits.” The finished product is the result of English. direct teacher and student feedback, ” addressing the needs of everyone in the — Rudy Verbeeck classroom. Janelle Vargo, an educator at Morrison Elementary in Dayton, Ohio, uses the lessons several times a day in her classrooms. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen any- thing that is literally at my fingertips all day,” instructional animations and 1,500 printable Klasky Csupo, he was the executive in says Vargo. “You never know when you’re extension lessons in Spanish and English. charge of production of 600 TV episodes. He going to need it. “Young students develop language skills rap- oversaw the production of Rugrats “Even if it’s just adding a cartoon to your idly, and they quickly absorb whatever they when it was Nickelodeon’s number fluency group, or adding a cartoon to see and hear in cartoons. This accelerates one animated show, as well your behavior check-ins, it’s going to their understanding of new words in two dif- as the popular car- make a huge difference in your ferent languages at an incredibly fast rate. toons Rocket day and in your relationship Research shows when young children form Power, The Wild with students,” she adds. an emotional connection with animated char- Thornberrys, “Videos that model appro- acters, they model the behavior of the char- and the priate social skills, like acters. We’ve created engaging, age-appro- Emmy-nomi- ‘respecting others on the priate characters who reinforce positive nated As Told playground’ and ‘asking behaviors in Spanish and English,” adds by Ginger. the teacher for help’ are Verbeeck, who speaks six languages and is “Cartoon lessons that every stu- the brains behind Wonder Grove’s proprietary characters dent needs. But no one animation software. are the talks about them until The back-to-school initiative is only one biggest stars in you and the student are element of the resources WonderGrove entertainment. both frustrated, and this Learn offers educators. The instructional They are in count- frustration never ends with videos focus on important areas of learning less TV series, in a positive outcome. The nice such as social skills, life skills, health, sci- video games, and in thing about WonderGrove is that ence, nutrition, safety, and vocabulary. There Hollywood’s most prof- you can implement a video each are also unique “words of the day” episodes itable movies. Every waking day for only three minutes and — in both English and Spanish — where hour before and after know that the students are learn- animated characters teach words in the school, cartoon characters ing the right way to behave.” proper context in less than sixty seconds. are prevalent in most chil- Guidance counselor Joan The instructional animations come with print- dren’s lives,” says Thoren. Swank also understands the able extension lesson plans that align to “However, between 8:00 importance of the program. 90% of the Common Core State Standards. a.m. and 3:00 p.m., when “Because I’ve been doing this for The idea is to give educators a tool to students are in a class- 28 years, I have resisted tech- engage students by showing animations room, there are no animat- nology and animation. But when during the school day and then extend each ed characters. The class- I watch how the kids relate to theme to printable extension lessons that room is a wasteland for these characters, I feel they do address CCSS standards. animation. There are very have a way of reaching the kids Thoren has spent decades studying the few animations that sat- that’s very different than any- effects of animation on children. As CEO of isfy educational stan- thing else I’ve seen,” says

26 http://www.languagemagazine.com September 2014 Back to School

Swank. “The bottom line is that if students still developing their native languages while are going to be successful in school, they adding second languages. have to have good behavior and good social “It’s a valuable tool for biliteracy, because skills. And the stories featuring the it targets children at the age when they are WonderGrove Kids give me a great tool to most receptive to developing language skills. cut right into what that skill is.” Cartoons are a universal language that chil- Teacher Betsy Jones says her pre-K dren consume day in and day out over and through fourth-grade classes are benefiting over again. Animation is a great way to as well. “I was using the lesson ‘Using Polite model language acquisition because animat- Words,’ and we did some role playing after ed characters know no borders. No linguistic they saw the video. One of the students borders, no cultural borders, no gender bor- really struggles with using polite words, and ders. The WonderGrove Learn animations will you could see the light bulb go on when he stand the test of time because they can knew what he was saying wasn’t nice. The model positive, appropriate behaviors for videos help reinforce social skills by giving young students everywhere.” students an age-appropriate visual and by Animation can have a magical effect on giving them ideas and strategies of what young children and can help eliminate anxiety. they should do. And they start acting that Terry Thoren, Rudy Verbeeck, and their team out in the classroom.” are using animated magic to improve class- Animation is particularly beneficial in bilin- room behavior, and language acquisition and gual classrooms, according to Verbeeck. to keep children motivated to learn new ways “The lessons are both comprehensive and to communicate. detailed, with a number of activities that take into account the academic and linguistic Gregory van Zuyen is creative director of developmental growth of children who are Language Magazine.

Habits of Mind Instructional Videos WonderGrove Studios is collaborating with the the Institute for Habits of Mind to produce a new series of instructional animations based on the renowned 16 Habits of Mind, developed by Dr. Art Costa, former national president of the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Develop ment, and international consultant Dr. Bena Kallick. “Since Art Costa and I introduced the 16 Habits of Mind more than 28 years ago, we’ve been seeking new ways for children to learn and practice these essential dispositions. Our goal is to prepare students for the tests of life, not just for a life of tests. When we met Terry Thoren and Rudy Verbeeck, we were immediately struck by their passion for bringing the 16 Habits of Mind to life through animation,” explains Kallick, co-director, Institute for Habits of Mind. The animations, in both English and Spanish together, are designed to help children build character and dispositions for learning how to persist, listen with understanding and empathy, manage impulsivity, think flexibly, strive for accuracy, and eleven other essential dispositions.

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