Words, Words, Words – New Focus at Sesame Street
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007Last week, I spoke with Rosemarie Truglio, VP of Research for Sesame Workshop. We spoke about their new literacy and language development focus.
Now, if you’re like me, you think of Sesame Street as the epitome of educational preschool programs. So, I asked Rosemarie, “How does this differ from past seasons on SS?” She explained, “Sesame Street is the only TV program that rethinks its curriculum focus on an annual basis. It is a whole child curriculum that reflects a preschool curricula.”
She went on to explain how they are constantly on the lookout to determine the critical needs of today’s children. Rosemarie, a 10 year Sesame Workshop veteran and mother of a 3 ½-year-old added, “Developing a rich vocabulary and a love of words at a young age helps children become better prepared for school and more successful readers.”
Literacy has never been the number 1 issue on Sesame Street. But it is this year. They looked around to see what are the new developments in terms of literacy and examined how they could implement them. The importance of VOCABULARY emerged as the big need. Vocabulary is not necessarily easy to teach. It requires repetition. Since repetition is inherent in Sesame Street, a natural extension to “the letter of the day” became the “word of the day.”
For this season, Sesame will focus on one word in each of its 26 shows. Season 38 will present viewers with words, words, and more words in order to build their vocabulary to describe their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and observations about the world. At the top of the show will be a new segment, a Muppet named Murray asks people: “What’s the Word on the Street?”
Interesting enough, an image representing the word and the sound of word will be shown. But, the word will not be printed on screen. I asked Rosemarie why not. Obviously, many programs for preschoolers do print the words on-screen; something I’ve always though peculiar since kids this age don’t read. “They’re not reading. They’re preschoolers. Their language is oral and they have an oral understanding of these words. It’s more important for the words to be part of their spoken vocabulary, ” she replied. Makes sense.
Carol-Lynn Parente, Executive Producer of Sesame Street adds, “We were particularly struck by the statistics illustrating a vast discrepancy in the size of a child’s vocabulary between middle and lower income families.” There is a vocabulary gap. That gap is primarily due to their exposure. Middle income children have exposure to not just reading a book, but having all kinds of other words thrown at them from their parents and other adults or older siblings. As a result, middle income children are exposed to rich language. On the other hand, low income children are not being exposed to those same conversations. That’s why the folks at Sesame Workshop decided to focus on vocabulary words.
I was interested in how they would determine whether or not the promise of increasing vocabulary was successful. So, I asked, “What does success look like here?” Trugilo responded, “Success comes in different forms. One is, our own formative evaluation, to inform us what’s working and what’s not working. Right now we are conducting a study in day care centers. We hope to see a significant increase in pre- and post- vocabulary. I guess we’ll hear the results from that later.
By now, my burning question was, what are the words? Rosemarie laughed. They’re not your usual, run-of-the-mill words but words that offer depth of understanding. For example, “tricycle” and “pumpernickel.” Notice that it’s not bike or bread. Tricycle is a bit more complex than a simple bike or bicycle. Same with pumpernickel. It’s not plain old white Wonderbread. Other words that you’ll be finding are family, angry, ballet, predicament, apology, pretend, newspaper, lazy and so on. I can’t give them all away but you get the drift. Frustrated, dog…
Tune in to Season 38 of Sesame Street and you’ll find a plethora of words to enjoy with your preschooler.
Meanwhile, as we all know, the real key is having parents and caregivers get involved in exposing their children to language and an expanded vocabulary. They need to have more conversations with their preschoolers. Introduce new words. Introduce new ideas. Talk with them. All of this takes time, that’s true. But, parents who take the time will have a child better prepared for school, for reading, and lifelong learning.
Here are some activities that the show has provided that you can enjoy with your child to help enhance his/her vocabulary:
1. Go Beyond the Alphabet Song
While many young children have a rote understanding of the alphabet by learning the ABC song, they often lack the ability to identify each letter and recognize letter sounds. Help your child develop a more meaningful and rich understanding of letters by emphasizing what each letter looks like, sounds like, and showing letters forming words.
Write out the alphabet on a large piece of paper. Then, have fun starting each day with a different “Letter of the Day!” Begin with the letter “A” by circling it, describing the way it looks, and repeating the letter sound. Go on a “Letter Hunt” throughout the day and search for things that begin with the “Letter of the Day.” For example, encourage your child to look for as many “B” foods as possible while you’re at the supermarket. Remember to emphasize the initial letter sound: “ B…B…Bananas! B…B…Beans! ” Your child can also look for the “Letter of the Day” in books, magazines, or different rooms of the house!
2. Explore Letters and Words Everywhere!
Letters and words are everywhere! Just be on the lookout throughout the day. On your walks to school or through the neighborhood, label and talk about any print that you notice on signs around your environment like “SCHOOL,” “SUBWAY,” or “RESTAURANT.” Point out and describe each letter and word you see.
Help your child develop language and a love for words by exposing her to a variety of print rich materials such as books, poems, nursery rhymes, labels, recipes, and childfriendly magazines.
Involve your child while making shopping lists, writing letters, or filling out birthday invitations. Talk out loud about the letters and words you write. Encourage her to help by drawing scribbles or pictures.
3. Use Words, Words, and More Words!
Developing a rich vocabulary at a young age helps children become more successful readers and learners. Expose children to new words, words, and more words every day! As you go about your daily routine, have fun conversations using lots of words to describe all the things you see and do together.
Have fun playing with words and language with your child! For example, play a rhyming game together by listing words that rhyme with “ball.” You can say, “ball, fall, wall, small… crayon!” Recognizing this silly mistake can be a very funny and exciting activity for your child. Allow them to correct you and then think of a word that does rhyme with ball!
Allow your child to hear you use words repeatedly in many meaningful ways. This can help him understand and remember new words and what they mean. For example, if you’re introducing the word “predicament,” they need to hear the word “predicament,” what it means, and the word used in various predicaments. If it’s raining outside and you don’t have an umbrella, you could say, “This is a real predicament!”
Learning new words is more effective when you build on words your child already knows. For example, after seeing the word “STORE” outside, talk about what a store is: “ It’s a place where you can go to buy something.” Then, with your child, explore other kinds of stores are in the neighborhood (e.g. hardware store, food store, shoe store, toy store, book store, etc).
There are so many wonderful words to learn and exploring words through categories makes it easy! Categories provide a way to link words together. For example, when investigating the word, transportation, you can explore all the exciting words in this category – cars, buses, planes, trains, trucks, bikes and boats! When you link words to categories your child will learn that all these things have something in common. They are all used to help people get from one place to another! Other child-friendly categories include jobs, animals, family, food, containers, and clothing.
4. Bring Books to Life!
Reading books together provides wonderful opportunities for your child to hear new words, learn about the world, and discover the power of language. Sharing books at an early age can also help your child build vocabulary as well as their love of reading!
Make story time a special part of your child’s daily routine. Introduce the book by talking about the book cover. Encourage your child to look at the picture and think of what the book will be about. Read the title then begin the book. Take your time so your child can get the most out of each page. As you read, point to the text from left to right. Pause to label and describe the pictures, letters, and words. Be expressive with your voice and actions. If a picture shows two frogs hopping through the woods, pretend that you are both frogs hopping and making “ribbit” sounds!
Ask who, what, when, where, why, and how questions as you read. For example, “Who is this?…What do you think will happen next?…Where are they?… Why does she look so happy? How did that make him feel?” When the story is over, continue the discussion by talking about the story: “ What was the story about? What was your favorite part of the story?”
