FOR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS OF WGBH
SPRING/SUMMER 2012
Raising a Generation of Learners
WGBH’s Children’s Media
View from
the President
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49% WGBH’S NATIONAL CHILDREN’S SERIES ACCOUNT FOR 49% OF ALL VISITS TO PBSKIDS.ORG (151 MILLION OF THE 308 MILLION VISITS TO THE SITE IN A YEAR)
GBH has a long tradition of serving up curriculum-based content that helps children learn, that reaches young audiences at every stage of development, and that parents and teachers trust. Under the talented leadership of Brigid Sullivan, Vice President for Children’s Media and Educational Programming, WGBH has stayed out in front as the #1 producer of children’s programs for PBS, on television (with eight series on the air) and the Web (at pbskids.org). Today WGBH is using the latest technologies and educational insights to advance learning in classrooms, living rooms, and communities in ways unimaginable just a few short years ago—with measurable impact. We’re also forging new partnerships, nationally and locally, to further students’ achievement to meet the demands and opportunities of the 21st century. Three years ago, we teamed up with the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to create a Massachusetts edition of WGBH’s acclaimed Teachers’ Domain, our free, national online library of media-rich, classroom-ready content for teachers that recently merged with PBS to form PBS LearningMediaTM. Now we’re taking that partnership to a whole new level (page 8). In this issue, we’ll introduce you to some of WGBH’s generous and visionary friends whose commitment to using the power of media to educate all our children makes possible so much of what we do. You’ll meet longtime WGBH supporter Elaine Fiske, who describes how her family turned a private tragedy into a driving force for improving children’s educational opportunities through their Weezie Foundation. And Jennifer Walske, a college professor who with her husband Steve helped jump-start a promising WGBH children’s outreach initiative. You’ll also hear from Classical New England Managing Director Ben Roe, who’ll share some of the ways our expanded radio service is introducing the next generation to the joys of classical music—on air, online, and in our community—and why it’s important. We’re grateful to Elaine Fiske and the Weezie Foundation, Jennifer and Steve Walske, and to all of you for helping WGBH pioneer educationally rich, engaging media that is making a real difference in children’s lives.
J O N A T H A N C . A B B O T T P R E S I D E N T A N D C E O
Fund Helps Kids Grow
Honoring Family, Supporting
I
WGBH Children’s Media
n 1959, 10-year-old Louise Frances Walker, known as Weezie, was fatally injured in a freak accident while getting her pony in a paddock at a Long Island horse farm. “It was Labor Day weekend,” recalls elaine f is ke , one of Weezie’s two sisters. “The accident happened in the morning and she died that afternoon.” How does a family respond to such a huge blow? A close friend and family lawyer suggested that Elaine’s father start a foundation to benefit young girls, using the money that Weezie would have inherited in her lifetime. “My father decided that was a really good idea,” Elaine explains. Over the years, the Weezie Foundation’s mission expanded to encompass youth and education. Today, the foundation—now run by a family board that includes Elaine, her sister Lucile Walker Hays, and their children—initiates requests for proposals from a select group of organizations that the family is interested in supporting. And WGBH is high on their list. “I raised my children in the Boston area and was familiar with WGBH,” says Elaine, whose husband, Philip Ladd, is a WGBH Overseers Advisory Board member. “But it wasn’t until I attended a Ralph Lowell Society party in 2000 that I learned about the work WGBH was doing in children’s programming and, in particular, Zoom. I realized it would be a perfect fit for Weezie.” Elaine had no trouble convincing other family members, including her daughter, Kirke Hall. “I grew up in the late ’70s wanting to be a Zoom kid,” Kirke laughs. “My friends and I would watch Zoom and then create our own plays, recipes, and experiments.” The Weezie Foundation’s first gifts to WGBH helped fund two seasons of WGBH’s updated Zoom in 2001 and 2004. Since then, the Foundation has supported a number of WGBH children’s media initiatives. “The Weezie Foundation has been an extraordinary friend,” says WGBH’s Brigid Sullivan, Vice President for Children’s Media and Educational Programming. “The Foundation funded the launch of two groundbreaking TV and multimedia projects—Martha Speaks and Fetch!—and, most recently, the production of two international episodes of Postcards from Buster aimed at increasing children’s appreciation for diverse cultures, which premiered in early 2012.” “We believe in the value of WGBH’s educational children’s media,” says Elaine. “And our entire family is excited about the ways WGBH is reaching kids in new ways—using the Web, smartphones, tablets. This is exactly the kind of work the Weezie Foundation is proud to support.”
By the time they’re 21, American children on average have logged more than 10,000 hours of screen time—with television, computers, and, increasingly, mobile devices. That’s more time than kids spend in classrooms from fifth grade through high school. But what are they learning in front of those screens? That question drives every children’s media project WGBH undertakes, says brigid sullivan, Vice President for Children’s Media and Educational Programming. “Everywhere kids are, we are—with curriculumdriven, entertaining content that kids love, parents and teachers trust, and research studies confirm have real impact, ” says Sullivan. Today WGBH is the largest producer of children’s media for PBS across all digital platforms —in homes, classrooms, and on the go. And much of that content—whether it’s fostering literacy or introducing kids to science, math, and engineering concepts— has been made possible by contributors to the WGBH Children’s Educational Media Fund. “We’ve been blessed to have donors who are willing to help us at the very beginning of a project, when funding is hardest to come by,” Sullivan notes. “Having resources to develop ideas, especially for new platforms, is more crucial than ever.” Current projects underway include Next Generation Preschool Math, (classroombased math apps for preschoolers that foster collaborative learning) and Spy Hounds with Ruff (Web-based science games that introduce kids to sound, wind resistance, catapults, and more). “Millions of families and educators count on WGBH for high-quality, noncommercial children’s media every day,” Sullivan says. “We’re grateful to the generous individuals whose gifts to the WGBH Children’s Educational Media Fund make our work possible.” To learn more, contact Ellen Frank, director of Major Gifts, at 617-300-3809, or ellen_frank @wgbh.org.
SHARING THE VISION NEWSLETTER • SPRING/SUMMER 2012
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WGBH and Kids
A Smart Investment S
Martha Speaks Who doesn’t love Martha, the talking dog in Susan Meddaugh’s popular Martha Speaks book series and star of WGBH’s curriculum-based, multimedia series of the same title? Since its 2008 PBS premiere, Martha has spoken to millions of children, ages four to eight, via TV, the Web, mobile apps, and an innovative communitybased reading buddy project…with impressive results. Independent studies confirm what parents and teachers already know: Martha Speaks is a great vocabulary builder. Playing with the Martha Speaks Dog Party iPhone app gives low-income kids a 31% vocabulary boost. Now WGBH is developing two new Martha apps (for iPad and iPhone) around storytelling, the “perfect next step for our curriculum,” according to executive producers Carol Greenwald and Christine Zanchi. “To tell a good story, you need to have the right words,” says Greenwald. You also need the right dog. “Kids love Martha. She’s at the center of everything we do.”
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he’s a professor and the Director of Social Entrepreneurship at University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She’s a wife, mother of an eightyear-old girl, stepmom to two college-aged kids, and active in several non-profit organizations. She’s a partner with her husband in an early stage venture capital firm. And j e n n if e r wa ls ke and her husband ste v e are major WGBH supporters who choose the nonprofit organizations they support with the same care that they apply to their professional investments. “WGBH has an excellent success rate. They go out and test their children’s content in the classroom to make sure they understand its efficacy,” says Jennifer, a former WGBH Overseer who now serves on our Overseers Advisory Board. The Walkses also have seen WGBH’s impact up close. “We were in the car with our daughter, who was six at the time, when she announced that she ‘yearned’ for French fries,” Jennifer recalls with a smile. “We said, ‘What did you just say?’ Savannah replied, ‘I learned it on Martha Speaks. It means you really want something.’ I thought it was ironic that WGBH was testing the show’s effectiveness in building vocabulary, and my own daughter was proof positive of the show’s impact.” The couple, who moved to San Francisco from Boston in 2010, has made several generous gifts to WGBH, most recently to fund the Martha Speaks Read Aloud Book Club program, an initiative that leverages WGBH’s popular vocabularybuilding series to give at-risk and low-income children the chance to enhance their literacy skills at public and school libraries nationwide. Jennifer, who grew up on the West Coast in a family of educators—both her parents have PhDs and worked in academic institutions—views public media as serving an important bridge between classroom learning and most students’ social environments outside of the classroom. She’s a big supporter of WGBH’s goal to ensure children’s content for classroom use. “Learning has moved far beyond books,” she says. “It is now more about the student experience, social media, online learning, and experiential learning. Media is front and center in the educational movement, and WGBH is well poised to take advantage of this opportunity with its rich and thoughtful content.” More broadly, she is enthusiastic about WGBH President Jon Abbott’s leadership and his commitment to using digital media to ensure that WGBH’s educational content reaches the widest audience possible. “Jon is always asking where does the organization need to go to make sure it stays relevant,” Jennifer says. “I see the role of WGBH and PBS as even more important in the years ahead as media moves from the fixed television to streaming onto any device. Jon also is both passionate and skilled at communicating WGBH’s mission; my students love the time he can spend at Berkeley, and the rich media content he always brings along keeps them on the edge of their seats.”
News from the Ralph Lowell Society Great Expectations
C
onstancy is a quality that Jon Abbott, President and CEO of WGBH, highlighted in his annual report this year. I have been thinking about the value of things we count on as we juggle the demands of our busy lives. The quality of public media belongs at the top of the list. When we take time to watch or listen to a program, or access content on our computers, smartphones, or tablets, we want a worthwhile experience…and that is what WGBH delivers. As Ralph Lowell Society members, we play a major role in helping WGBH stay out in front as the nation’s leading public media broadcaster and producer. We also enjoy special RLS events featuring some of the extraordinary talent behind our favorite WGBH productions. I hope you were among the 300 RLS members who attended our Downton Abbey, Season 2 celebration with Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton and actress Elizabeth McGovern (Cora, Countess of Grantham). This June, we had the chance to meet Antiques Roadshow executive producer Marsha Bemko and show host Mark L. Walberg at a dinner in advance of Roadshow’s first appraisal event in Boston in years. And there is more ahead. In September, we will hold a screening of American Experience’s new film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Republic of Suffering, by Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, who will be our special guest. Ken Burns will stop by in October to share a preview of his latest film, The Dust Bowl. And in December, we will celebrate the 2013 premiere of Season 3 of Downton Abbey. But before these events happen, we need to hear from you. Between now and August 31, we are aiming to reach our annual RLS goal of nearly $3.4 million. If your renewal is coming up, please respond early. If you would like to move up to a higher level of support (and to enjoy even greater “insider” access to WGBH), we welcome that, too. As always, thanks for making WGBH a priority in your life!
melinda a. rabb chair, ralph lowell society
An Evening to Remember with Jim Lehrer WGBH Chair Amos B. Hostteter, Jr. and his wife Barbara opened their historic Beacon Hill house to Ralph Lowell Society President’s Circle members and special guests in November for an evening of conversation with Jim Lehrer. The co-producer and longtime anchor of PBS NewsHour shared stories from his 52-year career in journalism and discussed his latest book, Tension City, a nonfiction work about presidential debates—many of them moderated by him.
host barbara hostetter with rls chairman’s circle member and trustee maureen ruettgers and trustee sara lawrence-lightfoot
wgbh president jon abbott with jim lehrer and hosts amos. b. hostetter, jr., wgbh chair, and wife barbara
rls chairman’s circle members john f. and marilyn keane (trustee emerita) with jim lehrer
rls members applaud jim lehrer for his many contributions to in-depth, independent journalism
Downton Abbey Party with Elizabeth McGovern WGBH’s Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of Masterpiece, welcomed Ralph Lowell Society members, Masterpiece Trust donors, and friends to WGBH’s studios in December for a preview party in celebration of the 2012 premiere of Downton Abbey, Season 2, with special guests Elizabeth McGovern (Cora, Countess of Grantham) and Downton Abbey executive producer Gareth Neame.
masterpiece trust supporter steven karol with elizabeth mcgovern
rls members and masterpiece trust supporters welcome elizabeth mcgovern: (from left) trustee ann l. gund, overseer michelle m. karol, mcgovern, rls chair melinda rabb, and trustee marjie b. kargman
rls president’s circle member and masterpiece trust supporter graham gund with masterpiece executive producer rebecca eaton
downton abbey executive producer gareth neame, masterpiece executive producer rebecca eaton, and elizabeth mcgovern discuss the series
SHARING THE VISION NEWSLETTER • SPRING/SUMMER 2012
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WGBH’s Ambassador to
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Western Massachusetts
rowing up in Concord, Massachusetts, joan c row le y acquired a passion for learning. “My dad was a physicist at MIT, my mom an English teacher, and both promoted lifelong learning,” she says. They also introduced Joan to WGBH. “I have many fond memories of the classical music broadcasts that often filled our house.” Later, WGBH was a prominent part of the Worcester home where, together with her husband ral ph crow ley, Joan raised five children. The Crowleys have deep ties to the Worcester area. Ralph is president and CEO of the homegrown Polar Beverages—the country’s largest independent softdrink bottler—and his family runs the successful Wachusett Mountain Ski Area. A member of the WGBH Board of Overseers and Ralph Lowell Society Committee since 2010, Joan is spreading the word about WGBH throughout the community her family loves. By doing so, she also is honoring her parents’ legacy. “Every time I listen to WGBH Radio or watch WGBH TV,” she says, “I always learn something.” What are your and your husband’s WGBH favorites? We enjoy Ken Burns’s documentaries. We love Downton Abbey. I wasn’t sure if Ralph would watch, but he was thoroughly into it. I’m a big fan of Antiques Roadshow and Masterpiece’s Jane Austen adaptations. On 89.7, Emily Rooney always has an engaging, Boston-related topic. Why have you made WGBH a philanthropic priority? I’m a big proponent of education. WGBH has benefited my family so much, and I finally have time, so I wanted to give back.
Lending Library Experiencing Downton Abbey withdrawal? You’re not alone! This spring, Seasons 1 and 2 of Downton Abbey are among the mostrequested programs from the Ralph Lowell Society Lending Library. Other popular titles include Masterpiece’s Sherlock, Nova’s Cracking Your Genetic Code, and American Experience’s Clinton and The Amish. Take advantage of this exclusive RLS benefit: call the RLS Hotline at 617.300.3900 or email ralph_lowell_society@wgbh.org and supply your name, address, and program request. We’ll take care of the rest!
r a lp h lo we l l s o ci e t y m e m b e r sh i p l eve ls friend • $1,500 fellow • $2,500 sponsor • $5,000 benefactor • $10,000 president’s circle • $25,000 chairman’s circle • $50,000
What is the focus of your Ralph Lowell Society Committee work for WGBH? It may be the disconnect between Boston and anything beyond Route 495, but there aren’t a lot of us from Central Massachusetts involved with WGBH. I know many people who appreciate WGBH’s mission and programs, but haven’t contributed. I’ve been reaching out and reintroducing them to all the wonderful things that WGBH does.
For a complete list of the benefits and privileges at each membership level, please call the Ralph Lowell Society Hotline at 617-300-3900, visit wgbh.org/ralphlowell, or email ralph_lowell_society@wgbh.org. We welcome your questions and value your support.
Back in 1998, your mother-in-law bid on and won a pink Cadillac at the WGBH auction. What happened to it? It’s alive and well in the Crowley family, and used for special occasions. It was taken out for proms. And I can see in the future that it may be taken out for weddings.
Chair, Ralph Lowell Society • Melinda Rabb Director • Vanya Tulenko Development Officer • Charlotte Porter Event Manager • Jeanmarie Roberts Associate • Christopher Reilly Assistant • Victoria Crnovich
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An Eventful Season Classical Cartoon Festival
Hits High Note
Nearly 4,500 people poured into Symphony Hall in late October for Classical New England’s 13th Classical Cartoon Festival. Families enjoyed iconic Warner Brothers cartoons, storytelling, and classical music, with live performances by the New England Conservatory Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Handel & Haydn Vocal Quartet, and more.
wgbh’s ben roe, managing director for classical new england, kicks off the festival
the cellists of the suzuki school of newton
members of the new england conservatory youth symphony orchestra
children make their own music at the instrument petting zoo
students from the rivers school conservatory in weston, ma, perform as part of the marimba magic ensemble
Students Get Up-Close Look
at Jesse Owens’ Story
city year boston board member josh mccall (left) with american experience executive producer mark samels
(from left) northeastern athletic director peter roby, wgbh president jon abbott, filmmaker laurens grant, boston public schools senior program director robby chisholm, and city year boston vice president and executive director sandra lopez burke
In partnership with City Year Boston and Boston Public Schools, WGBH opened its doors to nearly 200 high school students in late April for a close-up look at American Experience’s new film, Jesse Owens. WGBH’s Mark Samels, executive producer for American Experience, welcomed students from Brighton High School, Burke High School in Dorchester, English High School in Jamaica Plain, Boston Community Leadership Academy, and Snowden International School. Students enjoyed a preview clip before breaking out into small discussion groups with filmmaker Laurens Grant and Northeastern University Athletic Director Peter Roby.
peter roby, laurens grant, and robby chisholm answer students’ questions
students gather in wgbh’s yawkey atrium for discussions and lunch
SHARING THE VISION NEWSLETTER • SPRING/SUMMER 2012
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WGBH and Massachusetts:
Partners in Education W
All Things Kids Here’s a snapshot of WGBH’s current children’s media productions across platforms. TV AND THE WEB
Arthur • Between the Lions • Curious George • Design Squad Nation • Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman • Martha Speaks • Peep and the Big Wide World • Postcards from Buster WE B E XCLUS IVE S
Loop Scoops • The Fin, Fur and Feather Bureau of Investigation • The Greens • Zoom FOR TE ACHE R S AND STU DE NTS
PBS LearningMediaTM • Teachers’ Domain • Massachusetts Teachers’ Domain • Beginning Education, Early Childcare at Home • Deepening Adolescent Literacy • Teaching American History Massachusetts • Teaching Engineering M O B I L E A P P L I C AT I O N S
Arthur, D.W.’s Unicorn Adventure (iPhone) • Between the Lions, Monkey Match (iPhone) • Fetch! Lunch Rush (iPhone) • Martha Speaks Dog Party (iPhone) • Next Generation Preschool Math (iPad) • The Greens, Light It Right (iPhone) IN COMMUNITIES
Bark about Books • Dot Diva • Engineer Your Life • Martha Speaks Read Aloud Book Club • Martha Speaks Reading Buddies Program • Time to Invent
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GBH has a long history of creating educational media for use in classrooms nationwide. But it wasn’t until early 2009, when WGBH President Jon Abbott met Mitchell Chester (Massachusetts’ incoming Commissioner of the Department of Early and Secondary Education) at a conference in New York, that WGBH embarked on a concerted effort to support the Commonwealth’s educational media needs. Soon after that meeting, WGBH’s Educational Productions team met with Chester’s staff and quickly got to work developing a Massachusetts edition of WGBH’s acclaimed Teachers’ Domain, our free, national online library of mediarich, classroom-ready content for teachers. “We reorganized the library to match Massachusetts’ K-12 curriculum,” says WGBH’s Denise Blumenthal, director of Educational Productions. Massachusetts Teachers’ Domain launched in fall 2009; within months, 30,000 teachers had signed on. “Textbooks and lectures no longer rule the day,” says Blumenthal. “High-quality educational media—curriculum-based video, interactive lessons, online games, videos that demonstrate best practices for teachers—are revolutionizing education.” A pioneer in digital learning, WGBH is continually seeking better ways to create and deliver this media to teachers across the country—most recently through the 2011 merger of WGBH’s Teachers’ Domain and PBS’s educational online efforts to form PBS LearningMediaTM —and here at home through new, innovative partnerships with the State. Last year, when the Commonwealth competed successfully for two federal Race to the Top grants aimed at raising students’ achievement—grants worth hundreds of millions of dollars—it turned to WGBH to be its media partner. The State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education awarded WGBH $1.2 million to organize and develop multimedia resources for 40 new curriculum units for grades K-12 in math, science, social studies, and English language arts. As part of the grant, WGBH is producing best-practices videos to help teachers improve their skills using this new media. “WGBH is partnering with teams of educators to help shape the curriculum to meet new national standards,” says Blumenthal. “We’re identifying and, in many cases, creating media to support evolving curriculum units—everything from an interactive version of a rare Civil War map from the Boston Public Library’s Leventhal Map Center, to a customized video of American Experience’s film on Emmett Till for a unit on civil rights.” WGBH also received a $2.1 million grant from the State Department of Early Education and Care to create an easy-to-use online hub of multimedia resources for teachers and caregivers of kids through age 5. “For the first time,” Blumenthal says, “we’re working with the State to create a digital preschool curriculum as well as best-practice videos for family childcare providers and parents.” All of this is exciting news to longtime educator and WGBH Trustee Jackie Jenkins-Scott, president of Wheelock College. “WGBH has the multimedia resources, and the expertise, to make a real difference in preparing our children to compete in the 21st century,” she says. “This is a partnership worth celebrating and supporting.”
Radio Campaign Update
Turning Kids On
M
to Classical Music
usic education can lift up a city, and the children in it. The first-rate work of Detroit’s public schools helped put that city on the music industry map back in the 1960s, explains Ben Roe, managing director of WGBH’s Classical New England. But in cities across the country—including Boston—schools no longer are an incubator for the arts. The critically dire state of music education, Roe says, “is the house on our block that is on fire and can no longer be ignored.” Classical New England is responding to the alarm. “Who’s better equipped than WGBH?” Roe says. “Our track record in children’s education is unmatched.” Roe oversaw the 2011 launch of a 24-hour-a-day Kids Classical channel on classicalnewengland.org—the first and still only online radio channel in the country devoted entirely to kids and classical music. The channel, which also includes interactive games and puzzles on its website, has helped turned 6- to 24-year-olds into one of the fastest growing segments of Classical New England’s audience. Roe also retooled the radio lineup. Classics for Kids (Saturday, 9am) offers accessible insights about composers and traditions, while From the Top (Saturday, 5pm) showcases America’s best young musicians. And every fall, Classical New England’s Cartoon Festival draws thousands of kids and their parents to Symphony Hall (see page 7) to experience classical music-themed vintage cartoons, some accompanied by a live orchestra. “It’s an eye-opener for so many children,” Roe says. “They get to approach the music on their own terms.” But Roe wants to do more. He’s working closely with members of the WGBH Music Committee to explore new ways to engage young people. “Whether it’s inspiring the next generation of conservatory talent or expanding a child’s cultural horizons,” Roe says, “classical music can positively affect a child’s future.” And Roe is living proof. “I grew up with WGBH,” says Roe, a Grammy and Peabody Award-winning producer who previously led NPR’s Cultural Programming Division. “My parents were classical music fanatics and they had the radio on all day long.”
In 2010, WGBH made a bold move: launching a 24/7 classical music service—Classical New England—and re-imagining 89.7 WGBH as a news and culture service with coverage ranging from national to hyperlocal. Two years later, that move is paying off on multiple fronts, thanks to supporters of WGBH’s ongoing Radio Campaign. “We want to bring classical music closer to people’s lives, to give them access not only to the music, but also to the stories behind the music,” says Classical New England Managing Director ben roe. “That’s the idea driving many of our efforts, from our Classical Music Festival here at WGBH’s studios this June, to Keith’s Classical Corner with Laura Carlo and Keith Lockhart, to our recent series of Bach Minutes. As one donor wrote, ‘I thought I knew about Bach, but I’m learning something every day.’ That’s music to my ears.” The classical service also is encouraging listeners to share their own musical memories, starting with their favorite Tanglewood Tales as the Boston Symphony Orchestra mounts its 75th-anniversary season in Lenox, Massachusetts. On the news side, 89.7 WGBH recently launched a new series, WGBH Focus— periodic, weeklong reports on subjects that matter to our region and nation, from complete coverage and analysis of the Supreme Court’s recent Affordable Care Act hearings to an in-depth look at the problems and challenges facing critical public infrastructures, starting with the MBTA. “Our aim is to illuminate complex issues that often receive short shrift elsewhere on the dial,” says 89.7 Managing Director phil redo. More classical music. More news. And more to come, thanks to you. To find out how you can support the WGBH Radio Campaign, please contact Major Gifts Officer Kaja Fickes at 617-300-3629 or kaja_fickes@wgbh.org.
SHARING THE VISION NEWSLETTER • SPRING/SUMMER 2012
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WGBH One Guest Street Boston, MA 02135 wgbh.org
P RESORTED F I RST-CL ASS MAI L U. S . P OSTAGE PAI D P ERMI T 2 1 5 MAI L ED F ROM 01 889
FOR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS OF WGBH SPRING/SUMMER 2012
Raising a Generation of Learners
WGBH’s Children’s Media
Independent studies confirm what America’s educators and parents already know: WGBH children’s media helps kids learn. Curriculum materials from our series Between the Lions improve children’s letter sounds, an essential early literacy skill, by nearly 300%. WGBH’s Martha Speaks Dog Party iPhone app has been shown to boost oral vocabulary by as much as 31%. And more than half of kids tested showed gains in math skills after playing number and counting games on our Curious George website.
For general information, please contact
Winifred Lenihan Vice President for Development WGBH One Guest Street Boston, MA 02135 617-300-3804 winifred_lenihan@wgbh.org
Sharing the Vision is a publication of WGBH
Publication Coordination Margaret Quackenbush
P H OTO CR E D ITS • COVER: ISTOCKPHOTO; CG: ® & © 2012 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS AND/OR HMH. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Editorial Susan Reed Matthew Roy
Production Lenore Lanier Gibson
JENNIFER WALSKE; ALL CHARACTERS AND UNDERLYING MATERIALS FROM THE “MARTHA” BOOKS TM AND © SUSAN
Director, Constituent Communications Cynthia Broner
PHOTOGRAPHY; © WGBH/VANESSA WIEGEL • BACK COVER: CG: ® &
Design Danielle Pierce
Associate Director Susan Reed
PBS KIDS® PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE. • INSIDE FRONT COVER: © WGBH/ANTHONY TIEULI; © WGBH/MARC BROWN STUDIOS • PAGE 3: COURTESY OF ELAINE FISKE; JOHN E. BARRETT/© WGBH/SIRIUS THINKING • PAGE 4: COURTESY OF
MEDDAUGH. ALL OTHER CHARACTERS AND UNDERLYING MATERIALS TM AND © WGBH. • PAGE 5: © WGBH/LISA ABITBOL (9) • PAGE 6: COURTESY OF JOAN CROWLEY • PAGE 7: © WGBH/MARC BROWN STUDIOS; © WGBH/LISA ABITBOL (5);
© WGBH/JENNIFER COGSWELL (4) • PAGE 8: PBS (2); WGBH • PAGE 9: © WGBH/LISA ABITBOL; © WGBH/MATT KALINOWSKI © 2012 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS AND/OR HMH. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PBS KIDS® PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE.; WGBH; ALL CHARACTERS AND UNDERLYING MATERIALS FROM THE “MARTHA” BOOKS TM AND © SUSAN MEDDAUGH. ALL OTHER CHARACTERS AND UNDERLYING MATERIALS TM AND © WGBH. • © 2012 WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION 120344