Between the Lions Rates a Roar of Approval

As soon as a child laughed through one half hour of Between the Lions, no conscientious parent or teacher could ask, “Does the show work for kids?” Clearly, the most ambitious children’s television program in a decade, aimed at teaching young children the fundamentals of reading, is good entertainment. But the question haunting the creative team behind Between the Lions was, “Can the show make a difference in how kids learn to read?” The first report cards are in and the show wins an E for excellence in TV and education.

Deborah Linebarger of the University of Kansas completed a study involving almost 200 children from three different areas of Kansas City—half of whom watched 17 episodes of the program from February to April 2000. Children in both the control and television-watching groups were evaluated prior to viewing the show as well as after 8 episodes and upon completion of watching 17 of them. Linebarger’s study was part of an evaluation carried out by the educational foundation of WGBH-TV in Boston, which co-produces the program along with Sirius Thinking, Ltd. Between the Lions, which has received both corporate and governmental funding, is also supported by Carnegie Corporation, the Park Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation and the Institute for Civil Society.

Kindergarteners who watched Between the Lions outperformed their peers who didn’t watch on three important measures: phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondences and concepts of print. The same children also had significantly higher raw scores on a normative measure of reading abilities than those who didn’t view the show. Teachers reported that the program, which is set in a library and stars a family of literate lions, conveyed a love of reading and writing and that children who watched the show spent more time writing letters, notes and stories.

“Taken as a whole, these results are promising, suggesting that this program does lead to positive changes or growth in essential early literacy skills predictive of later, fluent reading,” said Linebarger in her conclusion. She noted that because Between the Lions is available free on public television it could “reinforce, motivate and extend early literacy instruction, both in the classroom and within the children’s home.”

Christopher Cerf and the creative staff of Sirius Thinking, most veterans of Sesame Street, spent four years collaborating with reading experts and literacy professors to create a program that would both engage children’s imagination and teach them the sound, meaning and placement of words. The Sirius team merged the lessons they learned from the reading experts with a craft they love—puppetry—and created characters and vignettes that could convey critical reading concepts.

This summer, Between the Lions beat out serious competition like WGBH’s other highly acclaimed children’s show Arthur, as well as the veteran Sesame Street, to win the TV Critics Association Award for Best Children’s Program. Clearly WGBH and Sirius Thinking have a hit on their hands, but the challenge for all involved is to extend the early gains revealed in the University of Kansas study, which also seems to confirm one of the founding principles of Between the Lions: that reading tenets can be transmitted by television. First graders showed mixed but less convincing results and the researchers concluded that further, more focused study was necessary to gauge the impact of the show on those with basic reading skills. With second year planning underway this research gives Between the Lions supporters and producers evidence that innovative teaching techniques can make a difference.

Photo credit: ©2000 John Barrett

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