Delaware Valley: Magic on the air

Teaching Pre K-8, Mar 2001 by Rodia, Becky

Pennsylvania fifth graders break the news and build their language skills

The newsroom is brisk with anticipation and activity. Anchorpeople are rehearsing their stories, the cameraman is checking to make sure everyone will be in the shot, the props person is double-checking to make sure that each story has an appropriate visual aid to accompany it.

When the producer calls out, "Twenty minutes until we're on the air," the cast and crew put on a fresh burst of energy. You can feel the excitement in the air.

No, we're not in the studio of a national news program. We're in the studio of DVE-TV, the daily news and current events television show of Delaware Valley Elementary School in Milford, PA.

Rise and shine. Every morning, one of the seven teams of fifth graders that write, produce and present DVE-TV gets up extra-early to be at school by 8:00. From 8:00 to 9:00 the "studio" buzzes with activity as kids rewrite stories from that morning's newspaper, into language that is accessible to K-5 kids. Sharon Siegel and Carol Navitsky, who co-coach the program, come in at 7:45 to select items from the newspaper, so students have a selection waiting for them when their dedicated parents drop them off at 8:00. At that point, they choose which story they want to present and spend 40 minutes rewriting it. They select props or visual aids that might enhance the message, and practice reading the story before the show broadcasts live throughout the school at 9:05.

"We teach them that you can't copy the story word for word - that's plagiarizing," Sharon Siegel told us when we visited the school in December. "So the kids really do it themselves. Sometimes they don't even rewrite a story from the newspaper. One boy had a current events project due for class, and he asked if he could present it on the show. It's great when the kids bring in their own ideas."

A great idea. The great idea of DVE-TV had its beginnings nine years ago. "Our principal, Sonya Cole, came to me and said, `How would you like to do a TV show? We have the equipment."' Sharon Siegel said. "I thought that a news show would be a great way to get the kids reading and writing." Sharon volunteers at the local public broadcasting station, so every Wednesday night, DVE-- TV is broadcast on Access 8, and the tri-states area gets the news, fifth-grade style.

"The parents love it because they can see the whole week in review," Sonya Cole told us. "And they tape it the days when their kids are on."

The kids love being part of DVE-TV The younger kids at Delaware Valley look forward to being in fifth grade, so they can write articles for the TV show. Until then, they sometimes get to appear on the show as flagholders, or to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

As for those lucky fifth graders, rewriting the stories sharpens their reading and writing skills ("You can see the improvement by the end of the school year," Sharon Siegel told us.) and does wonders for their confidence as well. The kids write letters to famous people and though they don't always get the interviews they ask for, at the very least, they get a signed picture and a personal note. The walls of the TV studio are practically papered with the autographed photos of such notables as Madeline Albright, Beverly Cleary, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Jacques d'Amboise, Walter Cronkite, Jeff Gordon, Leonard Nimoy, Rosie O'Donnell, and scores of others. On the day of our visit to the school, the most recent addition to the "wall of fame" was a letter from Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.

Here come the "red shirts:' The DVE-TV teams are getting to be pretty famous themselves. Dressed in their matching red DVE-TV t-shirts and armed with their very own press passes, they're getting to be well-known among some pretty famous people. When Shimon Peres was awarded the Medal of Freedom, he granted DVE-TV an exclusive interview.

"We got to interview Shimon Peres because of one little kid's persistence," Sharon told us. "A fifth grader wrote to Peres, saying that he believed in world peace and asking how kids could help. Something in that letter must have really touched Peres, because he sent a messenger from the Israeli consulate to let us know that he wanted us to interview him.

"He talked to the kids about his grandchildren. It was wonderful. The kids were excited, but not on the same level that the adults were. The kids seemed to think that everybody gets to interview Shimon Peres!"

DVE-TV also won an exclusive interview with General Colin Powell when they attended the three-day President's Summit for Volunteers. At the Summit, DVE-TV had its own camera on the podium, along with the likes of NBC and CBS. General Powell said that he "spotted the red shirts," and he actually came to talk to the kids. Other television crews tried to crowd in to get their say, but Powell asked them to back away, so he could give his full attention to the kids.

Terrific things. DVE-TV has interviewed John Travolta, Melba Moore, Al Gore, the staff of Highlights for Children, Sesame Street stars Bert and Ernie, Yogi Berra, Ted Koppel and many others. Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson took it upon themselves to take the first step they contacted DVE-TV to ask if they could be interviewed!