CAZENOVIA — For the past several months, Cazenovia resident Kelli Johnson has served as the educational consultant for “The Reading League’s Reading Buddies,” a new foundational reading television series for PreK-3rd grade learners.
The 20-episode series will air on WCNY’s Global Connect and YouTube sometime this year.
The show stars Broadway actors Brendan Malafronte and Andrea Dotto, who deliver the educational curriculum through their characters, Dusty and Dott.
Malafronte and Dotto, who also serve as the show’s writers, editors and producers, relocated from New York City to Manlius due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Reading League (TRL) is a Syracuse-based non-profit organization whose mission is to advance the awareness, understanding and use of evidence-aligned reading instruction.
“It believes that every student, including those who face learning challenges, must have the same opportunities to read and succeed,” said Johnson, who serves as the TRL reading coach director. “However, millions of children are struggling to do so; only a third of students are reading at a proficient level. The Reading League works with educators and school systems across the country to ensure that educators have the knowledge they need to [provide] reading instruction that has been shown by the ‘Science of Reading’ to advantage the most students and close reading gaps.”
Reading Buddies teaches children three important underlying components of skillful word reading: phonological awareness, letter names/sounds, and blending sounds to decode words accurately.
According to Johnson, the show provides direct, explicit instruction on foundational reading skills such as articulatory features of sounds, language of handwriting strokes and phonemic awareness, that are not always explored thoroughly in schools.
“[The show is designed] to provide young students with a highly engaging experience where they can solidify what they are learning in their schools,” Johnson said. “Foundational aspects of reading, such as letters, sounds, vocabulary, letter formation, and decoding, are provided, and Dusty and Dott deliver it all with love and mesmerizing energy . . . The segments of each episode are designed to be increasingly complex and are scaffolded to provide support for PreK-3rd grade learners. It is anticipated that English Language Learners of all ages will benefit as well.”
In her role as educational consultant, Johnson provided the actors with background knowledge on how the brain learns to read and curricular resources grounded in scientific evidence.
As the scripts were being written, she provided feedback on word choices for different segments and coached the actors on articulation of phonemes or the delivery of content.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 school closures last year, Johnson was involved with TRL’s contribution to WCNY TV Classroom in partnership with the Syracuse City School District.
“Throughout that experience, I kept dreaming of how wonderful it would be to have more time to develop engaging lessons with characters, to do multiple takes, to edit, etc.,” Johnson said. “With a limited budget, that was not to be a reality, but when I read about Andrea and Brendan in CNY Magazine and saw the work they were doing with Dusty and Dott on YouTube, it struck me that they might be the ones to pull it off. The Reading League requested the opportunity to produce a pilot season at WCNY, and with the approval in hand, we struck out to raise funds from multiple local foundations and to hire Andrea and Brendan to write, star in, edit and produce the show.”
According to Johnson, WCNY President Mitch Gelman, who is another Cazenovia resident, gave TRL the go-ahead on the pilot and has provided continual support since.
The production team started planning episodes in fall 2020, and a few weeks ago, the cast met at Common Grounds in Cazenovia to rehearse. Filming began on March 8 and wrapped on March 19.
For coverage of the production, follow @ReadingBuddies_ on Twitter, @ReadingBuddiesTRL on Facebook, or readingbuddiestrl on Instagram.
For more information on TRL, visit thereadingleague.org.
