‘MR. G’ GETS RESULTS : TV BECOMES A TEACHING TOOL IN ENGLISH CLASS

It’s been called the vast wasteland. It’s been said to have “mind-numbing” effects on children. It has been cited as a prominent cause of declining reading skills. But in Milton Goldman’s classroom at Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, television has replaced the once-standard chalkboard.

Goldman--or “Mr. G,” as his students affectionately refer to him--uses it to help teach, of all things, reading and English.

“I realize that it won’t improve general reading alone,” Goldman said. “It’s strictly a supplementary activity that we do maybe twice a week. But we do get results.”

Instead of erasers or chalk, what one finds in an enclosed cabinet in his room is a videocassette recorder and a collection of more than 30 tapes containing about 120 programs on them, including “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties” and “Amazing Stories.”

The key educational component, however, is the Telecaption machine, a small, box-like device that attaches to the TV set.

Devised to enable deaf and hearing-impaired viewers to enjoy television, the machine allows specially prepared programs to be seen with captions, much like subtitles in foreign films. Goldman came up with a way to use it in the Individual Reading Program he began in 1974.

“Just as something exciting is about to happen, he (Goldman) turns the sound down,” explained Alfonso Zaragoza, a 17-year-old senior. “Then we have to read what’s going on.”

For this novel use of the medium, Goldman was honored recently by the CBS Broadcast Group with its first Television Worth Teaching awards.

Goldman and three other educators were chosen from 200 applicants by a panel of judges who looked for varied uses of commercial television to enrich the education of students. Each of them received a $1,000 U.S. savings bond and video production equipment to be used at their schools. They were feted by CBS at a luncheon in Washington and also appeared on CBS’ “The Morning Program.”

The other winners were Mary Moen of Madison, Wis., for her use of commercial TV programming to help students gain knowledge as viewers and users of the media; Julie Ann Balke of Savoy, Ill., for her use of TV scripts supplied through the CBS Television Reading Program to aid in history classes, and Rosemary Lee Potter of Clearwater, Fla., for two decades of using commercial TV as a tool to enhance reading and writing skills.

“I thought I might have a good chance at being chosen,” the 49-year-old Goldman said in a classroom interview a few days later. “So when the principal and her assistant came into my class one day (to give him the news), I just knew it. The idea was a good one.”

Goldman’s confidence in his entry was due to the motivational boost that TV seemed to generate among his students--a group of about 150 teen-agers in six classes that range from basic reading to modern literature.

“Because I was using TV directly, rather than using the medium as a teaching tool--such as camera techniques and so forth--I thought the idea would work,” Goldman said. “Besides, I was using programs that received high ratings from the Nielsens, whereas many people only think of PBS as being educational.

“I’m taking something perceived as negative and using it in a positive way.”

The closed-captioning system he uses was developed in the late 1970s to allow TV programs to be broadcast with subtitles that can be seen only by viewers who have purchased the Telecaption machine (available from Sears and the National Captioning Institute in Falls Church, Va. for about $250). At present, according to a representative from the National Captioning Institute, there are about 179 1/2 hours a week of closed-captioned programming (including both prime-time and daytime entertainment and news shows on all three major networks, PBS, in syndication and on cable).

Goldman, who has been teaching at Hamilton since 1970 and who also teaches at UCLA’s graduate school of education, said that he conceived his idea for adapting the system in early 1986 after reading about the improved reading levels of hearing-impaired students who had been watching closed-captioned TV.

The results? There has been marked improvement in his students’ vocabulary, comprehension, word analysis and motivation, Goldman said, and attendance is better, too. He’s convinced it also has helped them become better readers because of the “focused reading” practice they get. He admits, though, that it’s difficult to measure the total impact because TV is only one of a variety of teaching methods he uses.

Besides learning various words in a show, the students also discuss the themes, the reality of the situations and the possible outcome of an episode, if Goldman chooses to stop the tape prematurely. Sometimes the students write their own endings.

No other applicants for the CBS award used TV in this way, Goldman said.

“I even called the equipment manager in our school district (Los Angeles Unifed) to see how many Telecaption machines he has delivered,” said Goldman. “He told me very few.”

But because of the attention he has received, Goldman is hopeful that will change.

“Many teachers are conservative,” he said. “Many don’t like the idea of changing their approach, but teachers learn things from exploration.

“Of course,” he added, “money has to be spent to do it, and many teachers don’t have access to that.”

Goldman got his by applying for a $2,000 grant sponsored by the Board of Education in September, 1985. His wife, Sandra, also a teacher at Hamilton, applied with him, and so they were able to get $4,000 in the spring of ’86 to get them started. Sandra also uses a similar approach in her English classes.

It seems to have caught on. In fact, Goldman said, interest was so high, even among students who were simply passing by in the hall, that he created a Lunchtime Closed Caption Club for anyone wanting to watch--and read--television.