Kentwood — On a brilliant May morning, Valleywood Middle School newcomer students from Rwanda, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico and Vietnam saw the West Michigan lakeshore region for the first time.
During a tour led by Nahuel Medina, Ottawa County Parks and Recreation Commission program supervisor, they peered at the glistening inland lake surrounded by sand and billowing grass and trees in Ottawa Sands Park in Ferrysburg. It was their second stop of the day after Grand Ravines, a 202-acre park on the Grand River in Jenison.
Their final destination — just over the dunes in the distance — was Lake Michigan, where they capped their field trip with a picnic and a splash in the water, fully clothed.
“I love to see the dunes and the little trees in the ground. I love the shells,” said Hafsa Mufame, a sixth-grader from Democratic Republic of Congo, as she picked up freshwater shells from the sand.
While stepping into nature was a lesson in itself, the students were culminating a year-long project on the local watershed by following the path of water from their school at 1110 50th St. SE to the big lake, and learning many terms in English along the way.
The students, in Valleywood’s multilingual learners program, have been in the U.S. for a few months to a couple years, and are learning English while being taught grade-level standards in their Newcomer Science and Social Studies classes. Instruction is tailored to best help multilingual learners, said MLL teacher Jane VanHof.
Students also visited the Kent County Landfill and Wastewater Treatment plant, and raised baby salmon through the Michigan Department of Resources Salmon in the Classroom program and released them in the Grand River.
They also created a mural of the watershed, which is located next to the salmon tank, near Valleywood’s entrance.
“This is the Buck Creek Watershed, and this is where Valleywood is,” explained sixth-grader Rebeka Tuyishesme as she pointed to the mural a few days after the lakeshore trip.
Using her English skills, she said rainwater picks up contaminants on its way to streams from yards, streets and farms — and that’s bad for fish and animals.
Language Development and Grade-Level Expectations
MLL students learn best through images and “realia,” or real-life examples, VanHof said. Hands-on exploration is key so students can grasp terms like transpiration, atmospheric deposition and urban runoff — academic vocabulary that can be difficult for new English speakers.
“They are supposed to be exposed 100% to the grade-level curriculum. I take that curriculum and use comprehensible input,” she said.
For example, “If you want to teach about the different kinds of bread from different cultures you bring in the bread and taste it,” VanHof said.
As students are immersed, their vocabulary and related learning take off, she said.
“It is astonishing to see how much the students have grown in a year. It is amazing.”
Eighth-grader Claude Munyaneza, who comes from Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, pointed to a local woods depicted on the mural.
“I’m going to talk about timber harvesting,” he said. “It is deforestation: cutting down all of the trees,” he added, explaining the process of transpiration.
Students said they loved caring for the salmon back at school, and seeing the sand and trees and finding a baby turtle during the lakeshore trip. They experienced Michigan in all its natural glory, an end to a year of learning.
“I like the Grand River, and the trees and the birdsong,” said Sania Noor, an eighth-grader from Afghanistan.
Read more from Kentwood:
• Vietnamese students write family narratives, contribute to local history
• Multipurpose center to feature space for athletics, academics, arts
