Kenowa Hills — Most elementary-schoolers can spell animal names like “cat” and “dog” with ease, but what about more difficult words like “dolphin” or “elephant”?
Kindergartner Ethan Knopp was up to the challenge at Zinser Elementary’s recent literacy event, organized by Grand Valley State University students.
“I want to do a really hard one,” he said to the GVSU students hosting the reading activity.
Braeden Vorndran and Carissa Frayer set up their animal spelling and matching activity station for young students to practice sounding out words, letter by letter, even with deceptive phonemes — vowel and consonant sounds.
Ethan faced the scattered pile of letter flash cards with his phonics knowledge at the ready to sound out the tricky word.
“Which letter makes the ‘eh’ sound?” Braeden asked, as Ethan searched for the letter E card. He quickly figured out the “L” sound, but came across a learning opportunity for how “ph” can also sound like “F.”
“English is sometimes a tricky language,” Braeden said.
Focusing on Phonics & Fun
GVSU professor Pengtong Qu’s Foundations of Literacy students visit Zinser weekly to read with the elementary-schoolers as part of their course work. Qu’s students collaborated with Principal Brooke Johnston and instructional coach Erica Philo to plan and execute an open house-style literacy night for students and their families, timely for National Reading Month.
Ethan’s dad, Josh Knopp, said his son brought home the news of his school having a literacy event and looked forward to going as a family.
“He was so excited,” Knopp said. “School is school, but coming at night is a little more exciting.”
Ethan and his parents spend time reading books at home before bed, but Qu said hosting events focused on literacy and fun takes learning one step further.
“My students are learning about the pedagogy of phonics,” she said. “They plan hands-on, interactive activities, come up with their own games and write their first lesson plan to prepare for this event.”
Qu said her students benefit from interacting with adults and kids, while learning to work with a range of ages and reading abilities.
“It’s important to reach every kid where they’re at,” she said. “If you have a beginner level, sound out (the word) ‘cat,’ ‘kah-ah-t.’ It’s important to make connections with things they see in everyday life and engage scaffolding to lead them to the answer and not just provide it for them.”
At Braeden and Clarissa’s activity table, the letter flash cards were presented to students mixed up, so they could not only rely on muscle memory to spell a word.
“Can (a student) recognize letters and their sounds to describe it, not just identify the picture from memory?” Braeden said. “We know it’s a dolphin, but scramble the letters and we see if they recognize which letters make which sounds to spell it out.”
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