Grant expands literacy tools
Staff writer
Marion Elementary School will expand hands-on reading instruction this year after receiving a literacy grant from Flint Hills Community Fund.
The grant will support about 80 students with multisensory phonics materials that help children learn by seeing, hearing, and moving as they read.
Marion County was eligible for the money this year under the fund’s rotating county system, which supports literacy and community development across the Flint Hills region.
Principal Jennifer Fanshier said the money would increase student access to tools teachers already use.
“It just expands what we’re utilizing,” Fanshier said. “We already have a lot of multisensory tools in place, but it’s going to allow us to have more of those tools in the hands of more kids at a time.”
Before, materials had to be shared in small groups.
“We can only do groups of two or three,” she said. “This is going to expand that throughout our building and create that reach a little bit higher.”
The resources also will be used in upper grades.
“We’re really sensory-oriented in our K-2 area, but this is going to allow our third through fifth graders to have more access to it as well,” Fanshier said.
Fanshier said multisensory learning was especially helpful for students with dyslexia and other learning differences.
“The more exposure we can get kids with more modalities, it helps to create another way to wire that brain pathway,” she said.
Many of the techniques can also be used at home, she said.
“Parents can do that at home with chips of paper or little manipulatives for kids to move as they’re going,” Fanshier said.