Stephanie Van Zee

Van Zee’s innovative teaching idea, “The Reading Connection,” focuses on increasing reading fluency, word strategies and comprehension by providing research-based language arts materials for use at school and home. Currently, the school’s reading program lacks activities in phonemic awareness, reading fluency, word structure and comprehension that are needed to align with the Science of Reading research. In addition to the materials for reading intervention, the Voya Unsung Heroes grant funds will be used for supplemental materials to create school-to-home kits that will strengthen the connection between school reading achievement and practicing in the students’ homes. Van Zee hopes it will benefit students by increasing their decoding, fluency and reading comprehension — ultimately making their classroom experience become more meaningful through systematic instruction of listening, speaking, reading and writing.