Dear Caregivers,

Happy June! It is hard to believe that we are at the end of another school year. We here at the Title I department are so grateful for your partnership over the past year. While this year was different than others, and even challenging at times, we witnessed fantastic growth in our students’ literacy development as they returned back to school in-person for the full-year! Our schools are concluding their Spring literacy benchmark administration and our grade-level teams of teachers are gathering together over the next few weeks to analyze their students’ progress and achievement. If you are interested in obtaining your student’s literacy data reports and/or having a conversation about what the score reports mean, please reach out to your child’s teacher and/or school-based literacy coach. They will be happy to provide you with your child’s information and walk you through specific steps on how to support your child’s literacy development at home.

One way to support your child’s literacy development at home over the next few months is to engage them with summer reading. This year, the Malden Public Schools is providing summer reading lists based on grade-bands, rather than grade levels (i.e. K-2, 3-5, 6-8). We know that students in each grade level have a wide range of reading interests and abilities, and therefore we hope that the grade-band menus provide students with more access to books that both interest and are appropriate for them. Each grade-band pamphlet has lists of ‘recommended’ authors and titles from which to start the exploration. Please note that these are not the only books and authors that students can read over the summer; rather, they are jumping off points from which students can begin their exploration into the world of books. We want summer to be a time when students develop their love and joy for reading, and therefore we hope that students read whatever sparks their interest.

This year, instead of requiring students to fill out a Reading Log/Calendar each day, students will have numerous options to demonstrate their reading, including Reading ‘Star Charts', Reading 'BINGO' activity, and 'Redefining Reading’ Chart! Students should return their completed summer reading activity sheets along with any additional evidence of completed activities when they return to school in the Fall. More information about these activities is below on the S’more newsletter.

Additionally, you may be noticing your child coming home with textbooks, workbooks, and practice readers from our soon-to-be old reading program ‘Reading Street’ over these last few weeks of school. As we start to prepare our classrooms, libraries, and literacy closets for the arrival of our new Literacy/ELA curriculum ‘Amplify CKLA/ELA’, we need to clear out our older materials. The books and materials your child brings home are still very valuable and can be useful resources for summer learning! If you are interested in acquiring more materials from our ‘Reading Street’ program to use at home with your child, please reach out to your child’s teacher, school-based literacy coach, or myself.

Finally, while we will not be holding any Title I events this month, we do look forward to holding a handful of Title I events over the summer to promote summer reading and literacy development! More information about these events will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. We will have a table at the July and August ‘Summer Festivals’ hosted by the City of Malden on July 16th and August 13th. We will be handing out prizes and books to students who bring partially completed summer reading activity sheets!

In Partnership,

Victoria Mulkern, Director of Literacy and Title I

vmulkern@maldenps.org

(781)-664-0433

This month, we honor and celebrate the “Juneteenth” holiday across MPS and the City of Malden. June 19th, or 'Juneteenth', is a holiday that commemorates the day that Texas, the last Confederate state, learned about the Emancipation Proclamation—marking the end of slavery in the United States in 1865.

All schools across MPS will hold a 'Flag Raising Ceremony' during the week of June 13th-17th. Students will engage in developmentally-appropriate conversations and activities with their classes about the history behind and significance of the holiday.

There will also be a city-wide Juneteenth Celebration at Lincoln Commons park on Sunday, June 19th beginning at 11:00AM! Malden will celebrate with a flag raising ceremony, performances (including two performances by Malden High School students), kids activities, games, and free lunch! Everyone is welcome and we look forward to seeing you there!

For more information and resources about 'Juneteenth' and how to explain the holiday to children, please check out this article from PittWire linked HERE.

Each month, the Title I department will send out both a hardcopy and electronic version of a literacy calendar to all of our K-8 Malden families. These calendars have activities/games in which to engage each day of the month, encompassing all the domains of literacy, as well as numeracy. Feel free to engage in as many or as few of these activities as you would like. Send us photos/videos of your families engaging in the fun!

Calendar: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bh8cwq7b2wiVWkOVuGn1lW1cQmjKraLR/view?usp=sharing

We are always seeking to provide students with multiple means to demonstrate their learning. Therefore, this year, instead of requiring students to fill out a Reading Log/Calendar each day, students will have numerous options to demonstrate their reading, including 'Reading Star Charts', Reading 'BINGO', and a 'Redefining' Reading Chart!

Every student will be provided with a stapled packet of the potential activities they can complete from their school before they leave for the summer vacation. PDF versions of these different reading activity choices will be posted on the Malden Public Schools-Summer Reading webpage. Additionally, the Malden Public Library will have hard copies of each activity sheet in their Children's Room.

You can find more information about the recommended activities HERE and access the grade-band summer reading lists HERE.

This summer, MPS and its community-based partners are offering a variety of summer programming options. The programs range from academic acceleration and enrichment programs, enrichment programs, and academic programs required for promotion. Most programs have been sending out their invitation letters (by email, GoogleForm, or hard copy flier) over the past few weeks to caregivers of eligible students. Please note that some programs are free, while others are fee-based.

Please see THIS CHART for more detailed information about the different summer program offerings by MPS and its partners.

Thank you to all who were able to attend our Title I 'Summer Success' workshops over the past few weeks. We enjoyed detailing all of the summer resources that are available to set our MPS students up for 'summer success'!

For those who were not able to attend an event or would like to review the presentation again, you can access the Powerpoint here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hrxO-JmwFZdYinWwSGBjAJs3blHgzCCDbq1HxLEgEuI/edit#slide=id.p

Malden Public Schools

Title I Department

Email: vmulkern@maldenps.org
Website: https://maldenps.org/title-1/
Location: 110 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA, USA
Phone: 781-664-0433
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/School/Malden-Families-Title-I-141563825915572/