Title Night to Highlight Literacy, Resources
Title Night to Highlight Literacy, Resources
Title Night is scheduled for Thursday, March 30, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Milbank Elementary School gym.
Families of Milbank and St. Lawrence elementary school students are invited and encouraged to attend the event. A casual pizza supper will be served.
“We’ll have activities that will be family-friendly. You’ll be able to go from activity to the next activity and participate in games. Really, the purpose of the whole night is to engage families,” said Marie Ivers, special services director for the Milbank School District.
Nicole Stengel, English Language Learning teacher with the school district, is leading the organization of Title Night. Stengel and Ivers partnered with the South Dakota Statewide Family Engagement Center (SFEC) to plan programs, activities, games and advertising for the event. SFEC is a partner organization with the Back Hills Special Services Cooperative, the South Dakota Department of Education and South Dakota Parent Connection.
Activities are planned that will cover Title I math, Title I reading, English language and migrant issues. Twenty-five volunteers from Milbank Elementary School and St. Lawerence School will run the activities.
“It’s a lot of literacy activities: vowel games, putting words together and a cakewalk based around books – it’s the book walk, so it’s like a cakewalk, but instead of winning cupcakes, you win books that you get to take home,” said Stengel.
“We are a Results-Driven Accountability school, so we have to have intense focus on reading and literacy activities, so this ties in with our requirements there,” Ivers explained.
Ivers, the school district’s Title program director, will have a booth at Title Night to provide information to families about how the school provides services through the Title programs, including programs encompassing English Language Learners, migrants, homeless children and youth, foster care and early childhood. “I can answer questions that parents might have,” Ivers offered.
Title Night is one active step to bridge the gap between language barriers that were uncovered during the school district’s recent family walk-through. Organizers are eager to engage families.
RSVPs were requested by Monday, March 27, but no one will be turned away.
–Emelia Enquist
