Francis Walsh Intermediate School

BRANFORD PUBLIC SCHOOLS
1111 Main Street, Branford, CT  06405-3717
203.488.7276  •  Fax 203. 315.3505 
www.branfordschools.org

Dear Walsh Families,

Your children have grown so much during this school year and they’ve worked hard to continuously improve their reading skills and strategies. Summer is a great opportunity for students to continue building their love of reading! It’s also an important time for them to practice all that they’ve been taught over the course of the year. To ensure that summer reading helps maintain students’ reading skills and strategies while fostering their love of reading, Branford Public Schools has decided not to set a specific reading list for middle school students. We want students to read what interests and engages them!

Research tells us that goal setting has a positive impact on students’ reading development. To motivate students to build on their reading experiences during the school year and to continue reading over the summer, we encourage your children to set a personal reading goal before summer vacation. To do this, your children might think about different genres, authors, topics, or titles they want to read, the number of books they will read, the amount of time they will spend reading, and the books they have access to.  These are just some ideas to guide the goal setting process.  Students’ personal reading goals should be meaningful to them and consider who they are as readers.

We are also kicking off our 2nd Walsh Summer Reading Challenge! Students are encouraged to engage in a variety of reading experiences to meet their reading goal - and document them in a slideshow!  ALL students who meet their reading goal - whether they read 2 books, 5 books, or more - will be entered into a prize drawing, but the more students read, the more chances they will have to win! Details about the Walsh Summer Reading Challenge can be found here.

Summer reading celebrations in the form of book chats will take place in the fall in our English Language Arts classrooms. Students will share any one of their favorite summer reading books and their summer reading experiences to kick off the development of our class community of readers! Your child’s teacher will talk more about this celebration in September.

We know that families often find it helpful when a list of recommended books is provided, so we are including links to various resources: 

Blackstone Library Teen’s Book Lists Blackstone Library’s Children’s Book Lists

The Blackstone Library is hosting a variety of summer reading activities for students and families of all ages! For more information about the Blackstone Summer activities click here.

Connecticut Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge Book Lists

Suggested book lists are organized grade level (as well as information about how to participate if interested).  

Again, please note that these are not required book lists; they are intended only as a resource.

During the summer, students will have access to several online resources.  They can access e-books through the Blackstone Library’s SimplyE, an e-reader app that allows you to read e-books and audiobooks from various library resources all in one place.  Students can also access the WIS Library Learning Commons website for other online reading resources and information about the WIS Summer Reading Challenge.  In addition, students will also have access to MyON Reading, one of the online programs we use during the academic year, and EPIC, which is available if a parent/guardian creates a free account.

If you have any questions, please contact your child’s English Language Arts teacher.  

Happy Reading and have a wonderful summer!