Schools

The Big Read Takes Over Lakewood High School

Community reading assignment culminates with activities around town — and quite a few at the high school.

Friday at belonged to .

The summer reading assignment of Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” — a story about a 15-year-old with autism — culminated with learning activities at the high school.

The idea was to integrate the stories contained in the book into the classrooms.

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All the students at the school — many of them dressed in Hawaiian attire — got involved in one way or another from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Friday.

There were chess matches (the main character’s favorite game); science experiments; and art projects — among dozens of other activities.

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High school principal William Wagner stood in the hallway and directed students to their special curricula.

“Anytime you can have an entire school — much less an entire community — centered on reading, it’s a cool thing,” he said. “The kids are excited. We’ve tied the book into every content area imaginable and we’ve got a variety of activities tied in that bind the curriculum to the different parts of the book.”

This summer, school and city officials – along with the community at-large – were asked to .

The idea behind the initiative was to celebrate summer reading and “enter into someone else’s mind through storytelling.”

The high school wasn't the only Lakewood institution to get involved.

  • The showed the award-winning HBO film Temple Grandin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The biopic, on one of autism’s most famous spokespeople, will set the stage for the book discussion the following evening.
  • On Friday, the library hosted a book discussion about “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.”
  • Also on Friday, the library hosted Dr. Roberta Bauer of the Cleveland Clinic. Bauer — who has been recognized as the “Best Pediatrician in America” among many other honors — will discuss child growth and development, developmental disabilities, and alternative therapies in treating autism.


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