Lorenzo Walker Technical High School is a Title I public school, where our students become dually enrolled in a technical program at Lorenzo Walker Technical College in their junior and senior years of high school.  Besides the academic reasons, students choose to attend LWTHS because they have heard and experienced that this is a school where they will all be included and that feels very much like family.  However, even in our tight-knit community, students tend to form cliques and it can become difficult for students to reach out beyond their own group.  With such a wide range of technical programs from which to choose, it is easy to form stereotypes based on perceived differences.   

The Whole School Read program at Lorenzo Walker Technical High School focuses on relationship and community-building, as well as Social Emotional Learning, through reading and discussing a common book campus-wide.  Our chosen book is Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer, whose main characters come from very different backgrounds but overcome their stereotypes of each other to become friends, dealing with grief and emotional turmoil together.  We knew that the themes of overcoming stereotypes and dealing with grief were themes that anyone can relate to and would bring our small school community even closer together.  

Students have done a letter-writing project across grade levels to kick off the Whole School Read are now reading Letters to the Lost.  Not only are students’ literacy skills being enhanced through high-interest fiction and discussions, but students are talking about difficult life experiences like loss, depression, and dealing with grief.  They are making new friends and connections and many have remarked on the impact this experience has had on their perception of others and their feeling of connection at the school. 

Finally, the year ended with our virtual author visit.  Prior to the virtual author visit, Language Arts teachers gathered student questions and send them to Vanessa Alvarez, the media specialist.  Ms. Alvarez sorted through and picked ten questions to ask the author.  All students were invited to the virtual visit, and students who had their questions picked were notified about this as well.  During the virtual visit, Vanessa Alvarez and Lianne Elliott, Reading Coach, hosted the meeting.  They introduced Brigid Kemmerer who chatted with staff and students about our new virtual learning environment.  We then asked her the student questions, naming the students as we went so as to recognize them.  Brigid was gracious in answering all of our questions.  The meeting was also recorded to be shared with anyone who could not make the meeting.