FSMS hosts wax museum

A who's who of American history visited Fort Scott Middle School Friday.

John F. Kennedy, Anne Frank, Annie Oakley, Jim Thorpe, Harry Houdini and many other famed and noted figures from American history were in the library at Fort Scott Middle School Friday as Joyce Cowen's and Patricia Giltner's seventh grade language arts classes hosted a wax museum.

Each participating FSMS seventh-grade student transformed into and took on the personality of a noted person of their choosing.

"They get to become that person," Cowen said.

While many of the students became historic figures such as past presidents, famous athletes and political activists, other youngsters took a more current approach, learning about recent or current musical artists and athletes. According to Cowen, some students were nervous when choosing their topic because they wanted to learn more about some of the more controversial people in history such as Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and Malcolm X.

"We have a wide range of personalities, just a little bit of everything," Cowen said. "We have the good guys and the bad guys of history ... We need to know our whole history; we can't just pick and choose."

Giltner said students were pleased that they were encouraged to pick a figure, rather than being assigned one. She added the kids who enjoy music chose musicians, those who like writing chose authors.

"It allowed for that individuality, but I see more ownership in their research," Giltner said. "Over the years, what I have realized is if (the students) actually get to make some decisions in what they're doing, if they're motivated to learn about something, then they have a lot more success in accomplishing the task."

The wax museum project had been cut about four years ago due to scheduling constraints, Cowen said. But with a schedule change this year allowing for two one-hour blocks for language arts in the seventh and eighth grades, the popular venture was brought back this year.

The project began with the students reading a biography from the school's library. After that, kids dug deeper into that person's life and career through additional research online and composed a research paper. Once the paper was done, youngsters summarized the person's life and career into a 30-90-second speech that they delivered on Friday.

The goal of the project was to combine reading, writing and speaking skills into one project, she said. Additionally the students got practice reading fluency and reciting passages with facial expressions and not rushing through the material, Cowen said.

Giltner said the project also helps transform the school curriculum from state standards to "common core" curriculum, which will be implemented by 2014 and addresses speaking and presentation skills.

"We felt like this was a perfect time to bring it back and to start actually blending both of those state documents as far as what our school should be teaching," Giltner said.

One of the benefits teachers have seen in the students is that none of them have shied away from getting in front of a crowd.

"Our students that are shy have less self confidence. Sometimes, they find it easier to speak in front of a group when they are a character," Cowen said. "Every student has felt comfortable enough to (speak in front of an audience), and that says a lot."

Giltner said students got excited about doing research since they have included the use of a website called NoteStar.org as a way to organize research notes online in a way that they can be accessed both at home and at school.

"(The students) love technology and that is so much a part of their world. This is less intimidating ... and they are a lot more positive about research," Giltner said.

With the wax museum project being the first major project of the year, Cowen said it serves as a foundation for the students as they move on through out the year and study more fiction. The experience of investigating a person will carry over as they learn how to understand characters more in future reading.