Students bring historical people to life

Loretta George/Tribune photos Tyson Bolden, portraying Muhammad Ali, gets a handshake from student Gage Lamb, who came to see the Wax Museum at Fort Scott Middle School Tuesday. The Wax Museum is an annual reading and language arts project for seventh graders.

Teachers look for ways to make the subjects they teach relevant and interesting for their students, and still teach the common core subjects.

Patty Giltner and Joyce Cowan, Fort Scott Middle School reading and language arts teachers, seemed to have hit the nail on the head with a project called the Wax Museum.

"Kids love it," Cowan said. "After every class, I've been debriefing, asking 'What did you think?' and they'd say 'It was great. Can we do it tomorrow?'"

The Wax Museum is a four-week research project for seventh graders that uses their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Starting at the beginning of the school year, students select a person from history to study. For two weeks, they take notes, then begin a full-fledged research project.

"They must do a bibliography, citing their sources, use the Internet as well as hard copy," Cowan said. "Seventh grade is the first time (they) get into a format, MLA (Modern Language Association)."

MLA style is commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities.

"We have an online research tool, Notestar for Teachers," Cowan said. "This helps the students do research but in a more academic format. It's a good introduction into a formal research project."

The students write their paper in third person about their character.

"Then we start working toward the Wax Museum," she said. "We start talking about first person perspective. It's done like a Who Am I riddle."

The project increases students' fluency, gives them public speaking practice and builds confidence. Public speaking practice, to a targeted audience, is a core standard for this age group, she said.

The students provide background knowledge by making costumes that depict their research project.

On Tuesday, the public and other students visiting the "Wax Museum" were given lists of historical figures being portrayed. Spectators moved around to the different actors and tried to guess which historical person was being depicted and marked their answers on a ballot, then checked their answers from the key provided.

The student researchers stood at different spots in the library with spectators listening to their description of the historical character they were portraying.

The project takes much hard work, Cowan said.

"But it's worth all the effort, it really is," she said.

Giltner started the Wax Museum about 15 years ago at the middle school.

"She and the librarian worked to start it," Cowan said. "I've been helping her for the last seven years."