Schools

Historic French Icons Come to Life at Bayport-Blue Point Wax Museum

Thursday event teaches more than just French and history.

Imagine meeting French historical icons such as fashion setter CoCo Chanel, singer Edith Piaf or Gustave Eiffel, the engineer of the Statue of Libery and Eiffel Tower, and hearing them relate the story behind their greatness.

That’s exactly what parents and students at James Wilson Young Middle School in Bayport will have the opportunity to do Thursday evening when the fourth annual “Wax Meets Night at the Museum” is held from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The unique classroom event involves 45 eighth grade students who have spent weeks researching a specific historic French character and then ‘becomes’ the character for the event. The classroom lesson allows students to learn about French culture and history and also hone public speaking skills, says French teacher Gilles Desrochers.

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“Students do become their characters, stand at their respective stations and have created their own version of 'activation buttons' where the spectators will bring them to life to recite their monologues,” he explained to Patch in an email. “The project is not only cultural but to provide students with the opportunity to work through public speaking challenges.”

Students are provided a list of characters to chose from and then do preliminary research on personal areas of interest to find the character they’d like to depict at the event.

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Then there is a two week research project spearheaded by the school media specialist, Kelly Noeldechen, who provides students with strategies to do their research, how to document their sources and create a final Internet project consisting of music, information on the character and a timeline.

“This year we used MovieMaker as our primary software. The consistent theme throughout the project is that students delve into their character in a way that really brings out the personal and human side to them,” explained Desrochers.

“For example we know that Coco Chanel revolutionized fashion, that Edith Piaf was one of France's greatest singers and that Gustave Eiffel was the engineer behind the Eiffel tower and the Statue of Liberty but what are some interesting facts about their lives that might have shaped who they became. That’s what the students learn about.”

The curriculum lesson is about how to differentiate between what is "tabloid" fodder and what is factual, he added.

“Students have to learn how to sift through the information, evaluate their sources and decide on what separates fact from fiction,” said Desrochers.

“This is purely a class-motivated activity to provide an alternative method of learning through character research and presentation. I find public speaking an essential tool as students move forward in their educational careers and beyond that this helps to begin that process.”


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