Character from the past Sixth-grade student Derek Disinger chose to portray Will Rogers at this year’s Delphi Community Middle School “Wax Museum.” Disinger said Rogers starred in 71 movies and was interesting to him because of the movies and the way he dressed. Disinger said he developed his costume with his father, aunt and uncle. Comet photo Delphi Community Middle School’s annual Wax Museum celebrated four years of successful performances recently at the Wabash and Erie Canal Interpretive Center. The event concept has morphed over the years from a simple classroom exercise into a cherished community get-together.

Sixth-grade literature teacher Wendi Thompson initiated the program in 2006 with the help of the communications teacher at the time. Communications students researched American historical figures and each wrote a research paper based on one figure that interested them.

Students then carried their research to Thompson’s class where they wrote first-person speeches based on their research.

“We began working on both reading and writing skills,” Thompson said. “When the speeches were written, students performed them in front of their fellow students in the classroom.”

Thompson said the second year the audience was expanded to include other grades and the venue changed to the school cafeteria. Students also added costumes to their performance. Students were performing at the Interpretive Center by the third year and this year the group was separated into two separate sessions.

“This is a valuable exercise because it is a high-interest, cross-curricular project that covers more than one state academic standard,” Thompson said. “It also encourages the students to engage their parents in their education.”

The state’s academic standards include: • Reading - word recognition, fluency and vocabulary building, comprehension, literary response and analysis; • Writing – process, applications, English language conventions; and • Listening and speaking – skills, strategies and applications.

Students work with parents and other family members to develop costumes to make characters well-rounded. Thompson said students have reported that they learned things about family members as they worked with them to bring their characters to life.

Thompson emphasized that she would not have been able to bring the project to fruition without the help of the sixthgrade team teachers and communications teacher Jennifer Landis for the past three years. Landis explained that she presents a list of roughly 60 famous Americans to begin the process. She said she involves the library to provide biography books about proposed characters. She also encourages students to do Internet research about those individuals they are interested in portraying.

“Encyclopedias are good for research as is the Internet,” Landis said. “Some of the library books are too difficult for the sixth-grade level, so it’s good that we have more than one resource.”

Both Landis and Thompson recognized the value of teaching the program when they became aware of the concept. Landis began working with students Jan. 18 and Thompson Feb. 8. Both teachers reported that students focused on the project during that time to write, learn and recite speeches. It was also noted that there were school closings and delays during the time which put additional pressure on the students to be ready for Thursday night’s performance.

Students stand idle during the performance, much like a wax statue in a museum, until a passerby pushes the “button” at their station. At that point the student becomes animated as would a wax museum statute when beginning to explain the character. When the student has finished the speech, he/she reverts to the still pose until their “button” is pushed again. The culmination of students’ efforts is the performance as the character they created.

History was well represented from Thomas Edison to Elvis Presley. Other interesting figures from the past portrayed were Harriet Tubman, P.T. Barnum, Harry Houdini, Billie Holliday, Ruth Handler, the inventor of the Barbie doll to a more modern figure, Michael Jackson.

Students did their part to bring history to life for one night in Carroll County.