BMS students portray historic figures, celebrities at 'House of Wax'

Daniel Foose, 11, portrayed Elvis Presley during Bueker Middle School's House of Wax event Friday, Dec. 11. (Geoff Rands/Democrat-News

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Sports and music stars were the most common choices made by students, who researched the life of their subjects, wrote a short account of that person's life, dressed up in clothing reminiscent of what that person would have worn and stood very still in the hallways of BMS awaiting a tap on the shoulder. When tapped, students would recite some facts about their subjects' lives.

Several students chose a figure outside their gender or race, such a young girl who portrayed comedian Chris Rock and Jayde Meyer, 11, who portrayed singer Ella Fitzgerald.

Students had a variety of reasons for their choices. Several chose their subjects based on similar personal interests, such as singing, sports, and even photography, as in the case of 12-year-old Addison Brightwell, who dressed as photographer Margaret Bourke-White.

Others selected their figure based on that person's achievements that they saw as laudable, as with Quizonte Falls, who impersonated writer Langston Hughes.

Still others chose based, at least partially, on looks -- 12-year-old Alexis Sisic said she chose Betsy Ross because "she looks really good," and Daniel Foose, 11, chose Elvis Presley because, he said, people have commented on physical similarities between him and Presley.

This year's House of Wax is the first large project for which students used the 6+1 Writing Traits program, a new program to the district, said BMS Principal Lance Tobin.

The six traits focused on are ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions, and the +1 is presentation, said Tobin. In this assignment, students focused on the voice and presentation traits, he added.

"Getting 11- and 12-year-old kids comfortable enough to stand up in front of people and speak, that's a life skill within itself," he said.

Tobin said he is excited about the new program because it allows the district to have a uniform writing program that students continue to be taught from up through eighth grade at this time, and may someday be expanded through 12th grade. For years, administrators have been searching for a uniform program, he added.

This uniform program is important for several reasons, he said, including "common teacher training (and) the transition of kids from one grade level to another, being exposed to the same program (using) the same language ... so they're not introduced to a new writing concept every year when they transition."