Millstone seventh-graders celebrate luminaries from days gone by at ‘Oscars’.
By: Lauren Burgoon
MILLSTONE It may just have been the largest star-studded extravaganza Millstone has ever seen. Dozens of legends and Hollywood superstars descended on the town Friday to prance down the red carpet. Princess Diana and Kurt Cobain were here. So were Gracie Allen, George Burns, Harry Houdini, John Wayne, Judy Garland and Janis Joplin.
Well, maybe not the actual headliners. But their life stories, and in many cases their likenesses, were out in full force for Audrey Ferraro’s seventh-grade language arts class. The glamour event was the first Millstone Oscars, a chance to dress up, try a new style of writing and learn about historical figures at the same time.
The Millstone Oscars was the latest project in Ms. Ferraro’s class that combines learning with an offbeat activity. This time around students created historical journals after researching VIPs of their choice. The students identified personal experiences that made the stars known worldwide and shaped their lives. The experiences were broken up into mock journal entries based on the facts.
The seventh-graders looked into everything from Gilda Radner’s departure from "Saturday Night Live" and marriage to Gene Wilder to a fortune teller’s prediction during Natalie Wood’s childhood that the starlet would drown and even why Dave Thomas named his burger chain after his daughter. There were no limits on who the students could research, so the Oscars crowd was a varied bunch. Pop singer Aaliyah hob-knobbed with actors Natalie Schafer, Alan Hale Jr. and Jim Backus of "Gilligan’s Island" fame. Faye Wray and Anne Frank chatted with Joan Crawford and Bette Davis while George Burns gnawed on his customary (fake) cigar.
On Friday, those stars and more took a stroll down the red carpet before reading excerpts from the journals for their classmates, host "Joan Rivers" and a slew of award ceremony guests, including Principal Daniel Bland, who showed up wearing an old Hollywood standby for stars hoping to deflect attention a pair of black shades.
"When we started out looking at historic journals it was with Revolutionary War figures. But we figured stars’ lives might be a little more interesting to look into for this project," Ms. Ferraro said.
The celebrity subjects were easier to relate to than other historical figures, several students agreed. When Ryan Abernathy, 13, began researching Albert Einstein’s life, he admits all he knew about the father of the relativity equation was that Einstein was "smart." But after hours spent delving into Einstein’s past, Ryan dug up stories of a poor upbringing, cramped quarters with relatives and the life story of an immigrant that achieved amazing success.
"I had fun doing the research. It’s an activity that makes you think," said Ryan, who dressed up in rumpled clothes and colored his hair gray for the Oscars.
Matt Carney, 12, researched John Wayne’s life. At first he couldn’t pick a historical figure, but after Ms. Ferraro suggested the cowboy actor, Matt found Mr. Wayne a very interesting pick, he said.
Friday was billed as the first annual Millstone Oscars and Ms. Ferraro said she hopes to make the event a yearly project for her students.