CHAMPION SCHOOLS Project based on classic literature

The assignment was a proposal for a film musical on one of the works.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CHAMPION -- Modern technology and contemporary music meld with classical literature for high school students in advanced placement English.
Students in Jerry Stevens' class selected songs and created a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate books they've read.
Juniors Kasey Karr and Megan Cesta, both 16, part of a team whose presentation was on Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451," agree the project was a lot of work, but they weren't complaining.
"It was a pretty creative project," Megan said.
"You could pretty much do it however you wanted," Kasey added.
Their book deals with censorship in a future American city where books are forbidden and residents watch television on oversized sets.
Summer reading
All of the students in both classes read six books over the summer and then drew numbers to determine upon which book their projects would focus.
The other works were "Killer Angels" by Michael Schaara, "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, "The Miracle Worker" by William Gibson, "The Crucible," by Arthur Miller, and Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird."
Students' assignment was to act as producers of a film musical on the work. Stevens gave them a compact disc for each work containing songs that could be used. They had to select five that they deemed most fitting and explain how each of those songs fit with the book.
Megan and Kasey and their teammates chose Michael Jackson's 1980s hit "Beat It" to be performed by the book's chief antagonist and book burner. One of the pro-book characters featured in the work performed the Beatles "Revolution" at the end of the book to signal the change he believed was afoot.
Wrote pitch letters
Students also wrote a letter to the CEO of the fictional production company Gallstone Films, explaining the film project and suggesting actors to portray the characters.
The PowerPoint presentations were done as what would be shown to prospective actors. Students were limited to 15 slides containing photographs or drawings of the characters. Each song played while a slide of the character singing it displayed.
Megan went through Microsoft ClipArt to find pictures appropriate for each character. She colored those pictures for the presentation using Adobe Photoshop.
Stevens has submitted a proposal to Ohio School Net to present the project concept at a technology conference in Columbus next year as an example of using technology to address different student learning styles.
denise_dick@vindy.com