The history of Texas lined the hallways of Houston Elementary School Thursday as fourth graders portrayed influential figures from the 1400s to present day during the school’s “Living Statues” display.
The program allows the students to review the people they studied in Texas history, but they could also explore others who were not mentioned or represented as much in the textbooks, fourth grade teacher Hailey Gregory said.
“It’s been really fun for the kids to see the diversity that we have here and learn about that history,” Gregory said.
Linda Holm, who was visiting the school for the program, said she learned about people that she did not know had an impact on Texas history.
“They’re all doing a good job. I’m impressed,” she said. “Some of these names I’ve never heard of, and I thought I knew a lot about Texas history. Go figure. They’re learning a lot more than I did.”
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Gregory said she is glad the students will get to tell people the impact Francisco Hidalgo or Willie Nelson have had on Texas.
“We have Silvia Webber, who actually founded a town that is still there today, and she was a slave that helped with the Underground Railroad, but it’s not something you read about necessarily in your history books,” she said. “Or Cleto Rodriguez. ... Cleto Rodriguez and Audie Murphy, and they’re the most decorated soldiers from World War II, and we have one page in our history book. So these kids get to dive deeper into it and really know who these people are.”
Erin Kneese represented Webber, and said she was interested in portraying her because Webber moved to Texas when she was young and was an abolitionist and helped with the Underground Railroad.
“She was a slave when she was 12, so she had a lot of experience with bad things happening to her, and then she became a lot bigger,” she said. “That’s very good.”
The process to create the Living Statues began four weeks ago, Gregory said, with a “gallery walk” with different biographies around the room for students to pick who they wanted to portray.
“There was something about the figure that they chose that tugged on their heart,” she said. “They really dove deep into it. They did research on it. They wrote their own biographies on each character, and then the speeches that you’re hearing today are their own words about the characters. So they wrote their speeches and came up with their costume based upon their research.”
It takes research a step further, she said, by asking the students to become the figures they are representing.
“They have to figure out how would they have talked, what words would they have used,” she said.
Daniel Mahoney, who portrayed James “Jim” Bowie, said he chose Bowie because he seemed like a “cool guy.”
He said he learned a lot about Bowie through the project, including that while he was a “pretty good guy,” he was not without his flaws.
Mahoney said he enjoyed being someone else, and he will try to show good leadership like he learned Bowie displayed at the Battle of the Alamo.
“Everything I researched, I put it into me like that was me who did all that stuff, and I just showed it out to the people who press my button,” he said.
Each living statue had a paper “button” that people could step on to “activate” their speeches.
Gregory said she had a third grade teacher in school who taught them about character through a similar type of project. She still remembers her teacher’s name and that her character was Princess Diana.
“It really influenced me,” she said. “Hopefully, they dove deep into this and something’s going to stick with them as they go on the rest of their life.”
She said she hopes by asking the students to bring these figures to life, that they remember more about what they learned. Seeing the students take ownership of the project by doing their research, writing and memorizing their speeches and making their costumes and scenes is “the epitome of pride,” Gregory said.
“This is all their hard work,” she said. “They made it happen. This is pride. This is teaching responsibility. They had research that they had to keep up with this entire time. I didn’t go into their closet and pick out their costumes.”