ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
ROANOKE COUNTY'S summer program for gifted students is voluntary, and allows students to explore areas of interest, such as legal education in children's literature.
The story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" will never be the same for Allison Overstreet. No longer will it be just children's literature.
For Allison and nearly a dozen elementary school children, the tale has become a rich source of legal issues - the basis for a mock trial about civil liability.
The children converted the story into a court case: The three bears sued Goldilocks for nearly $10,000 in damages to their property. Goldilocks was transformed into a cleaning lady in the children's version of the story.
The children wrote the script and played the parts of the judge, attorneys and witnesses in the case.
Allison, a fifth-grader at Back Creek Elementary in Roanoke County, played the role of a fingerprint specialist who helped collect evidence.
"I found her prints to prove she was there," Allison said. "We had a real fingerprint specialist to speak to the class and showed us how it's done."
Brandon Perigen, a fifth-grader at Glen Cove Elementary, was Goldilocks and Josh Smelser, a sixth-grader at Northside Middle School, was the defense attorney.
"We wrote a script for the whole case. Our defense was that it was an accident," said Smelser. "She went into the wrong house and she accidentally caused the damage."
The elementary children studied legal issues in children's literature as part of a summer program for gifted and talented students in the county.
Another class converted "The Three Little Pigs" into a murder case and put the wolf on trial. They, too, wrote a script for the case.
Josh Haroutunian, a sixth-grader at Glenvar Middle School, played the prosecutor. Haroutunian said he's always been interested in the law and would like to become a lawyer.
The Roanoke County enrichment classes were designed to provide academic and artistic activities for bright students in a summer program that is freer and less structured than the regular school year.
Nearly 300 children in grades three through nine in the county enrolled in a variety of courses such as computers, freshwater biology, mathematics, science, legal issues, creative writing, debate and drama. The county also offered art and music courses.
"The primary purpose of these classes is for exploration - the students can take something they are interested in and study it in more detail," said Cheryl Turner, supervisor for the gifted and talented in county schools.
"The students get to interact with other students who have similar interests," she said.
The classes included field trips. The students in the class on legal issues and children's literature visited the county jail and met with Judge Philip Trompeter of the Roanoke County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
The biology class took an overnight camping trip on a river in Botetourt County, and the drama students took a trip to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Roanoke offered a similar program for academically talented elementary and middle school students, with almost 200 enrolled. The city's courses included computers and the Internet, science, mathematics, art, creative writing, geometry, zoology and other subjects.
The city's summer classes for bright children also included field trips and special activities that enabled them to learn more about their subjects. A zoology class took a trip to Carolina Beach in North Carolina to study sea life.
"This summer program gives the children a chance to have control, which they never have in regular school," said Louise Clarke, coordinator for the gifted and talented in Roanoke.
"They can choose whatever they want to study during the summer. If they like something, they'll stick with it and learn more," she said.
Charles Starkey, coordinator of Roanoke's summer program for middle school students, said the class offerings were designed around the students' choices and requests.
"We rarely have absences," Starkey said. "The kids are very focused."
Some students take courses every summer.
Andrew Pilachowski, an eighth-grader at James Madison Middle School who took a course in the Internet this summer, took a class in archaeology last year.
"It's wonderful working with children who want to be in school," said Sandra Saner, who taught a class on legal issues and children's literature in the county.
Beth Duff, another elementary teacher in the county's summer program, said the classes can help the children grow intellectually because all of them are highly motivated.
"I see students who are normally tops in their classes - and the first to answer questions - become challenged in these summer classes," said Duff, a fifth-grade teacher at Green Valley Elementary.
The classes for the gifted were voluntary, but students in advanced English courses in county schools were required to do summer reading this year for the first time.
All advanced students must read two books from lists that were prepared by their teachers.
"We've always had suggested readings during the summer for students in advanced courses, but it wasn't mandatory," said Lorraine Lange, supervisor of language arts for county schools.
"We feel children need to do more reading in the summer and be prepared for their classes when school starts."
Most students reacted positively to the new requirement, but there were a few complaints, Lange said.
Roanoke schools have had required summer reading for students in some high school programs for several years, said Rita Bishop, assistant superintendent for instruction. These include students in the CITY School Center for Humanities at Patrick Henry and the International Baccalaureate at William Fleming.
Martha Moseley, who teaches an advanced course in 12th grade English at Northside High in the county, said her reading list includes Jane Austen's novel, "Pride and Prejudice" ; T.S. Eliot's drama, "Murder in the Cathedral"; and Samuel Becket's play, "Waiting for Godot."
"Our advanced students aren't doing enough reading," Moseley said. "We're challenging our students to be better and more creative."
School libraries have been opened a few hours each week this summer so students can check out books for the required reading.
Lynn Payne, an eighth grade teacher at Hidden Valley Junior High, said the reading requirement will help prevent students from becoming couch potatoes during the summer.
"The only fear I have is that some students will wait until the last few days of the summer to do their reading," Payne said. "It's too much to do in a week."
LENGTH: Long : 127 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN Staff. Stephen Ra, 10, uses a comic bookby CNBcharacter as part of the home page he is building for his computer
class in a special summer program at the Governor's School at
Patrick Henry High School. Please see related story on C4. color.