THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 21, 1994 TAG: 9407190167
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
SOME OF THE city's brightest public school students have spent their summer vacations building cities, learning video production and discovering the language that launched Western civilization.
This summer enrichment program is not exactly a day at the beach. But don't think they aren't having fun.
Most of these 400 kids, who will enter sixth and seventh grade this fall, actually want to attend.
``I've learned Latin, how to make slides on a computer and play chess better,'' said Henry Sanders, who will enter Blair Middle. ``I didn't have much else to do. Instead of slacking off, it's getting me ready.''
The four-week program, called Junior University, gets students like Sanders ready for much more than the transition from elementary to middle school. It also helps guide their first steps toward a higher education.
``The whole thrust is that we want to give these kids a head start in the college admissions process,'' said Pamela C. Kloeppel, senior guidance coordinator with Norfolk Public Schools. ``They are very talented kids. We provide this opportunity to encourage them to take higher level courses and to let them understand the importance of doing well.''
In its debut last summer in Norfolk, Junior University was held on the Old Dominion University campus. But with the opening last fall of high-tech Ruffner Middle, officials said they had the needed facilities to hold the program inhouse.
``With the technology at Ruffner, we don't have to go outside Norfolk Public Schools any more,'' said program coordinator Joyce Beamon, head guidance counselor at Rosemont Middle School.
It is designed for the school system's top achievers - incoming sixth- or seventh-graders who scored in the top 5 percent on any part of the IOWA test of basic skills or some similar standardized test. Fourth-grade students nationwide take the IOWA test.
Currently, Norfolk's program can accommodate only about half the number eligible, Kloeppel said, but plans are being made to expand it.
School officials hope to generate more students capable of earning scholarships and gaining entree into prestigious academic programs. Last year, for instance, Norfolk produced only one National Merit Scholar, a ``dismal'' showing considering the pool of students, Kloeppel said.
Technology forms a central component of the program. Teachers rarely lecture, instead using computers, video cameras and classroom discussion to stimulate active, ``hands-on'' learning. Students are challenged to think critically and to tackle problems with innovative solutions.
Besides academics, the program offers ``enrichment'' classes in such subjects as art, chess, creative writing, career exploration and foreign languages. Counselors hold sessions on ``anger management,'' substance abuse and conflict mediation.
This summer, all of the students are studying video-production, working in teams to create public-service announcements for fellow students. They produced an idea, wrote a script, created a ``story board'' of the scenes and filmed it. The best will air on the Channel 47 public schools access channel.
Many of the amateur video-makers chose anti-violence messages, a top concern of the students, said teacher Betsy Davis, a library media specialist who is moving from Tanners Creek Elementary to Lafayette-Winona Middle this fall.
On a recent morning, one girl portraying a shooting victim sprawled on the floor in a third-floor hallway at Ruffner. Teammates taped a ``body-outline'' around her like police investigators do at crime scenes. They created a poster with a 1960s-era peace symbol and a gravestone marked ``RIP'' drawn on it. The poster read: ``Peace! Live in it or Rest in it.''
``By doing the video we can help people stop killing each other,'' said Trina Payne, a rising seventh-grader.
Students also become computer literate, learning, among other things, how to make an animated slide show on Macintosh software.
One assignment required them to construct a futuristic city. They had to stay within a certain budget and build infrastructure like roads and utilities and residential and commercial developments - all while keeping property taxes low enough to stem citizen revolt.
``They had to be careful not to raise taxes too high, because if they did it made a `booing' sound,'' said Mozella B. Morgan, a computer technology teacher at Ruffner.
In Latin classes, besides learning how to wrap a toga, students are taught how the ancient Roman language and culture have influenced the modern world. The word Nauticus, for example, evolved from the Latin word ``nauta,'' meaning sailor, said Latin teacher Vickie Gracy.
As teacher Kevin Simms discusses concepts in math and logic, he could pass as a stand-up comedian.
``This is a bet-a-dollar question for your parents,'' Simms tells a classroom of enthusiastic kids.
``How far can a man run into the woods?'' he asks. Nobody knows. ``He can run half way in,'' Simms answers. ``When he gets to the middle, he's running out of the woods.''
The joke approach is his attempt to show students that math is fun, not something to be feared. Even the brightest kids need such encouragement, he said.
``We lose a lot of kids in middle school,'' Simms said. ``I've seen gifted kids not do the work. They'll get bored, tired of it and shut down.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
Instructor Mozella B. Morgan helps Junior University students Blair
Cahoon, left, and Sharmane Branch, during a computer class at
Ruffner Middle School. The program is for the school system's top
achievers.
LEARN MORE
An open house for parents will be held at Ruffner Middle School
on Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to noon.
by CNB