Bruce Ingram's 9th grade English honors class at LBHS rocked the 60s Decade!

Bruce Ingram must love his job as the Lord Botetourt 9th grade Honors English class was highly entertaining on Oct. 12.  They produced power points of research and writing including a reference page of sited works,  on the Decade of the 1960′s.  The students  also filmed four videos on an alternate ending for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic eco horror movie, “The Birds.”

Eden Stewart produced a power point on “The Beatles.” The students and even some of their parents, were not born when the Fab Five sang their way into history. Emily Barranco  had a presentation on the mini skirt as a fashion revolution  including uber fashion model of the ’60s, Twiggy. Rachel Ward produced a power point on another music sensation of soul, James Brown. “I Feel Good,” was a song most of the students were familiar with.  Abe Barkett gave a power point on the first modern sports celebrity, Joe Namath. “The Jets quarterback was mediocre as a player,” said Barkett, “with two interceptions per game.” But in magazines, television, the news and movies, “Broadway Joe” was a football star celebrity.

The students had watched Hitchcock’s eco horror classic, “The Birds” and came up with four different endings for the movie. Said Micah Orange, ” Most of us didn’t like the ending.  We interpreted for ourselves how the movie should have ended. The army had surrounded the bay in our ending.”

The 90 second video that she and four of her classmates produced as well as the other three were very creative.

Jon Frank was  familiar with the classic movie. “I saw it for the first time when I was seven or eight. Each time I have watched it I see something new.”   Hitchcock-like, he was behind the camera in his group’s ending rendition. ” I was trying to make people laugh.  We wanted to make  our ending enjoyable.”

Both also produced a power point  from the 60′s. Orange had a long assignment with the volatile year, “1968″ and Frank featured “Martin Luther King, Jr” as his topic. Learning and  improving vocabulary, fact based research, history, and using technology are just many of the cross curriculum facets used by the enthusiastic English 9 class at Lord Botetourt High School!

Micah Orange and Jon Frank detailed the making of "The Birds" alternate ending videos