Li Po. Lao Tzu. Oh, and don’t forget T’ao Ch’ein.

Unsure of what these refer to? They are featured poets in Mrs. Stacy Peretti’s Chinese Literature Unit, which the seniors enrolled in her Honors English  4 course just finished studying.

The poems each feature different Chinese Schools of Thought, ranging from Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddism.  Students learned not only about the content of the poems, but also about the influences from the culture that produced them.

Students just finished presenting final projects to demonstrate their understanding of the unit.

“The curriculum involves a number of poems,” Peretti explained. “Students were often showing that they needed motivation, and I thought about how I could make the unit fun.”

Through the years, the project has evolved from simple powerpoint presentations to creating talk shows, making origami, baking sweet treats, and even making videos.  With more access to technology, some of the projects have become quite sophisticated.

For example, one group, made up of Lou Corgliano, Dylan Rosu, Brandon Beebe, Bobby Frederico, Chris Caprio, Mike Seligman, and Nick Chille, used the format of the television show ‘The Amazing Race’ to teach their poem. The group members went around on a scavenger hunt in Hammonton in search of clues; the clues included details and facts about the author, the poem and Chinese culture.

Another group hosted a talk show titled “BandM Morning Show,” in which talk show hosts Brian Gazzara and Matt Parker interviewed author “Lao Tzu” (portrayed by Nick Gold) and his assistant, played by Justin Fucetola (who went by the name “Master Fooch”).

Not all projects were video-based though. Some baked cupcakes that each had Chinese symbols related to the poem, and others brought in materials for each class member to create origami related to the culture.

Students that took part in this yearly project were eager to learn about something in a way other than just reading straight from a textbook.

Brandon Alfonso was happy to do something different from the daily school routine.

“The project was a great idea. It helped the information stick in my mind more and I was able to retain a lot more information,” he said.

Other students enjoyed doing a project that involved their classmates because it allowed them to be creative, including senior Melanie McLaughlin.

“I was extremely pleased with doing a group project because having multiple minds working together is always better than one,” she said. “The video only took one day to film and the editing only took one day, which is pretty easy to do”.

Taylor Downey explained that she “enjoyed doing this project because I made a creative video along with an interesting powerpoint presentation.”

“I got to use my creative side,” she added.