Collaborative Collage
Maria Camarillo, Teacher
Robert Zant, Teaching Artist
Embedded Files
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Class Overview
Class Overview
Students worked on making a group collage for the entirety of this summer session. The collage incorporated cut-up images from magazines, photos taken by the students themselves, drawing, writing, and sculpture. Each student created smaller works individually. They were then invited to tape and glue those works onto a bigger sheet of paper, which hosted everyone's work. Students had to decide how their individual pieces connected with those of their classmates. Would they simply sit next to one another? Would they interact? Would there be a border or divide separating them? The questions of building an interconnected group artwork composed of individual artworks brought up collaborative dynamics in the classroom, such as sharing art materials and physical space.
Our class was divided into two groups. The 1st-2nd grade students focused on building an animal habitat where we specifically asked "what does each of our animals need to live?" We wrote down answers like 'water,' 'desert,' 'family,' and 'trees' on paper and used yarn to connect the photos or drawings of our animals to what they needed. Sometimes animals needed each other, so we'd connect them too. What we ended up with was an ecosystem where everything was linked together.
Our 3rd-4th graders started the summer session by going on a scavenger hunt in the school garden. They took pictures of the things they found. We then printed out the pictures and began connecting them on our big sheet of paper. Because this group was also working on creating characters in their other art class, we focused on creating dialogue as a way of connecting photos of ourselves, the things we like, and the things we found meaningful around the school.
1st-2nd grade
animal
ecosystem
collage
3rd-4th grade
characters
and scavenger hunt
collage
Class Reflections
Class Reflections
Initially we were going to ask students about the qualities of a good neighbor, or qualities that students wanted to see in their communities. This was initially informing our big idea and inquiry question. While we didn't address these questions explicitly, students had to think through them via the art activities we did together. Because of the collaborative nature of our class, there were lots of negotiations between students regarding how we would assemble our group collage.
We often had to talk about what each of us wanted. We also had to establish compromises, talk through conflict, and ask permission. With one of the classes we were working with photos that we took of ourselves while doing a scavenger hunt. Students learned that we had to ask permission to use images of other classmates, since there were a couple of instances where our classmates expressed discomfort with how a photo of them was being used. For example, one student drew a funny hat on their classmate's head. The first student said that it made them feel uncomfortable. The second student said they understood and were sorry, and removed the photo from the collage. From that point on, everyone understood that we had to be sensitive about the ways we'd incorporate these images into the collage. This changed the way we worked together, and it established a degree of empathy. Students learned to put themselves in their classmates shoes, and they learned how to talk about feelings that arose during our collaboration.
Photos
from
scavenger
hunt
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