Clara Barton Open School, Allison Rubin Forrester, 7/8th grade, 10 hrs
This week was my last at Barton. On Monday and Wednesday, I taught my lesson “Algebraic Collage” for 33 and 29 students, respectively. Students were asked to graph three lines on graphing paper, some of which could intersect, and then cut images to fit/fill in the spaces. I believe this project is helpful in using math within another context outside of the classroom (to address the question of “When will I use this?”) and to present students with an accessible art project that they may be able to do at home.
The collages were glued to a piece of plywood using mod podge. As I have noticed with Barton middle schoolers, they were consistently helping their peers and assisting them with cutting out images or gluing pieces down if needed.
I was impressed by the collages I saw students making, and their attention to detail and willingness to layer images over one another or choose a humorous method/image to use.
The students made incredible work and seemed to enjoy this artistic process, and I could see that many of them took time and intention to choose images that they were interested in, and not necessarily choose them just to finish the project. The work was displayed in three rows in the outside hall from Allison’s classroom, and while installing I found many students looking for their collage or talking about their peer’s work (as well as other students who did not do the project standing and looking at the work). I am grateful that the students were engaged in the collage process and satisfied and intrigued with their finished product.