Cross-Grade Level Collaborations
From: Kristin Vanderlip Taylor
Teaching art in a K-8 school provides me with rich opportunities for cross-grade level collaborations. I try to build in at least one occasion per year for my middle school students to work on a project with the primary students in Kindergarten, first, and second grades. Sometimes it’s a one-visit collaboration, like our Earth Day earthworks in the Kindergarten yard, in which the Kindergarten teachers first shared Andy Goldsworthy’s work with their students in a PowerPoint presentation and my middle school students watched Rivers and Tides, his documentary, to learn about how and why he makes the work he does. After understanding the parameters of using available natural materials in their own environment, my middle school art students teamed up with a few Kindergarten students in each group to build their own earthworks on the play yard in honor of Earth Day. To ensure that the lesson doesn’t become dominated by either group, all students are first taught how to communicate effectively in order to truly collaborate and combine ideas when working with others. I document each earthwork and photograph the students who collaborated to make it before they return the materials to their natural homes.
Earth Day Spiral Collaboration
On other occasions, collaboration between grade levels becomes a multi-visit project, like the year my first grade students illustrated toy designs and middle school students brought them to life as three-dimensional forms. I was inspired by art educator Cynthia Gaub’s presentation at the 2015 NAEA convention on multi-age toy collaborations and decided to try something similar with my students. During a unit focusing on art that we use, first graders examined toys from long ago and compared them with their own toys today. They then illustrated a new toy they would like to have, including both the front and back views (turnarounds). They had to be specific in the details - colors, materials (soft and sewn, or sturdy and sculpted?), and size. Middle school art students selected one or two toys to construct, then met with their first grade design partners to ask any clarifying questions before beginning. Because we had more first grade art students than middle school art students, some worked collaboratively to complete more than one toy. Students had access to a wide variety of materials to fulfill their “client’s” instructions - fabric for sewing and stuffing, clay, Model Magic, recycled materials, paper mache, and much more, though some of it came from donations or secondhand shops to avoid high costs. During the several-week construction process, the first grade students could see their designs in progress as they visited the art room for instruction. At open house, the toys were debuted alongside the original illustrations. Parents were ecstatic - more than one Kindergarten parent wanted to be reassured that we would do something similar the following year so their child could participate! The day after open house, first grade students visited their buddies to receive their new one-of-a-kind toys. I was thrilled to see how proud my middle school students were and how honored they felt when their first grade partners were over the moon about their final designs.
Last year, second grade and middle school collaborated on zines, and this year I’m working through a few different plans for more cross-grade level collaboration. Possible options up for consideration include narrative exchanges back and forth several times, or task parties, based on Oliver Herring’s open-ended generative and playful work. If anyone else has been implementing cross-grade level collaborations, I’d love to hear your ideas!
-KVT