Altered Image Collage

Years ago, a group of sixth-grade students asked me if they could make whatever they wanted for their second clay project. I enthusiastically agreed. However, when I handed out chunks of clay to everyone, the room fell completely silent. No one knew what to make, and I was at a loss for how to help.

In those painful moments, it dawned on me that their desire for choice was met with the overwhelming obstacle of how to go about making whatever they wanted. I thought if I demonstrated clay techniques, students could make informed decisions about how to bring their ideas to life. Providing choice gave students the opportunity to experiment, which resulted in greater ownership and success in their final projects.

A New Choice-Based Challenge
Since that moment long ago, I have continued to embrace choice within the structure of my middle-school art room. Students are excited to make their own decisions about what to draw on paper and what to design digitally, but they need to learn how to manipulate materials and tools to achieve their desired results.

When I decided to revise a traditional self-portrait drawing project into a two-day digital design assignment, I found multiple free online photo editing apps for students to explore. The goal was for students to alter their original self-portrait photo and create a digital collage or poster.

Day One: Slideshow
I began with a brief slideshow presentation that posed two questions: What is a self-portrait? and What does it mean to alter something? Responses such as “To alter something means to change it” confirmed student understanding. I shared examples of my own altered self-portraits compared with my original photo. Sixth-grade students can get frustrated when given the task to draw their own likeness, but digital design opened the door for multiple opportunities to creatively and successfully alter their self-portrait photographs.

Day One: Altering Images
After the slideshow presentation, students used the camera function on their Chromebooks to snap their photo and uploaded it to BeFunky (see Resources), a free photo-editing site with an entire menu of image alteration options. Two other photo-editing sites, Canva and Pixlr (see Resources), were used on the second day of the lesson.

Students were given time to explore every effect and download their favorite altered self-portraits for use during the next class period.

Day Two: Altered Image Collage
On day two, students combined their altered images to create self-portrait collages. Three options for collage-making were demonstrated: Google Slides (which students were already familiar with), Canva, and Pixlr (which was slightly more advanced than the other two options).

Students had the rest of the period to choose a layout for their collage, experiment with different techniques to layer their photos over different backgrounds, and adjust the transparency levels.

Finished collages were submitted to Canvas LMS for assessment. Students were required to submit their original photo, their favorite altered image, and their final collage. A rubric was used for assessing completed work. Ultimately, I wanted students to learn new digital skills while having fun in the process.

Reflections
In my thirty-three years of teaching art at the middle-school level, I have found the most dreaded assignment for students is drawing self-portraits. By the time students are twelve, they can be extremely self-conscious about their appearance, which can make staring into mirrors to draw themselves painful and anxiety inducing. And teaching traditional art to middle-level students can be tricky because they are aware of their own perceived good or bad drawing abilities.

With the focus on digital effects instead of studentsʼ actual faces, digital design opened the door to much more creative work. Providing choices for students to express themselves in a safe and stress-free learning environment is one of the best ways we can foster creativity and self-confidence. Because students were eager to share their collages with their peers, homeroom teachers, and families, I consider this altered self-portrait lesson a huge success!