Collages are used to focus students on particular issues or topics, and to illustrate those ideas in a dramatic fashion. Collages can also be done on a computer, using a graphics program, with remarkable results.
Collecting images from the internet will yield pictures on any topic, from any country or era. The size of the photos collected is irrelevant, as they can be scaled to fit the background. Individual elements can also be removed easily from photos, and applied anywhere on the image. Best of all, nothing is permanent ... images can be removed and replaced, relocated, resized, or colourized. Interesting effects that are difficult or impossible with traditional magazine cutouts, like drop shadows or highlighting, are
easy to do on a computer.
Here are a few samples made by our grades 7, 8, & 9 students, illustrating topics of their choice and various techniques, to give you an idea of the kind of results you can expect. All were done in a single class session. These images have been scaled down to fit this page; the originals each filled an 81/2 x 11 sheet of paper.
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These images could just as easily have been scenes from MacBeth, World War I, or the aftermath of an earthquake ... wherever you normally would use collages to focus students on an idea. Computer graphics are portable ... they can be exchanged easily with other students, displayed on paper or on a website, used to illustrate projects, and kept to be used over again in other documents.
  
... and no spilled glue or bits of paper to clean up!
 
Teacher Tips | Teacher Section | Worsley School
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