For about 6 or 7 years now, high school students have collaborated with one of the elementary schools in town, Peter Woodbury Elementary School. In particular, Mr. Pepper’s World Religions class has worked with students from kindergarten to second grade. Both classes have actually had the opportunity to visit each other’s schools to complete the collaboration project. Every year, the project has consisted of using technology by creating digital stories from high school skits, relating to a particular theme.
This year, a new collaboration has been started between the high schools Ceramics teacher, Anne Lederhos, and the Art teacher at Peter Woodbury, Ann Marie Piantedosi. With the help of Flipgrid, students have been able to collaborate and share ideas with each other. This has been a great way to work with one another as traveling between schools was not feasible for this particular project. Even though we were not able to see each other in person, Flipgrid was the perfect tool to communicate back and forth. Our school has been using Flipgrid throughout the school year, but this was the first time that we had used the tool for collaboration purposes with students from a different school.
The Project
This idea is actually not unique to us. In fact, inspiration came from Twitter from Kim Palmer’s art class where we saw a picture of elementary students talking with their buddy class at the high school. The high school students were revealing their projects to the elementary students. We took this idea and adapted it a bit.
Each year, the first graders work with their art teacher to help create a monster using felt, and other items. Mrs. Lederhos, the ceramics teacher, decided why not have her students try and replicate the first graders monster.
The Process
A Flipgrid grid was created that was shared between the two schools. Three different topics were created.
Topic 1: Introductions
The first graders introduced themselves and shared a couple of facts about what they liked about art class. The high school students then responded to their buddy and introduced themselves. This was the initial communication between the two schools. Both sides liked this as the high school students thought it was ‘cute’ to see the young students talk and record themselves. The first grade students thought it was ‘so cool’ that a high school student responded back.
Topic 2: First Grader Monster Showcase
Once the first grade students completed their monster, they then recorded themselves showing off what they had created. This then gave the high school students an idea of what they had to work with. NOTE: for ease sake, the art teacher at the elementary school shared a Google Drive folder of pictures as well. These pictures highlighted each student and their creation. This was to help the high school student so that they had a still image of what they had to replicate.
Topic 3: High School Documenting Process
The high school student then recorded themselves highlighting a particular part of the process in making the monster out of ceramics. NOTE: In the future, we will have high school students document more than one part of the process so that the first grade students have a clearer idea of what happens from start to finish. In a couple of weeks, the elementary students will then close up the collaboration by responding to the high school video to share a reflection.
The Grand Finale
Once the high school students completed their own monster out of ceramics, they were brought to the elementary school to be on display with the elementary student’s monster. This will be on display during the school’s art show. In other words, the first grader’s monster sits next to the high school monster interpretation. How cool is that? What a great way to work together and showcase each other’s work.
Below are a couple of pictures from some of the monsters that were on display at the elementary school.
Flipgrid is such a simple tool to use. What I like about it is that that tool can be used for different purposes. I look forward to seeing how this project evolves over the coming years. As a side note, Mr. Pepper’s World Religions class also used Flipgrid at the end of their collaboration project this year as a means of curating final reflections.
If you have any questions on how this tool can be used with your curriculum, you know where to find me. Let’s chat!
And that is my Spiel…
Craig M Sheil 