Collaborating to Create Art Curriculum that is Relevant to Students' Lives

Collaboration is explored as a means for making relevant connections between the curriculum and students' lives outside of school. High school students participate in several preliminary activities in order to gather data about their interests and concerns. Some of the methods used to collect this information are an initial questionnaire, a visual art project which centers on bookbinding, and student journaling. This data serves as a reference for students while collaboratively working with their teacher to determine the outline for a lesson plan that is then implemented. Additional information is gathered at the end of the project in the form of a final questionnaire which asks students to elaborate on their experiences as collaborators. Teacher reflection through action research is also used to interpret this collaborative experience analyzing the teacher's role in the process and ultimately the impact of collaboration on students' motivation and empowerment in learning