The Collaborative Skeleton Project is always a favorite among students and it puzzles me. Group work is a topic students often complain about in middle school. Group work is not common in the art room but after this project I am ALWAYS convinced that adding more collaborative art projects is something to consider.
Why is this project so successful? I feel the success is due to 3 things: Accountability, Choice and Student Understanding. From the very first day of this project students within groups are held individually accountable for several art element benchmarks: brainstorming, collage materials, skeleton sketches, and coloring of skeleton sections. That's a lot of individual points added up! Student Choice (choosing peer groups, skeleton design theme, collage material, color scheme) is another componenet that has proven to be a successful strategy to hook students but is also and effective tool to provide differentiation in the classroom. Lastly, having already created 2 Day Of The Dead projects students have a very clear understanding of the theme and driving essential questions of the unit.
This project is a perfect example of how collaborative art projects can be successful in the art room. It's a keeper!
