Accessing additional expertise
Level: Year 12
School: Rangitoto College
Teacher: Maya Foster
Category: Teaching strategy
Fabrics Technology teacher Maya Foster planned a wearable arts unit around a two-day workshop in which her Year 12 students would work with wearable artist Anita Peters. This skills and knowledge-development initiative became part of a wider collaboration with Year 9, 10 and 13 students and culminated in a Recyclable Wonders Fashion Show.
Maya had originally planned an off-site workshop in a local art studio but altered this because of hireage cost and stayed in her classroom. This, she says, worked really well because students could work on the paving outside and the school field – particularly convenient with all the gluing and papier-mâché construction.
The school was very supportive of Maya's efforts, allowing the students to go off-timetable and making room changes so that she could use the Fabrics room (shared with another teacher) the whole time. It also approved her application for funding to CPaBL (Creating Pathways and Building Lives) – a Ministry of Education initiative which aims to give students real-life connections and expose them to workplace experiences, to enable them to make informed decisions as to which pathway/tertiary course to pursue. The CPaBL funding paid for Anita's time at the workshop and three classroom visits, all purchased materials, and a relief teacher for Maya's classes.
Anita Peters has had her work displayed in the World of Wearable Arts (WOW) show. This experience meant that as well as advising the students on creating wearable art, Anita was able to discuss how it is displayed at WOW and other factors the girls should consider, in addition to the look of their costume, such as:
- how to make a costume look effective on the catwalk;
- the sound the materials might make when the costume is being walked in; and
- how different materials might react to the lighting.
Maya comments that requiring students to think about issues involved in exhibiting a garment in a show was helpful in getting them to think ahead in their designing, instead of just concentrating on the look they might want.
The workshop structure meant that students covered about four weeks of work over the two days. Having large blocks of time to work, rather than the 'stop/start' of the usual routine, enabled them to really focus on what they were doing without the distractions of packing up after 40 minutes – Maya notes that the scale at which the students were working meant that it wasn't easy to pack each piece away every lesson.
Anita also visited during three lessons, prior to the workshop. In the first she talked in more detail about her work, brought along some of her costumes to show and discuss with the students, and talked about her WOW experience.
In another lesson Maya and Anita discussed the context of the unit and why the class would concentrate on paper and plastic in their designs. They looked at the environmental impacts of paper and plastic, and how wearable art could raise awareness of issues such as pollution. Maya introduced the 'great Pacific rubbish dump' as an example of how plastic waste is degrading the environment and endangering wildlife.
Each student was asked to collect a minimum of 20 samples of paper and plastic for the third lesson which Maya describes as a 'physical brainstorm' – and the class was asked:
- what can we do with these materials?
- how can we combine them?
- how can we change the surface of the materials?
- what happens if we layer plastic bags and sandwich other materials between them?
- will an iron actually laminate these things?
- what happens if I seal two pieces of plastic – can I fill it with water?
- will this actually work, will it be sealable? and
- what else can I do with bubble wrap?
Students spent the whole lesson exploring the materials, seeing their limitations and possibilities, with no particular end product in sight. Maya explains that this provided a foundation to start designing. "Lots of students will design, create fabulous drawings, then look for their materials and can't find them. Or they don't realise that the technique they planned doesn't work with those materials – they actually need to know what can be done with materials and what is available before they start designing".
Maya encouraged student experimentation by first demonstrating five techniques they might want to use:
- bursting the back of bubble wrap and stuffing it with another material for a spotty effect;
- strengthening paper/plastic by coating it with glue to create fabric;
- laminating video tape on to interfacing to create a crackly fabric;
- laminating heat sensitive coloured plastics to create surface pattern; and
- papier-mâché on a manikin to produce a corset mould.
Most of the students practised one of the techniques which, Maya says, empowered them and gave them the confidence to test their own ideas.
Maya decided to take advantage of the assessment opportunity to offer students a wearable art unit standard (PDF download) so that they could gain NCEA credits relatively early in the year, and says that this "money in the bank" raised their self esteem in making them realise "I can do that".
During the six-week unit the students were given a new focus – their garments would be modelled in a wearable art fashion parade organised by two Year 13 students, who also became their stakeholders. Anita offered to lend ten of her outfits for display in the parade and Maya comments that not only were they a spectacular addition but gave a 'celebrity' feel to the event.
However, Maya and the organisers realised that there weren't enough fashion lines to make a really successful show. At this point serendipity intervened – some fabric, left unclaimed at the port, was donated to the school and Maya decided that as it would have been dumped she could classify it as recyclable. So, two weeks before the fashion parade, she ran a Year 9/10 workshop in the school holidays. Twenty-five students, working for one day from 10am to 4pm, had to complete the 'Surface Print Challenge'. They were each given two metres of the donated muslin which they had to transform from white – by colouring, dyeing, printing, or any other method – and make into a garment.
The Recyclable Wonders Fashion Parade was a great success, both in itself and as a promotion for Fabrics Technology – students who had created work, modelled or just watched the show were more enthusiastic about considering Fabrics as an option, and more boys took it the following year. This contributed to the increasing numbers of students opting for the subject and its steady growth over the last few years. In 2010 there are extra Year 10 and Year 11 classes, and "very healthy" numbers in the Year 12 and Year 13 classes. Maya attributes this change to the fact that students are now doing more creative textiles "more hands-on, and where it doesn't matter if it goes wrong because we'll find a way of solving it."
The Year 12 wearable art unit is being repeated in 2010 and Maya notes that although she didn't apply for CPaBL funding this time it should be successful again because she is surer of what she is doing. "The workshop was joint PD – we worked alongside each other, team teaching – Anita had the wearable arts techniques which helped me, while I had the experience and confidence in working with big groups."
The fashion show is again being organised by some Year 13 students and Maya says she already has Year 11s asking if they can run it when they're in Year 13. It will include an open competition for students who don't do Fabrics Technology which Maya hopes will encourage more boys to start creating, will generate more costumes for the show, and means there's no mess to clear away in her classroom because they can do their work at home! She is looking for sponsorship from the wider community for competition prizes.
"So something that was really small has now become more complex; I don't know what else will happen or what other opportunities will come by. It has become a whole-school project, with seniors and juniors working together. It's wonderful and has been great for my own personal development – I now realise that putting on a fashion show can be done and that the students will make it happen, you don't have to take it all on yourself".
"Workshopping in this way with Anita was another valuable PD opportunity," says Maya. "It was hands-on subject and skills-specific, in comparison to some of the PD we often receive which is curriculum-and pedagogy-based."
Alana and Tayla, two students from this class, are also featured in the Designing for the real world Student showcase.
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