ESL Students Make Collages and Discuss Their Meaning

“In the middle of the picture, you can see a girl. She is very beautiful like the flowers. She has a boyfriend. He is very poor. In the top left corner, you can see him. They love each other. One day, there is man who looks like a frog. He’s in love with the girl, too. He’s very rich. He has an expensive car. That girl finishes with her boyfriend. She chooses the rich man. What do you think of this story?”

“This collage is about my dream of having a house in nature. You can see the lakes, flowers, and butterflies are part of nature. I can have my breakfast by the lake and go fishing. It’s very important to enjoy life.”

“My collage is about art. This piece is about an Impressionist’s picture. Maybe it’s Monet, but I’m not sure. It’s about colour and sunflowers. On the left, this is a (purple flower) mountain. I made it.

Art is about what you think. Like this pink flower, I think this is for a sun. What you think, your opinion, is important (see the ideas coming out of the top of the head). Art is about music and dancing, like when the people copy the animal action then make a dancing. Nature is my artist.”

“First, my collage it’s about me. . . . . It’s about what I like and it represent me. This part (the map) means I want to travel all over the world. My favourite flower is roses. My best friend’s favourite animal is the tiger, and it’s my favourite one, too.

I am a woman. I am very proud of that. I love dance. I’m a mysterious person. I’m very friendly. And I love art.

The most beautiful place I ever saw before is Niagara Falls. My favourite food is salmon, chocolate, and ice-cream. And I really like fireworks. My favourite movie is Beauty and the Beast. The angel right here, all my friends in Mexico tell me I have an angel inside or something. I don’t know why. My favourite sport is swim. It’s really easy for me to love somebody. I like to draw. And this butterfly in the other hand of the lady swimming is me, too, because it’s in a jail, and when I come here I feel like I am a free butterfly.

This part says, “Home is where one starts from.” Everybody tells me your home is with your family, but I changed my mind. I think your home is where you want to stay, where you want to live.”

“My collage is about the universe. I like the universe. It is so charming and so mystery. People want to explore its secrets. You can see the small solar system that includes eight planets. . . . The earth is a beautiful and magic planet.”

“Ladies and gentlemen. Next one is Jerry. Jerry’s showtime! Enjoy my presentation . . . My main idea is the ocean and all of things about blue. . . This guy is Poisedon. He has a gold arm and a trident, his weapon. This one is so cute, Luna. Very fashionable with sunglasses. I think this is angel about the ocean. She has wings and an oar. Her shoes look like boats. The penguins follow the goddess to catch sardines. When I was younger, I had a dream. I really wanted to become a marine biologist. Maybe the little boy will become a new Captain Nemo. And the broken ship is maybe the Titanic, and the big diamond is the heart of the ocean.

In my life, I really like water and the sea or ocean everything about blue or water. When you are in the water, you feel very freedom, very calm down, and very clear. The ocean is very clear in our planet. God and humans and animals and nature are very balanced. They protect or keep each other.”

“In my opinion, we need four things to be happy: friends, family, dreams, and smiling. Whether we are children or seniors, we need to enjoy time together with friends.”

“In my opinion, we need four things to be happy: friends, family, dreams, and smiling. Whether we are children or seniors, we need to enjoy time together with friends.”

“In the right corner, you can see a shark. He seems to represent fear. In the top left corner, this is a cute dog. It’s something kind, something good, something positive. You can also see the butterfly. And there’s a man who try to reach the stars.

This collage is about my thoughts about my life. Sometimes we hear a noise and we think that it is something dangerous. We try to turn back and looking what it is, but usually it’s something cute like this cute dog who want to play and make a noise. Fear pulls you back. If we release our fear, we can reach to the stars.”

“This is a gift for my best friend. We live in different countries, but we talk by phone and internet. We have a dream. When we one day have homes of our own, we will be neighbours, a big family. Our hearts will be together forever. The bird and the butterfly are very different, but we can fly together.

We have been to many different places together. Different colours mean different cities in China we have visited together . . . . Our friendship like the tree will be more and more thick.

The picture is for my best friend. And she said, ‘Oh, I am crying. You are so sweet.’ So I am so happy. I know that’s not very beautiful and not very well but that’s special for us and that’s our memories.”

“When you have some trouble, you must be like this woman and go ahead and keep going. Don’t stop. Sometimes when you get in trouble, your emotions is very dead. But sometimes in your life you can find little beautiful things that will encourage you, like a flower or a cup of cappuccino. They will let you have power so you can just keep going to face the trouble.”

“He is a little potato. He is a normal people. He has a good dream, but he don’t have a chance. He don’t have money. No car, no house, no wife. He’s single for many years. He’s very depressed, very sad. He thinks God never help him.

One day he want to give up his life. He found a old house. This house nobody live here, is not used. He want to over his life for here. But he’s very lucky. He found a pot of gold. This is his first pot of gold in his life. He’s very exciting. This gold will change his life. It give him confidence, power, and hope. For this day, he very hard work every day and learn more knowledge about his business. One day he become a good businessman. Finally, he’s successful. He find his angel girl. This girl is his wife.”

“This is a story. A man is at the Kansas City Zoo. He’s a hunter. He wants to shoot the cat, but the cat shouts, ‘Help’ and the elephant protects the cat. Then the dog goes to fight the elephant because he wants to help his master. The dog gets hurt and the man feels sad. He change his mind and decides to never shoot another animal again. He now understands that protecting animals is our responsibility.”

“This collage is not good. I think I’m not artistic, so it’s just a simple story. One day the girl is so boring so she’s just thinking about some things and animals. First of all, the girl is thinking about a pond. The pond have some lotus leaves. The frog’s drinking on the leaves. Near the pond have an elephant. The elephant is gonna come here because he wants to drink water. This girl is thinking about why rabbits don’t swimming in the pond. She thinks good things. She’s happy. I think her smile is very funny. That’s all.”

“The woman in the picture is my mother. She’s in her house in Brazil where it is very warm (see the sun). The bird represents my travelling to Canada, and the hearts are my love for my mom. The man is me in Canada. The leaf is a symbol of Canada, the country where I learn English.”

“I don’t know how I made that. This collage’s meaning is balance and change. Sometimes in life we need balance . . . Also, sometimes we need change. When you change, you will find your life will be interesting. It doesn’t matter bad or good. Even if it’s bad, you can enjoy this. You can get something interesting.”

“First, a salute to Mr. Jobs since he give us a wonderful machine, wonderful technology, and lots of high-tech things we can use.

The background of the picture is past to future. Our earth is such a beautiful planet in our galaxy. Importantly, here have life. Long ago, the humans not have language and not have a lot of things like today’s high-tech. But they found fire. They should eat and have life.

Humans need war and mythology. Mythology story tells people, ‘You should be brave.’ But sometimes some king is like the tiger and so bad and always hate the people. The people don’t like him, so they throw him out.

Some countries exclude themselves from the outside world. But one day they open the door, and they see it’s a wonderful world. Another country is so strong and have high-level culture and have high-tech. Even though humans need to go to war and development, sometimes I think war is not a must, so Olympic Games show us we can use another way to show the country’s power. Finally, I hope the world can peace.”