Substitute Teacher Guide • Grade 11 • Unit A: Foundations — The Design Process & Purpose
The Design Process: A Tool You'll Use Again and Again — Day 2 of 2
Today's focus: Applying the Process
⚠️ Heads-Up: You Started This in 9th Grade
Being able to explain your design process -- what you made, why you made the choices you did, what problem it solved -- is the same skill introduced back in Grade 9's "Communicating Like a Professional." It matters more than ever now: your PBAT presentation this year IS that skill, formalized, in front of a panel. Keep practicing it on every portfolio caption between now and then, not just the week before.
✅ Before Students Arrive
- Materials needed today:
- Chart paper for a 5-stage process poster
- Markers
- A familiar object or app icon (image, teacher-provided)
- Most students keep their class notebook at its usual spot in the room and use it every day (see routine below) -- but it's each student's own notebook, so a few may bring theirs from home instead. Either way, everyone should have one out.
- Write today's Do Now on the board before the bell rings (see below).
📓 Daily Notebook Routine (students already know this)
Keep this going every day, in your class notebook: date today's entry, jot your Do Now response, add any new vocabulary word(s) from today's Key Vocabulary section (word + a quick picture + a simple definition in your own words), and take 60 seconds to sketch something connected to today's topic. This notebook is yours to study from, reference on projects, and pull evidence from later for your portfolio.
🗣️ Opening: Do Now
Write or project this, and have students start immediately:
“Put the 5 stages in order from memory.”
📋 Class Plan (step by step)
-
Step 1 — 20 min
🗣️ Say: "Get into your groups."
📋 Small groups (20 min): map a familiar object/app onto the 5 stages.
-
Step 2 — 15 min
🗣️ Say: "Here's what we're doing next." Then read the instructions below to the class.
📋 Prepare & present (15 min): present your mapping and defend one place you think the designer might have skipped a step.
-
Step 3 — 5 min
🗣️ Say: "Let's hear from a few people before we move on."
📋 Wrap-up discussion (5 min).
🔑 Vocabulary Introduced Today
- Iterate
- Testing a design, getting feedback, and revising -- often more than once.
- Deliver
- Finalizing and publishing the design in the format the client needs.
✅ Wrap-Up: Exit Ticket
A few minutes before the bell, say: "Time to finish your exit ticket."
“Which stage of the design process do you think is easiest to skip by accident, and why is that risky?”
Collect exit tickets (or have students leave them in the usual spot) for the regular teacher to review.
⏳ If You're Short on Time
Protect the Do Now and the Exit Ticket above all else -- those are how the regular teacher tracks daily progress. If a step above is optional/homework, or is a "share out"/discussion step, shorten or skip it first.
⏳ If Students Finish Early
Have them keep working in their notebook: add extra detail to today's vocabulary sketch, review previous vocabulary, or -- if this is a portfolio update week for this class -- work on their portfolio. Early finishers should never be idle or distracting to classmates still working.
📝 For the Regular Teacher (fill in ahead of time)
- Regular teacher's name / how to reach them: ______________________________
- Where finished work / exit tickets go: ______________________________
- Front office extension / emergency contact: ______________________________
- Anything else this class needs to know today: ______________________________