🗓️ Before Class: Teacher Prep
- Gather/set out: Chart paper for a 5-stage process poster, Markers, A familiar object or app icon (image, teacher-provided).
- Pull up today's slide deck (see 🖥️ Slide Deck below) so it's ready to project.
- 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.
🧑🏫 Substitute Teacher Guide
A scripted, step-by-step runsheet for today's class -- hand this to anyone covering the room who doesn't know the daily routine.
- Day 1: 📋 Open Substitute Guide
- Day 2: 📋 Open Substitute Guide
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.
🎯 Essential Question
- What are the repeatable steps every designer uses, no matter the project?
📈 Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson (2 Days), students will be able to:
- Name and define the 5 stages of the design process: Discover, Define, Ideate, Design, Test & Deliver.
- Map a familiar everyday object (like a bus shelter or a phone app icon) onto the 5 stages.
- Explain why skipping a stage (especially Discover or Test) causes problems later.
📐 Standards Alignment
CDOS (Career Development & Occupational Studies)
- CDOS 2 — Integrated Learning -- students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings.
- CDOS 3a — Universal Foundation Skills -- basic literacy, communication, and problem-solving skills required for a career.
- CDOS 3b — Career Majors -- knowledge and skills required for success within a specific career pathway (here, Digital Design).
ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) Photoshop Exam Objectives
- ACP 1.1 — Identify the purpose, audience, and audience needs for preparing images.
- ACP 1.2 — Communicate with colleagues and clients about design plans.
🎓 Study this for the ACP exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry
📚 Key Vocabulary
- Discover
- The research stage: understanding the client, audience, and problem before designing anything.
- Define
- Narrowing research into a clear problem statement and goals.
- Ideate
- Generating many possible solutions before picking one.
- Iterate
- Testing a design, getting feedback, and revising -- often more than once.
- Deliver
- Finalizing and publishing the design in the format the client needs.
🧰 Materials & Tools
- Chart paper for a 5-stage process poster
- Markers
- A familiar object or app icon (image, teacher-provided)
🧠 Do Now (Warm-Up)
Think of a school app or sign you use every day. Do you think anyone tested it with real users before it launched? How can you tell?
📋 Main Workshop / Lesson Sequence
This lesson spans 2 Days. Suggested pacing:
| Day | Focus | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Learning the 5 Stages | Do Now (5 min): name one step of a design process you already know, from any class. Mini-lesson (20 min): the 5-stage design process (Discover, Define, Ideate, Design, Test & Deliver) with a real example walked through start to finish. Guided build (15 min): as a class, build a shared reference poster of the 5 stages. Preview (5 min): tomorrow you'll map your own example. |
| Day 2 | Applying the Process | Do Now (5 min): put the 5 stages in order from memory. Small groups (20 min): map a familiar object/app onto the 5 stages. Prepare & present (15 min): present your mapping and defend one place you think the designer might have skipped a step. Wrap-up discussion (5 min). |
✅ Assessment & Exit Ticket
Process poster + group mapping checked for accurate use of all 5 stages.
Exit Ticket: Which stage of the design process do you think is easiest to skip by accident, and why is that risky?
📊 Pull up the anonymous Class Check-In for students to fill out before they go.
🧩 Differentiation & Accommodations
English Language Learners: model every step live, then check in one-on-one; provide translated materials and vocabulary support as needed. Students with IEPs: apply the accommodations and modifications listed in each student's plan (examples include extended time, graphic organizers, speech-to-text tools, chunked instructions, and visual schedules). Students with attention-related needs: break tasks into short, checklist-driven steps and provide brief movement or focus breaks. Students ready for a challenge: take on a leadership role critiquing peers' work, extend the project with a second iteration, or research how today's skill is used professionally in the field.