🗓️ Before Class: Teacher Prep
- Gather/set out: Photoshop (motion/GIF), Figma or paper (UX), or TinkerCAD (3D), Careers in Design hub.
- Pull up today's slide deck (see 🖥️ Slide Deck below) so it's ready to project.
🧑🏫 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
- Day 3: 📋 Open Substitute Guide
- Day 4: 📋 Open Substitute Guide
🎯 Essential Question
- What can we build if we spend real, sustained time in one specialization instead of a single class period?
📈 Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson (4 Days), students will be able to:
- Choose one specialization not yet covered in depth this year (motion/animation, UX wireframing, or 3D modeling).
- Build a focused mini-project applying that specialization to a real or realistic brief.
- Connect the finished piece to the matching career page's stated entry-level portfolio expectations.
📐 Standards Alignment
CDOS (Career Development & Occupational Studies)
- CDOS 1 — Career Development -- students will be able to explain the range of career choices, and identify personal interests, skills, and aptitudes that relate to those choices.
- CDOS 2 — Integrated Learning -- students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings.
- 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 4.1 — Use core tools and features to create visual elements.
- ACP 4.6 — Modify the appearance of design elements by using filters and styles.
🎓 Study this for the ACP exam: Domain 4: Creating and Modifying Visual Elements
📚 Key Vocabulary
- Motion Graphics
- Design that moves -- animated type, logos, or transitions, built frame by frame or on a timeline.
- Wireframe
- A rough, low-detail sketch of a screen's layout, used to plan structure before visual design.
- 3D Modeling
- Building an object in three dimensions inside software, viewable and editable from any angle.
🧰 Materials & Tools
- Photoshop (motion/GIF), Figma or paper (UX), or TinkerCAD (3D)
- Careers in Design hub
🧠 Do Now (Warm-Up)
Of motion, UX, and 3D, which one do you have the least experience in -- and is that a reason to avoid it or a reason to try it?
📋 Main Workshop / Lesson Sequence
This lesson spans 4 Days. Suggested pacing:
| Day | Focus | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Choose & Plan | Do Now (5 min, above). Research (15 min): read the matching career page's portfolio expectations. Plan (20 min): scope a specific mini-project. |
| Day 2 | Build | Independent production work (40 min), teacher circulating for technical support. |
| Day 3 | Build & Refine | Independent production work (40 min), pushing past a rough first pass. |
| Day 4 | Finish & Connect | Finish (25 min). Write (15 min): how this piece measures up against that career's real entry-level portfolio expectations. |
✅ Assessment & Exit Ticket
Finished mini-project assessed for genuine effort in an unfamiliar area; reflection checked for accurate use of the career page's real requirements.
Exit Ticket: What was the hardest part of working in a specialization you had the least experience in?
📊 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.