11th Grade — Building a Specialist Portfolio Page

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

If someone only looked at this one new page, would they understand what you specialize in within 5 seconds?

🎯 Today's Big Question

How do we show a viewer exactly what we're specifically good at, not just what we've made?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Add a dedicated "focus area" page to their portfolio site showcasing the specialization work from this unit.
Organize the page so a visitor immediately understands the specialization, not just a list of files.
Cross-link the new page to the matching career page on the Careers hub.

🧰 What You'll Need

Portfolio website (Google Sites, from Grade 10)
Specialization work and second client project

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Build

Independent work (35 min): build the new page and add the specialization work with clear captions.

Day 2: Link & Polish

Independent work (35 min): cross-link to the matching Careers hub page and polish the layout for clarity.

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

Day 1

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

Day 2

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

📚 Key Words

Focus Area: A dedicated section of a portfolio built around one specific skill or specialization, not the whole body of work.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Portfolio page assessed for clarity of focus, organization, and a working link to the relevant career page.

Exit Ticket: What did you title this page, and does the title actually say what the page is about?

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week (e.g. every Friday, or your class's last meeting of the week), add your best finished or in-progress work to a running portfolio folder with a 1-2 sentence caption: what it is, what skill or standard it shows. This becomes your formal Google Sites portfolio in Unit F -- keep it current all year so you're not scrambling right before your PBAT and portfolio review.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Building a Specialist Portfolio Page.” This project asked: “How do we show a viewer exactly what we're specifically good at, not just what we've made?” I used Focus Area by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🎓 ACP Exam Prep

This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 5: Publishing Digital Media

🔗 Want to Learn More?

No extra links for this lesson.

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same information-architecture thinking a Computer Science class covers in site structure.

Career Connection: A dedicated "focus area" page mirrors exactly what a hiring manager looks for on every career page's portfolio checklist.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Design a matching visual badge/icon system across your site's different focus-area pages. Start here: pick one icon style — line weight, corner radius — and design a single badge first, then duplicate and vary it for the rest.
Link to the new page prominently from your site's homepage so it's the first thing a visitor sees. Start here: open your homepage file right now and add the link before doing anything else in this lesson.