Photoshop Design Developments

My Year 13 students are designing sets for a show about Matariki. They have been making models in card and plasticine and drawing in their sketchbooks. Their next step is to develop all this work into cohesive designs for a set and see if all their elements work together.
We are going to do this using Photoshop.
Over the last two days we have done some basic skills like adding an image into photoshop, learning about layers, using the magic wand tool to select and delete a background, using the other select tools to see the different reasons why you would use them, putting sections onto their own layer for editing, replicating layers to get multiple images, putting lettering on the design and filling selections with colour.
They started doing this on found images from the internet to get used to the skills and have some fun.




While they were practicing their skills today, I was photographing their designs from their sketchbooks so they can move on to using their own designs in photoshop.
This has been going really well today and they have made a really good start at some design development work on Photoshop using their own drawings.




I have one student in this class who is in Year 12 and he is doing NCEA Level 3 with the rest of the class. He has a lot of experience at using Photoshop already so has been doing this kind of work over the last couple of weeks.
Here is his first design development.

Design Development

Today, I was talking to my Year 8 class about design development. It is a part of the design process that students always have problems with. They do one or two design then do not want to do any more. They say they "like" the one they have done and want that one. They are scared of doing any more that they might not like. They are basically scared of failing. Students always want everything on their design sheets to be "perfect". I showed them some of the my design development example sheets that I have done for my senior classes and explain there is always designs you really like, some ok ones and lots you think are terrible. This is normal.

We then moved on to how the students take on their sports training.

• They do skills training to get better at the main game
• They don't go out there and immediately think they should be great at it without giving it time and effort.
• They listen to advice about how to improve and do those things.
• They practice ... again and again and again.
• They don't think that time spent on these skills and training as wasted time.
• When they fail, they try again till they get better.

I then drew a quick concept design on the board and said we were going to treat that design like me going out on the rugby field with a ball.

• I will be hopeless, I can't kick straight, throw very well or run very far.
• I will need training, skills, practice and someone to show me how to improve.

This first design idea needs training too...

• It needs to improve
• It needs them to tell it how to improve - they are it's trainer
• It needs to practice and get better slowly
• It needs to repeat in order to improve

The students have been learning how to use TinkerCad to design stands for mobile phones that can be 3D printed. I want them to develop the design they have done on Tinkercad and do changes and improvements. Screen shots need to be taken while they do this to record the changes made and these screen shots put onto a Google slide presentation.

This is my example ... I started with a very basic idea which was a block with a slot in it - it needed serious training!!!
The last slide here shows an addition from Thingiverse. The students know about this website so I wanted to show that they could use things from there as long as they combine it with ideas and builds of their own and not just use something straight from there.

Here are two examples from today, which shows how the students are starting to change little elements of their design at a time and see what the effects are. (I have made copies of the students work so I can remove the names)

Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir Lesson 17 - Design Development Layouts

See the whole Class OnAir team here

Direct Instruction

The students are advised to get out their work on design elements, their sketches from their architect's work and their concept thumbnail sketches. They will refer to these to produce their design development layouts.
These developments will be in the form of cut out coloured paper to represent the different elements of the poster designs.
They are encouraged to use the shapes and design elements from the architect to guide their work as this will help them to get merit and excellence for their project.

This is the second lesson direct instruction where the teacher is reminding the students about using the design elements they have been looking at and explaining about recording themselves analysing what they have done.

This is a short video showing one of the one to one sessions with the students that happened as we went along with the lesson.

Student Created Content
Here are some of the students talking about their design developments.
The focus was to be on why they did the layout like they did and how it relates to the work and design style of the architect they have chosen to look at.

Level 1 Google Plus Community

Lesson Topic :- Visual Literacy - Poster Layout Development
Year Group :-  Year 11 (Jump Start )
Learning Outcome	The students will use their knowledge of design elements and where these design elements are seen in the work of their chosen architect.
Success Criteria Using SOLO	Uni structural Multi structural Relational Extended abstract Students will use the elements given to identify the main elements in a poster design in a very basic way. Students can combine the given elements together to create layouts for posters and can describe the effect that they achieve. Students can relate the design elements they see in their architect’s work to their poster layouts. They can analyse how they use the design elements so they create an effect that compares to the style of their chosen designer. The students will shape and arrange the elements in ways that complement and reflect the architect’s design style to create design layouts. They can clearly reflect on what, why and how they have done this.
Links with the New Zealand Curriculum	NCEA Level 1 - Curriculum Level 6 Outcome development and evaluation Critically analyse their own and others’ outcomes to inform the development of ideas for feasible outcomes.
Key Competencies	Thinking - look at their chosen architect and think about where design elements are seen in the work. Using language, symbols, and texts - using simple shape elements to represent items in a design to think about layout in a simple way. Managing self - using their own thumbnail layout sketches to produce developments. Keeping themselves on task. Participating and contributing - Joining in the conversation about layout at the start of the lesson. Competing layout designs and sharing these into the class community. Relating to others - helping others where needed to keep them up to date.
Prior knowledge	The students have drawn from pictures of their architect’s work, looking specifically for line, shape, form and pattern. We have all worked on illustrated design words. The students have all produced thumbnail sketches of layouts as the starting point for their poster layouts.
Lesson Sequence	Session Outline The students will be cutting out pieces of coloured paper to represent different elements of poster design layouts. These will be the overall poster shape and proportion, the images, the information and the main title. These will be in reference to the design elements that they have drawn from their architects work, the design elements they have been drawing and the thumbnail concept layouts they have been doing. Student Activity Teacher Activity The students sit together to listen to the instruction session from the teacher. Respond and ask questions where needed during this session. While working, the students will be referring to their previous work - drawings of the work of their chosen architect, design word illustrations and  thumbnail concept sketches - to get ideas and starting points for their design developments. Explain to the students all together about the different coloured paper elements they will be using for their layout work. Demonstrate briefly how to produce a layout to the whole class. Monitor individual progress as they are working to make sure they are clear about what they have to do. Photograph completed layouts as they are done and upload them to the class community for all of the class to see. Encourage and support the creation of analysis videos as the students reach that stage. The students will be using the coloured paper to cut out the shape and proportion of the image and information elements of the poster layouts. These will be put onto the background white piece which will also have been cut to shape and size. Stick all the elements down to save the layouts. Hold the layouts up in front of an iPad and video an explanation and reflection of their layout design. Make 3 different layouts in this same way and record them all. Share the photograph of their layouts into the class Google Plus Community for the whole class to see each other’s layout ideas. Share the videos of their explanations into the class Google Plus Community so the whole class can listen to the reasons for the layout designs. Look at everyone else's layout designs in the class community and watch the videos of their explanations.
Resources	White paper Blue and green paper Scissors Glue Pencils Rulers Sketchbooks Access to online to view design elements and pictures of architects work.
Next Steps	Use these simple layout structures to help them start layout developments on the computer.
Reflection and Analysis
	What went well. The layouts are really starting to reflect the style of the chosen architects so I think that letting them think in simple colour blocks like this is working. They are applying the design words / elements well that we have been talking about and I can hear them speak the right words as they are discussing their work with each other. This is a good start to Level 1 using the correct terminology from the start, then they can include it in their analysis write ups later in the course. What still needs work. This was the first time for the class to make videos of themselves talking about their work, so they were quite shy about it. This also took a long time as they needed to redo and hide in corners to do it. Some students had not completed many hand drawn thumbnail sketch layouts, so had to spend a little time catching up on this before they could start on the development layouts.

Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir Lesson 13 - Design Analysis of own Design Work

See the whole Class OnAir team here

Direct Instruction

The students are round the front table very briefly so they can be reminded as a group about what we have covered in the design analysis exercises and they can see the relevance to the analysis that they need to do to their own designs now.
Stress is given to the main elements that are important in their analysis, especially the WHY of the design decisions that they have been making.
The students then get on with their individual work where one to one help and support is given where needed.

Here is the direct instruction given to the whole class where we remind ourselves of the work we have covered in the design analysis exercises and stress the important elements that need to be included in the design analysis of their own work.

This is some clips of various lessons where I am working one to one with the students on their individual design work.




Here are some of the students talking about their analysis work.

Detailed Lesson Plan

Lesson Topic :- Product Design Analysis Team Work
Year Group :-  Year 11, 12 and 13
Learning Outcome	The students will be able to analyse their own design ideas using the skills gained in the previous exercises.
Success Criteria Using SOLO	These have not changed a great deal in the last few lessons as we are still doing design analysis which incorporates the same skills and levels in SOLO. The focus of this work has been changing and the depth that we have been doing it has been increasing. The focus is now on their own work so the success criteria is more specific now towards that. Uni structural Multi structural Relational Extended abstract Students can identify the main parts of their own designs. Students can describe and list the design elements, properties, how it will be used and materials used in a design. Students can describe how materials have been combined together on their design ideas. Students can explain and compare elements of their design ideas to show how they work together and the effects that they have. Students can explain why materials have been chosen and the properties that they have to make them suitable for the job. Students can evaluate their own work and reflect on where design decisions have been made and generalise on why they were made. They can imagine where improvements can be made and can evaluate what effects these improvements would have on their design.
Links with the New Zealand Curriculum	Level 2 Curriculum Level: 7 Learning Area: Technology Strand: Design and Visual Communication Achievement Objective: Outcome development and evaluation Critically analyse their own and others’ outcomes and evaluative practices to inform the development of ideas for feasible outcomes. Undertake a critical evaluation that is informed by ongoing experimentation and functional modelling, stakeholder feedback, and trialling in the physical and social environments. Use the information gained to select, justify, and develop an outcome. Evaluate this outcome’s fitness for purpose against the brief. Justify the evaluation, using feedback from stakeholders and demonstrating a critical understanding of the issue. Achievement Standard: AS91342
Key Competencies	Thinking - analysing their design work based on a focus. Using language, symbols, and texts - talking about their ideas for the analysis. Managing self - Using the RISE values when doing this work on their own and staying on task. Participating and contributing - Giving suggestions to the whole group. Listening to the suggestions of others. Using these suggestions with their own work. Relating to others - responding to the ideas of others in a positive way.
Prior knowledge	The students have been working through a series of exercises about design analysis based on the SOLO taxonomy structure. They have design developments and / or final designs to write a written analysis for.
Lesson Sequence	Session Outline This work will start all together to remind the students of the exercise activities we have been doing to build their analysis skills. They will move onto individual work where they will be writing analysis notes about their own design work. Student Activity Teacher Activity Sit round the front table and talk together about the analysis skills that we have been using over the past couple of weeks. Talk through the previous exercises with the students, with prompts to remind them what we did and why we did it. As the students are getting on with their own design analysis work, sit with them and provide one to one help where needed. Check through written work on Google Docs as they are doing it to provide suggestions and support. Scan student's work when complete and upload to the class Google Plus Communities The students will use their own design ideas - both design developments and their final designs, depending on where they are up to. Write analysis notes to go with all of their design work using the skills we have been building. Share ideas to the whole group about what we have been doing to remind themselves and others of the skills we have covered. Design work and notes to be scanned and uploaded to the class community - look at each other's work and read each other's notes.
Resources	Google Plus Communities with previous resources in for them to refer to. Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Scanner A3 paper, pencils, colours, outliner pens, drawing equipment.
Next Steps	The students need to write analysis notes on all of their design developments and their final designs to show their thinking.
Reflection and Analysis
	What went well. The one to one work with the students while they were working on their own design developments went really well as we could dig deep into their individual needs for each design. I could ask them very specific questions geared towards their work, not just generic ones for the whole class. The exercises and work we have been doing to build up towards their own analysis has really helped as they were able to tailor what we have been doing to their own work. What still needs work. The exercises and support work we have been doing in the last couple of weeks needs to start much earlier in the projects. We need to start doing this at the beginning of the project when we are starting to look at design work done by others. Year level specific support documents could help the students while they are getting on with their work. It is difficult for me to get round too many of them during a lesson as the work we are doing is in depth.

Student Work

Class Google Plus Communities

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir Lesson 12 - Design Analysis Each Day

See the whole Class OnAir team here

Direct Instruction

Direct instruction for this activity involved the students being round the front desk all together for the first 5 - 10 minutes of each lesson.
On the board each day, a picture of a different product is displayed for the class to talk about.
The questions are given verbally by the teacher and the class talk about the answers to these questions. There is no writing or typing involved from the students. They have to make suggestions them selves or listen to the input from others in the class.

These videos show the direct instruction at the start of each lesson. We spend 5-10 minutes analysing a different product each day. These videos are not all of our sessions, just the first few. As the videos progress, the students find it more difficult and this is a good thing as we are analysing deeper. The first video is shown here and the other three are links that show analysis of different products and at different depths of thinking.

These were the products that were discussed by the students each day.

This feedback is from some of the Year 11 group. We had gone through what I was going to ask them and they had practised what they wanted to say. Then when we filmed, they forgot some of the plan. It appears like I am leading them a little but I am just reminding them of what they had already decided they wanted to say.

Detailed Lesson Plan

Lesson Topic :- Product Design Analysis Team Work
Year Group :-  Year 11, 12 and 13
Learning Outcome	The students will be able to analyse existing products in increasing amounts of depth. The students will be able to give their ideas and opinions in front of the rest of the group. The students will listen and understand the ideas and opinions of others in the class.
Success Criteria Using SOLO	These have not changed much in the last two lessons as we are still doing design analysis exercises which incorporate the same skills and levels in SOLO. The focus of this work has been changing and the depth that we have been doing it has been increasing. Uni structural Multi structural Relational Extended abstract Students can identify the main parts of a design. Students can describe and list the design elements, properties, use and materials used in a design. Students can explain and compare elements of a design idea to show how they work together and the effects that they have. Students can evaluate the work of others and reflect on where design decisions have been made and generalise on why they were made.
Links with the New Zealand Curriculum	Level 2 Curriculum Level: 7 Learning Area: Technology Strand: Design and Visual Communication Achievement Objective: Outcome development and evaluation Critically analyse their own and others’ outcomes and evaluative practices to inform the development of ideas for feasible outcomes. Undertake a critical evaluation that is informed by ongoing experimentation and functional modelling, stakeholder feedback, and trialling in the physical and social environments. Use the information gained to select, justify, and develop an outcome. Evaluate this outcome’s fitness for purpose against the brief. Justify the evaluation, using feedback from stakeholders and demonstrating a critical understanding of the issue. Achievement Standard: AS91342
Key Competencies	Thinking - analysing the design based on a specific question or focus. Using language, symbols, and texts - talking about their ideas for the analysis. Managing self - Using the RISE values when doing this work as a whole group. Participating and contributing - Giving suggestions to the whole group. Listening to the suggestions of others. Relating to others - responding to the ideas of others in a positive way.
Prior knowledge	The students have been drawing their design developments for their Product Design project. We have been doing analysis exercises together on the class Google Plus Communities. We have been talking about and using analysis focussed vocabulary. We have made a start on analysing their own design development work.
Lesson Sequence	Session Outline The point of these short sessions is to spend 5 -10 minutes all together at the start of each lesson to verbally analyse a product. The product will be different each day. The focus questions for the analysis will start in the unistructural and multistructural levels of SOLO and slowly build in complexity each day and each product. The outcome is hopefully the students will be less worried about analysis as we are doing it regularly all together and showing the depth that is  needed. Student Activity Teacher Activity The students sit round the front table for 5-10 minutes at the start of each lesson. They look at a different product each day and analyse what they see. Project the product to analyse that day on the main board. Ask the focussing questions for the product that day. What shapes can you see? What forms can you see? What colours / textures can you see? What materials have been use? What properties do the materials have that make it suitable? How is the design used? How is is been designed to be safe? Record the answers that the students have given on a Google Drawing with the picture of the product and share this on the class communities for the students to refer to afterwards. Think about what they are looking at in terms of what questions the teacher is asking them. The focus for the product each day will be different, with an increasing level of depth, so they need to make sure they concentrate on the day’s product and analysis focus. The students are doing this exercise every day verbally, so they need to speak in front of the rest of the group and listen to what everyone else has to input.
Resources	Selection of images of products. Google Plus Communities Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Document - Describing Words
Next Steps	Students need to analyse their own design development work as they produce it. They need to go into enough depth so it is obvious what design decisions were made and why they were made.
Reflection and Analysis
	What went well. We have been doing this exercise everyday for a week at the time of writing this. The students have got used to what we are doing and understand why we are doing it. They come round the front table at the start of the lessons without too much nagging as they are coming in expecting to do the analysis exercise together. They are giving input to the sessions well and are listening to each other in a respectful way. We have been going into greater depth on each product analysis that we have done, and while the students have quite often struggled with the questions that I have been asking them, they have not given up and have offered suggestions. What still needs work. As I have realised recently that there is an issue with vocabulary, I should have been writing up the keywords the students were suggesting as they were doing it instead of afterwards. This would maybe have given these words more importance. We need to try and move the depth of the answers into the extended abstract area of SOLO, as we have not done this yet, so this will mean some modelling from me so they know what I want them to do.

Student Work

Class Google Plus Communities

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3