My Year 11 class are looking at some of the design elements in the work of their chosen architect. The first one we are doing is form, where they have to make the forms they see in plasticine. We then take photographs of the models, print hem out and then draw from the photographs.
Link to my example - we include the photos, the drawings, descriptions of the drawings and photographs of the specific designs from the architect that were used as the influence. We are using Hapara workspaces to put together the work in one place.
Some of my students completed this work on form and have blogged about it before moving onto the next design element of pattern. I got them to include the page from their presentation and a description of what they had done.
Link to my example blog- I did an example blog with my work to show them how I wanted them to do it and what I wanted them to include.
Here are some of the blog posts about from form the class.
I have been in and put comments on the completed ones, again to give them an idea of writing a comment and giving feedback on each other's work. When the rest of the class has done their blog posts, we will have a session where we all go in and make comments on each other's blogs. I will be giving them guidelines on what to comment about. This will change on each blog post we do as the focus of the work will be different on each.
Comment Guidelines
What does this show about the chosen architect?
What have they done well on their page? - this could be drawing in 3D, shading, showing the design element of form well
My Year 13 class have been working on AS91627 in Design and Visual Communication.
Before the country went into Level 4 lockdown, we were well into the work. We have had training sessions with Pippa Lawler - blog post here and have been working our way through analysing our observational drawings through the lens of some of the design elements.
Now we are back to school, we have been working on a combination of the design brief for the product design project - link to workspace here or continuing on with the design elements work - link to class site. While we were on lockdown, I had started to put together examples and screen recordings of the design brief work so that students can get up to date when they are ready to. Link to help page on the class site here. This is an ongoing project for me, and this will expand over time as I make more "help" elements for the students to refer to.
The upshot of all of this is the students choosing what they want to focus on when they come into the class.
I have started putting together a presentation of the completed design element sheets as they complete them. This will be shared with the whole class so they can see each other's work.
This is no where near all of the students or all of their work (as of typing this post). I will keep it up to date as they complete this work.
I am hoping that seeing each other's work as they progress, it will inspire them to feel good about their own as they can see similarities in process in the work of others.
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.
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.
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.
The start of the lesson is the students sat at the front for about 10 minutes of the double period (100 minutes). They are listening to the teacher go over the activity that they will be doing for the double period so they are clear what they have to do.
The activity involves them choosing 6 of the provided design terms and illustrating them visually.
They can either illustrate with a found image or they can draw their own illustrations.
Direct Instruction video
The students are round one table listening to the instructions for the first part of the lesson.
It is just the teacher talking with not a lot of interaction between the students for about 10 minutes. The interaction came during the lesson as they were getting on with their work and discussions were had between each other and the teacher.
This video shows a speeded up version of the ongoing lesson. Here you can see the students getting on with their work and interacting with the teacher as they move around the room offering support where needed.
Here are some of the students explaining their work as they do it.
This is the presentation that was shared with the students in the class community so they have an example of each word to look at.
These are the images used for the explanation at the start.
Level 1 Google Plus Community
Lesson Topic :- Design Word Illustration
Year Group :- Year 11 (Jump Start )
Learning Outcome
The students will understand the meaning of a set selection of design words.
They will be able to illustrate these design words so they can see their meanings in a visual way.
Illustrate 2 or 3 design words from the list with images sourced online. These images identify the main meaning of the word.
Illustrate all of the design words from the list with image that describes the meaning of the words in a design sense.
Illustrate all of the design words on the list with images that are found or drawn. These images clearly explain how the word is used in a design sense and how it can be used to compare the design element in a design.
Illustrate all of the design words with drawn images that they have created themselves. The work shows that the student can use the word in context when reflecting on a design.
Thinking - decide how they want to illustrate the selected words so the meaning is visually clear.
Using language, symbols, and texts - understand the meaning of a word and represent that meaning visually.
Managing self - Staying on task and thinking of own ideas to illustrate the words.
Participating and contributing - joining in the group chat with ideas.
Relating to others - helping others out with ideas where needed. Respecting each other’s different ideas.
Prior knowledge
The students have analysed movie posters using a set of design words.
The students have drawn where some basic design elements are in their chosen architects work.
Lesson Sequence
Session Outline
The students will look at a presentation of examples of illustrated design words. They will then make their own presentation using the same design words but finding their own illustrations or drawing their own and scanning them.
Student Activity
Teacher Activity
Sit around the front table and listen to brief introduction.
Look through the presentation that has been shared on the class community with ideas for illustrations for each word.
Listen to each other as they give verbal suggestions as a whole class as to what could be used to illustrate each word.
Facilitate discussion around the front table about the example presentation and what images the class think could illustrate each word.
Oversee the work as it progresses, help where students are stuck, give ideas and suggestions.
Provide materials where needed if students want to draw their own illustrations.
Scan any drawings the students produce and share them into the community for them to access - go over with them briefly how to do this as we have not done this yet.
Facilitate discussion and decisions regarding choice of illustrations.
Print off the chosen ones and present on the back wall for the class to refer to.
Make a presentation of their own with each one of the design words on a separate page.
They can find an image online using Google Image search to illustrate the word or they can draw what they think it looks like - if they draw it, their drawing will need to be scanned.
Share their presentations into the class community
Look at everyone else’s presentation.
Discuss and decide as a class which illustration fits each word the best - it could be more than one if they like.
Print selected illustrations ready to present on the classroom wall.
Reflection and Analysis
What went well.
Allowing the students the choice of how to present the work was interesting as it is producing some really varied and personal outcomes. The problem with letting them draw their own is that it is taking a lot of time but the results are really interesting.
There was a good understanding shown of the meanings of the words and the visual illustrations are going to be useful on the wall in the future.
There was plenty of time during the lesson as the whole class got on with the task for me to move around the room and have conversations with individuals and give help with understanding where it was needed.
It was good listening to the students explain their drawings to me verbally, as it really showed their understanding. This did not come out SO well in the video of their work as they were shy on the camera. (it is only the second class on air recording for this new group)
What still needs work.
Everything always seems to take WAY longer than you originally think it is going to. We are going to have to spend some more lesson time after this double period to finish this activity, but I think it is important to finish it to a good standard as they are going to use this work to refer to later.
Although I did speak to the students for about 10 minutes at the start of the lesson, I feel it was important to set the tone and make sure they understood the task and took it seriously enough. It was only 10% of the overall lesson time.
The students only had to pick 6 of the words, but getting some of them to pick one and make a start was a bit of a mission. Maybe if I had specified the first one just to get them going it would have been a cleaner start, and they could have had the choice after that of the next 5.
The students are to work in pairs or small teams to analyse movie posters. They will be given a set of design words that they have to discuss between them and decide where to apply the words on the poster. They will stick these word labels onto the most relevant place on their movie poster.
They will then find the meanings of the words using dictionary.com and discuss if they think the definitions that they find are able to be applied to how the word is being used on their poster.
They will then write their own definitions to go with the labels on their posters.
Here is some of the ongoing discussion that was happening during the lesson.
Here is the direct instruction for finding the definitions of the design words using Dictionary.com.
Here is the end of the lesson, summing up what we have learned today and discussing the definitions.
Lesson Topic :- Analysis of Movie Posters
Year Group :- Year 11 (Jump Start )
Learning Outcome
To be able to understand and use some basic design terms related to poster design.
To identify where one or two of the design words are used in the supplied movie poster.
To be able to describe where most of the design words are used on the movie poster to each other in their teams.
To explain how the design words apply to different parts of a poster design and relate how they can be used to describe more than one area.
To understand and apply the design words to the movie poster designs. To be able to use the words in new contexts and understand the meanings and different uses.
Thinking - deciding where the words go on the posters to describe the various elements.
Using language, symbols, and texts - understanding what the different areas of a layout design are.
Managing self - working productively in small teams and staying on task.
Participating and contributing - making sure they contribute to the team decisions.
Relating to others - listening to the opinions of others that might not be the same as their own.
Prior knowledge
The class have done some graphics work in Year 9 and Year 10.
Lesson Sequence
Session Outline
The class will work in pairs or small groups to analyse movie posters using a set collection of chosen design words.
Student Activity
Teacher Activity
Listen to teacher instructions about what the activity is about.
Discuss and decide within their pairs / small teams which words go where on the posters.
Share out the design words and blue tac between the teams.
Make sure each team has access to one of the movie posters.
No input will be given as to the meanings of the words before the activity starts.
Facilitate whole class discussion of the decisions made by each team and suggestions of any changes that could be made as to where the labels need to go.
Photograph the layouts and labels in place and upload them to the class Google Plus Community for the whole class to see them all.
Supply description labels and pens for students to add to their posters.
Listen to the definitions found and guide discussions about the appropriateness of the description to the task.
Put the completed posters / words / definitions on the classroom wall for future reference.
Use blue tac to stick the words onto the movie posters in the places where they have decided they will go.
Look at the layout / posters / labels of the other teams.
Discuss as a whole class each one and decide / suggest any changes that might need to be done, with reasons for their suggestion.
Choose one of the words from the labels and look it up on dictionary.com.
Discuss in their team if the definition matches how the word is used in the activity.
Make a description label to go with their poster for the word they chose.
Add the description to the poster layout ready to put up on the classroom wall.
The design terms that they have been using and applying today will be used in their own design work when they get to poster layout design.
Reflection and Analysis
What went well.
The students worked quite well in their pairs and small teams considering this was their first time doing this in the lesson. I was pleased with the level of communication between them when they were deciding where to put the design word labels. They had a really good try with everything I asked them to do in this session and we got through a lot of work today. Some of them were willing to speak their ideas to the whole group. They had a go with all of the word labels they were given, even the more difficult ones.
I am pleased I decided to do this activity over a double period as it gave us lots of time and not rush through any element.
What still needs work.
As this was our first lesson doing literacy, I was over controlling and talked FAR TOO MUCH. As I get more confident myself in doing this kind of work, I hope I am able to let go more and let the students lead.
There was little bit of slacking off in the pairs, with a couple of them letting their partner do most of the work.
