Substitute Teacher Guide • Grade 11 • Unit A: Foundations — The Design Process & Purpose
Color Theory Deep-Dive: Psychology, Culture & Accessibility — Day 2 of 2
Today's focus: Accessibility & Contrast
✅ Before Students Arrive
- Materials needed today:
- Digital or printed color wheel
- Brand logo examples for color-psychology discussion
- Adobe Color (or similar) for contrast checking
- Most students keep their class notebook at its usual spot in the room and use it every day (see routine below) -- but it's each student's own notebook, so a few may bring theirs from home instead. Either way, everyone should have one out.
- Write today's Do Now on the board before the bell rings (see below).
📓 Daily Notebook Routine (students already know this)
Keep this going every day, in your class notebook: date today's entry, jot your Do Now response, add any new vocabulary word(s) from today's Key Vocabulary section (word + a quick picture + a simple definition in your own words), and take 60 seconds to sketch something connected to today's topic. This notebook is yours to study from, reference on projects, and pull evidence from later for your portfolio.
📁 Portfolio Update Reminder
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.
🗣️ Opening: Do Now
Write or project this, and have students start immediately:
“Name the 3 color schemes from yesterday.”
📋 Class Plan (step by step)
-
Step 1 — 12 min
🗣️ Say: "Today we're looking at ___." Then walk through the point(s) below at the front of the room.
📋 Mini-lesson (12 min): color psychology in real brands, and why accessibility/contrast matters.
-
Step 2 — 23 min
🗣️ Say: "Now it's your turn -- work on your own (or with your table) on the following."
📋 Hands-on (23 min): check sample text/background combinations for legibility and redesign one that fails.
🔑 Vocabulary Introduced Today
- Color Psychology
- The emotional and cultural associations a color carries (e.g. red = urgency, green = growth).
- Contrast Ratio / Accessibility
- A measure of how readable text is against its background -- critical for viewers with low vision or color blindness.
✅ Wrap-Up: Exit Ticket
A few minutes before the bell, say: "Time to finish your exit ticket."
“Pick one brand's logo colors and explain the psychology behind why you think they chose that color.”
Collect exit tickets (or have students leave them in the usual spot) for the regular teacher to review.
⏳ If You're Short on Time
Protect the Do Now and the Exit Ticket above all else -- those are how the regular teacher tracks daily progress. If a step above is optional/homework, or is a "share out"/discussion step, shorten or skip it first.
⏳ If Students Finish Early
Have them keep working in their notebook: add extra detail to today's vocabulary sketch, review previous vocabulary, or -- if this is a portfolio update week for this class -- work on their portfolio. Early finishers should never be idle or distracting to classmates still working.
📝 For the Regular Teacher (fill in ahead of time)
- Regular teacher's name / how to reach them: ______________________________
- Where finished work / exit tickets go: ______________________________
- Front office extension / emergency contact: ______________________________
- Anything else this class needs to know today: ______________________________