Substitute Teacher Guide • Grade 9 • Unit 1: The Client & The Designer

Copyright, Licensing & Fair Use — Day 1 of 2

Today's focus: Copyright & Licensing Basics

✅ Before Students Arrive

Materials needed today:
- Printed scenario cards (at least 14, mixing clearly-OK / needs-license / fair-use situations)
- Sorting mat (3 columns, paper)
- Chart paper
- One additional real-world case-study handout for Day 2
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.

🗣️ Opening: Do Now

Write or project this, and have students start immediately:

“How does copyright affect what YOU are allowed to post online? Write 2-3 sentences about a time you saw this come up (a video, an image, a song).”

📋 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): what is copyright, and what happens if you break it? Introduce licensing and Fair Use as the two ways around it. REMEMBER, write on the board and have students copy (5 min): giving credit in the caption or metadata is NOT the same as getting permission -- it can still lead to legal trouble.
Step 2 — 15 min

🗣️ Say: "Get into your groups."

📋 Small groups (15 min): sort the first half of the scenario cards into the 3-column mat, discussing as they go.
Step 3 — 8 min

🗣️ Say: "Here's what we're doing next." Then read the instructions below to the class.

📋 Whole-class check (8 min): review the 2 trickiest cards together.

🔑 Vocabulary Introduced Today

Copyright: The exclusive legal right of a creator to publish, reproduce, and control their own original work.
Licensing: Gaining official permission to use someone else's copyrighted work, often for a fee or under specific conditions.
Fair Use: A legal exception that allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission for purposes like criticism, commentary, teaching, or research.

✅ Wrap-Up: Exit Ticket

A few minutes before the bell, say: "Time to finish your exit ticket."

“In your own words, what's the difference between licensing an image and claiming fair use?”

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: ______________________________