10th Grade — Unit 12: Going Further: Deeper Illustrator: A Personal Mark or Logo

🗓️ Before Class: Teacher Prep

Gather/set out: Sketchbook, Illustrator (from earlier this year).
If today includes physical/hands-on work: make sure the classroom cameras are charged, working, and have a cleared SD card ready for photo uploads.
Pull up today's slide deck (see 🖥️ Slide Deck below) so it's ready to project.

🖥️ Slide Deck (project or share with students)

Short, on-the-board pacing slides for today's Do Now, agenda, vocabulary, and exit ticket -- the full detail lives in the handout above, not here.

🧑‍🏫 Substitute Teacher Guide

A scripted, step-by-step runsheet for today's class -- hand this to anyone covering the room who doesn't know the daily routine.

🎯 Essential Question

What does it take to design a mark that could genuinely represent you?

📈 Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson (3 Days), students will be able to:

Sketch at least 3 concepts for a personal mark or monogram before opening Illustrator.
Build the strongest concept as a clean, scalable vector file.
Explain the design decisions (shape, weight, meaning) behind the final mark.

📐 Standards Alignment

CDOS (Career Development & Occupational Studies)

CDOS 1 — Career Development -- students will be able to explain the range of career choices, and identify personal interests, skills, and aptitudes that relate to those choices.
CDOS 2 — Integrated Learning -- students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings.
CDOS 3a — Universal Foundation Skills -- basic literacy, communication, and problem-solving skills required for a career.

ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) Photoshop Exam Objectives

ACP 4.1 — Use core tools and features to create visual elements.
ACP 4.4 — Transform digital graphics and media.

🎓 Study this for the ACP exam: Domain 4: Creating and Modifying Visual Elements

📚 Key Vocabulary

Monogram: A design built from a person's initials, used as a personal or brand mark.
Scalable: A design that stays clean and sharp at any size, tiny or huge -- the whole point of a vector file.

🧰 Materials & Tools

Sketchbook
Illustrator (from earlier this year)

🧠 Do Now (Warm-Up)

If you had to represent yourself with one simple mark -- no words -- what shapes or ideas would you reach for first?

📤 How You Submit This — For Credit

How you submit today's work depends on what kind of work it was. Physical/paper work (most of this semester so far): photograph it with a classroom camera, upload the photo from its SD card onto a computer, and save it into your portfolio -- that upload is your submission, and the physical piece itself is yours to keep, the same as in Grade 9 (your notebook is the one thing with a home base in the room, and even that's your call to bring home when you want it). Digital work (once you're producing files in Photoshop, second semester on): no camera needed -- instead, EXPORT the file. Export your finished project as a JPG, as a PNG, AND save a copy as a PSD (all three), then upload all three into your portfolio. Either way: the portfolio upload, with a description, is what actually counts as turning the assignment in for credit.

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress piece to your portfolio (the Google Drive folder you started in Grade 9, becoming your Google Sites portfolio in Lesson 10) with a 1-2 sentence caption: what it is, what tool/skill it used, and one thing you learned. Keep it current -- don't save it all for the portfolio-website lesson.

✍️ 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 “Deeper Illustrator: A Personal Mark or Logo.” This project asked: “What does it take to design a mark that could genuinely represent you?” I used Monogram by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

📋 Main Workshop / Lesson Sequence

This lesson spans 3 Days. Suggested pacing:

Day	Focus	Plan
Day 1	Sketch	Do Now (5 min, above). Independent sketching (35 min): develop at least 3 real concepts on paper before touching software.
Day 2	Build	Independent work (40 min): build the strongest concept as a clean vector file in Illustrator.
Day 3	Refine & Explain	Independent work (25 min): refine details. Write (15 min): a short explanation of the design decisions behind the final mark.

✅ Assessment & Exit Ticket

Final mark assessed for clean vector construction and a genuine connection between concept and the written explanation.

Exit Ticket: What did you cut from your original sketches, and why did the mark get stronger without it?

📊 Pull up the anonymous Class Check-In for students to fill out before they go.

🧩 Differentiation & Accommodations

English Language Learners: provide translated or bilingual glossaries, visuals, and sentence frames; pair with a peer for meaningful participation. Students with IEPs: provide extended time, step-by-step checklists, and one-on-one or small-group support as specified in each student's plan. Attention-related needs: break the task into smaller steps, use visual timers, and minimize distractions. Students who finish early: extend the task by adding a second design variation, mentoring a classmate, or writing a short reflection connecting today's skill to a career pathway.

🔗 Resources & References

None beyond this lesson's materials.