10th Grade — Unit 12: Going Further: Passion Project: Design Something You Actually Want

🗓️ Before Class: Teacher Prep

Gather/set out: Any tools/software used so far this year, Careers in Design hub, for inspiration.
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 happens when the brief is entirely your own choice?

📈 Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson (5 Days), students will be able to:

Choose and scope a self-directed design project based on genuine personal interest.
Plan and produce the project using any combination of skills learned this year.
Justify the project's scope as realistic for the time available.

📐 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 3b — Career Majors -- knowledge and skills required for success within a specific career pathway (here, Digital Design).

ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) Photoshop Exam Objectives

ACP 1.1 — Identify the purpose, audience, and audience needs for preparing images.
ACP 2.2 — Navigate, organize, and customize the application workspace.

🎓 Study this for the ACP exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry · Domain 2: Project Setup and Interface

📚 Key Vocabulary

Self-Directed: A project where you choose the brief, not just the execution.
Scope: How big or small a project is -- realistic scoping means finishing something real instead of starting something huge.

🧰 Materials & Tools

Any tools/software used so far this year
Careers in Design hub, for inspiration

🧠 Do Now (Warm-Up)

If nobody assigned you a project for the rest of the week, what would you actually choose to make?

📤 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 “Passion Project: Design Something You Actually Want.” This project asked: “What happens when the brief is entirely your own choice?” I used Self-Directed 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 5 Days. Suggested pacing:

Day	Focus	Plan
Day 1	Choose & Scope	Do Now (5 min, above). Pitch (20 min): each student proposes a project idea and scope to the teacher for a quick feasibility check. Plan (15 min).
Day 2	Produce	Independent production work (40 min).
Day 3	Produce	Independent production work (40 min).
Day 4	Produce & Push Further	Independent production work (40 min), pushing past a first draft.
Day 5	Finish	Finish and prepare to share (30 min). Quick share-out (10 min).

✅ Assessment & Exit Ticket

Project assessed against the student's own stated scope: did they finish what they realistically set out to make?

Exit Ticket: Now that it's done, would you scope this project the same way again, or differently?

📊 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.