11th Grade — Unit F: PBAT & Portfolio: Building Your Digital Design Portfolio

🗓️ Before Class: Teacher Prep

Gather/set out: All work from the year (files/photos), Portfolio platform (Google Sites, PDF, or physical binder).
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

How do we curate and present a full year of work as a professional portfolio?

📈 Learning Objectives

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

Select the strongest 6-10 pieces from across the whole year (history studio work, typography, Photoshop projects, client projects).
Write a short, specific caption for each piece (what it is, tools used, one thing learned).
Organize the portfolio (physical, PDF, or website) in a logical order that tells a growth story.

📐 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.
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 5.1 — Prepare images for export to web, print, and video.

🎓 Study this for the ACP exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry · Domain 5: Publishing Digital Media

📚 Key Vocabulary

Portfolio: A curated collection of a designer's best work, organized to show skills and growth to others.
Curation: The deliberate process of selecting only the strongest, most representative work -- not everything you made.
Growth Story: A portfolio narrative that shows how your skills specifically developed over time, not just a random collection.

🧰 Materials & Tools

All work from the year (files/photos)
Portfolio platform (Google Sites, PDF, or physical binder)

🧠 Do Now (Warm-Up)

If you could only show 3 pieces from this entire year, which 3 would you pick, and why those?

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

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.

✍️ 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 “Building Your Digital Design Portfolio.” This project asked: “How do we curate and present a full year of work as a professional portfolio?” I used Portfolio 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	1	Curate: students review the full year's work and select their strongest 6-10 pieces.
Day 2	2	Caption & organize: students write specific captions and arrange pieces in an order that tells a growth story (not just chronological by default).
Day 3	3	Build & polish: students finalize their portfolio in their chosen format, checking for consistency, working links/images, and professional presentation.

✅ Assessment & Exit Ticket

Portfolio scored with a rubric: 6-10 strong pieces, specific captions, logical/intentional organization.

Exit Ticket: What order did you put your work in, and why did you choose that order instead of just chronological?

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

🧩 Differentiation & Accommodations

English Language Learners: model every step live, then check in one-on-one; provide translated materials and vocabulary support as needed. Students with IEPs: apply the accommodations and modifications listed in each student's plan (examples include extended time, graphic organizers, speech-to-text tools, chunked instructions, and visual schedules). Students with attention-related needs: break tasks into short, checklist-driven steps and provide brief movement or focus breaks. Students ready for a challenge: take on a leadership role critiquing peers' work, extend the project with a second iteration, or research how today's skill is used professionally in the field.