11th Grade — Unit A: Foundations — The Design Process & Purpose: Copyright & Licensing for Professionals

🗓️ Before Class: Teacher Prep

Gather/set out: Printed licensing-tier comparison chart, Case-study scenario cards (mix of trademark/licensing/model-release situations).
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.

Day 1

Open / download this slide PDF

Day 2

Open / download this slide PDF

🧑‍🏫 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.

Day 1: 📋 Open Substitute Guide
Day 2: 📋 Open Substitute Guide

🎯 Essential Question

What do professional designers need to know about copyright, trademarks, and image licensing that goes beyond the basics?

📈 Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson (2 Days), students will be able to:

Define trademark, public domain, royalty-free, and rights-managed licensing.
Distinguish stock photography licensing tiers and when each is appropriate.
Explain when a model release is legally required.

📐 Standards Alignment

CDOS (Career Development & Occupational Studies)

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 1.3 — Determine the type of copyright, permissions, and licensing required to use specific content.

🎓 Study this for the ACP exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry

📚 Key Vocabulary

Trademark: A legally registered symbol, word, or phrase that represents a specific company or product.
Public Domain: Creative work no longer (or never) protected by copyright, free for anyone to use.
Royalty-Free: A license allowing repeated use after a one-time fee, under the license's terms.
Rights-Managed: A license that restricts use to specific, negotiated terms (e.g. one campaign, one region, one year).
Model Release: A signed legal document giving permission to use a photographed person's likeness commercially.

🧰 Materials & Tools

Printed licensing-tier comparison chart
Case-study scenario cards (mix of trademark/licensing/model-release situations)

🧠 Do Now (Warm-Up)

Have you ever noticed the little (R) or (TM) symbol next to a brand name? What do you think it actually does?

📁 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 “Copyright & Licensing for Professionals.” This project asked: “What do professional designers need to know about copyright, trademarks, and image licensing that goes beyond the basics?” I used Trademark 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 2 Days. Suggested pacing:

Day	Focus	Plan
Day 1	Licensing Tiers	Do Now (5 min). Mini-lesson (18 min): trademark vs. copyright, public domain, and the difference between royalty-free and rights-managed licensing, using the comparison chart. Guided practice (12 min): as a class, work through 2 scenario cards together. Independent start (10 min): begin working through remaining cards in groups.
Day 2	Case Studies	Do Now (5 min): what's the difference between royalty-free and rights-managed? Case-study stations (25 min): in groups, work through the remaining scenario cards, deciding what license or permission each situation requires. Whole-class review (10 min): review the trickiest cards. Written quiz (5 min): 4 questions on the new vocabulary.

✅ Assessment & Exit Ticket

Case-study answers checked against an answer key; a 4-question written quiz on the new vocabulary.

Exit Ticket: Explain the difference between royalty-free and rights-managed licensing in your own words.

📊 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.