9th Grade — Elements & Principles of Design: Value

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

Look at the "Value" section of our reference chart. Find one object in the room that shows this concept.

🎯 Today's Big Question

What is value, and how do designers use it on purpose?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Define value using the class Elements & Principles of Art reference chart.
Identify value in at least 2 real design/art examples.
Create a grayscale value scale, then a simple object shaded using only that scale.

🧰 What You'll Need

Elements & Principles of Art reference chart (posted/handout)
Drawing paper
Pencils, erasers
Colored pencils, markers, or crayons
Rulers

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Understanding Value

Do Now (5 min): find one object in the room that shows today's concept.
Mini-lesson (10 min): define value using the reference chart and 2-3 real examples.
Guided sketch (10 min): as a class, sketch a quick shared example showing value. Independent studio time, part 1 (18 min): begin your own paper piece exploring value.
Quick check-in (2 min): show a neighbor where you're starting.

Day 2: Finishing & Critique

Do Now (5 min): explain value in your own words, no notes. Studio time, part 2 (25 min): finish your paper piece, applying value intentionally throughout.
Self-critique (3 min): before posting your work, write your own "I notice / I wonder" sentence about it.
Gallery walk & peer feedback (10 min): post finished work; using the "I notice / I wonder" protocol, leave one specific sticky note on a classmate's piece naming exactly how they used value, not just a compliment.
Written artist statement (5 min): 1-2 sentences on how you used value, and whether the feedback you received matched your own self-critique.

🖨️ Print Your Handout

Word, picture, and definition for today's vocabulary, plus a place to write and draw. Available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese.

Day 1: EN · ES · FR · AR · ZH
Day 2: EN · ES · FR · AR · ZH

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

Day 1

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

Day 2

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

📚 Key Words

Value: The relative lightness or darkness of a color or tone, perceived through levels of contrast.
Composition: The overall arrangement of elements and principles within a piece of design or art.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Finished piece scored with a simple rubric: correctly demonstrates value, shows effort/craftsmanship, and includes the 1-2 sentence artist statement.

Exit Ticket: In 1-2 sentences, explain how your piece uses value on purpose.

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📤 How You Submit This — For Credit

Your physical projects don't stay in the classroom past the day you finish them -- you're responsible for your own completed work, the same way you'd be responsible for it in any job. The one exception is your class notebook: it has its own designated spot in the room (ask your teacher exactly where), and most students leave it there day to day -- but it's yours, so if you'd rather keep it with you or bring it home to study from, that's your call. Either way, always know where your own notebook actually is. Before a finished physical piece leaves your hands for good: ask your teacher for one of the classroom cameras, photograph your finished (or in-progress) work, then plug that camera's SD card into a classroom computer and upload the photo into your portfolio folder. That uploaded photo, with a short caption, IS your submission for credit -- the photo is what gets kept and graded, not the physical piece.

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week (e.g. every Friday, or your class's last meeting of the week), photograph or save your best finished or in-progress piece from that week into your portfolio folder (a physical folder for now, or a Google Drive folder once one is set up) with a 1-2 sentence caption: what it is, and one skill it shows. In Grade 10 this becomes your Google Sites portfolio -- keep adding to it weekly from here on so you're not trying to reconstruct a whole semester of work at the end.

✍️ 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 “Elements & Principles of Design: Value.” This project asked: “What is value, and how do designers use it on purpose?” I used Value by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🎓 ACP Exam Prep

This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry

🔗 Want to Learn More?

Elements & Principles of Art reference chart (Project ARTiculate)

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same light-and-shadow logic Physics covers when studying how light behaves — value is just light, drawn.

Career Connection: Value control is what separates flat amateur work from professional-looking pieces in Fine Art and Illustration.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Draw the same simple object twice — once flat, once with a full value range — and write a short caption explaining the difference. Start here: pick a simple round object, like an apple or a ball, so the value range is easy to see, and block in the flat version first.
Illustrate a science diagram (an eclipse, a cell under a microscope) using only value, no color, to build real observational skill. Start here: convert your reference photo to grayscale first (Image > Mode > Grayscale), so you're forced to judge value instead of color.