The One Word Quote lesson is a way to introduce students to theme and to Canva. Yes, we are creating our yearbook in Google Slides; however, we will use many free tools to create a professional-looking yearbook. Canva is one of them.
Theme
The theme your yearbook class will choose will drive the color combinations, elements, font pairs, and more. Of course, we need to show students how theme is related to design and how they naturally have a good eye for graphic design. To read more about theme, please visit the SlidesYearbook Style Guide.
What is Canva?
Canva is a free-to-use graphic design tool that teachers and students can use. Students under the age of 13 must have parental consent. To learn how to connect Canva to your Google Classroom, click here.
Canva is free for classroom teachers and allows teachers access to premium features. The teacher can send an invite code to students so that they have the same access.To learn more about Canva for Education, reach out to Scott Nunes on Twitter.
Student Directions
Below are the assignment directions and resources that I posted in Google Classroom for my junior high school students. Feel free to copy/paste and modify the lesson. Students will be given two resources: a whole-class Google Slide deck for completed designs and a link to the class Canva team.
In Google Classroom, you can create a Google Slides that all Students can edit or you can use my preferred method - Alice Keeler's Roster to Slides.
Instructions
LEARNING INTENTION: I will use design tools and my natural talent for design to create a one-word motivational graphic.
SUCCESS CRITERIA: I am successful when I can identify and comment on classmate's quality graphic design.
DIRECTIONS
- Work with the teacher to create a list one word motivational words. What words describe you and your friends? Keep it positive.
- Open the Canva for Education link.
- Search for motivational word or positive descriptor.
- Create a graphic for your ONE word.
- When done, click Share and select DOWNLOAD as a png.
- UPLOAD the completed image to your slide our class slide deck.
- Create multiple one word quotes.
- Look at your classmates' work. Compliment your classmates' designs using the shortcut CTRL + ALT + M.
PRIVATE COMMENT WRITING PROMPT
Look and comment on your classmates' work. In the private comments of the assignment, tell me who created the best design. Make sure to use proper capitalization and punctuation.
Example Student Work
Conclusion
Students have a natural eye for design. They know what they like and what they don't like. Google Slides is a completely blank canvas, which is wonderful for students who have been trained in graphic design.
We are in the beginning of the school year. Students are still learning graphic design. As such, student benefit from viewing and using quality templates found in Canva. As they create using Canva templates, students may notice how color combinations and font pairs support the one word quote. We will use this knowledge later when we decide on the yearbook theme.
While using Canva templates may feel like a drag-and-drop worksheet, albeit a fun one, the activity students complete today will be revised in future lessons. Students will recreate the same design they found on Canva but on a blank Google Slides. As for now, let students experience quality design with templates.
As always, I would love to hear from you if your students complete this or a similar lesson. Contact me on Twitter or the email contact form. Click on the link below to add the hashtag #SlidesYearbook and to tag me.