Color

I decided I should make the objectives for the lesson this week. The students need to know what they will be learning about thus I made this graphic. It will be displayed throughout the unit for students to use as a reference. They are also in student friendly terms, specifically using I can. 

User:

1st grade students with multiple reading levels just starting to learn about rocks, silt, sand, and pebbles

Justification:

In the reading we are told that color can make a big difference in a graphic. At times color can be distracting and other times it can be necessary. (pg 266) To choose which color to display there are a few things to keep in mind; age appropriateness, reason for using it, and the effect that you want it to have. With that being said, since my users are in 1st grade I chose to go with colors that children prefer: bright primary colors. (pg 265) I chose the 3 primary colors that children prefer: red, yellow, and blue. I chose the yellow as the background because yellow is considered to alert you to something. I want students attention focused on the objectives of the unit. The same goes for red. Red also is considered a color to alert or excite you. Again, I wanted the students focus to be on the objectives.(pg 270) The blue for the heading was chosen because it was the last primary color. It was also used as a contrast to red words for the objectives. I also put a black border around the heading to separate the heading from the rest of the text.

User Test:
When I showed this to the other teachers who may use this and explained my justification they agreed that this would be a great way to keep the students attention on the objectives. They also agreed that they like the separation between the heading and the objectives. Many of them also like that they are in student friendly terms unlike many other graphics that are created.


Lohr, L. (2008). Creating graphics for learning and performance. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Figure and Ground

User:

1st grade students some with higher level reading skills and some with no reading skills. 

Justification:

The image is made for students to see a visual of a rock type to then be able to classify and identify a given rocks classification. While creating the image I made sure to keep in mind the figure and grounding described in Chapter 5. I wanted to emphasize what to look for in each of the main 3 rock types students would need to identify. 

Sedimentary rocks are layered in fairly equal layers. With my arrows, I made an equal sign and put the words equal and layer mixed in with the arrows to show two types of equal, 2 lines of text with 2 lines of arrows.

Metamorphic rocks are created with heat and pressure. Depending on the pressure of an area the layers in the rock form different patterns. Instead of showing a large rock and zooming in to one specific area, I just showed the zoomed in area depicting the waves in the rock formation. 

Igneous rocks are created for liquid lava that has cooled and hardened. Being that my students don't have a well developed vocabulary, cooled was not used in the graphic as not to confuse the meaning awesome with something that is no longer hot. 

I kept the words very concise so the students would be able to focus on rock type, then picture, then what to look for. The same color was used in the arrows to better contrast and to draw their attention to the picture more for those students unable to read. 

CARP

User:

The user of the graphic will be 1st grade students with an understanding of what rocks are. This graphic is intended to help them remember what each of the 3 main rock types represent. 

Justification:

The graphic created is for students to have a reference for the 3 main types of rocks using the CARP analogy.

C- To go along with the previous graphics created for the unit I put Rocks and the rock types in orange type. These are meant to stand out from the definition of each type of rock in black type. In addition to the color contrast, I added a border line to contain the rest of the graphic. 

A-All of the text is either right aligned or left aligned depending on where the text is. Each section is aligned within itself and with the other 2 sections. 

R-Throughout all the graphics the orange type color is repeated several times. The black is also repeated multiple times. 

P-The definition of each rock type  is close in proximity to its example picture and name. There is also a line under each of the sections to show the end. 

Each of the components of CARP help to create an image that can be effectively used for the students benefit. 

Peer Review

Overall my colleagues who reviewed this image thought that it would be a great addition to the unit. They also stated the images of the rock examples could be a little larger to show a larger connection of the definition to the picture. When it is being used in the unit I will increase the size of the canvas in order to increase the size of each of the images. 

Design Process Model

User

Each of the users for this graphic will be 1st grade students between ages 6-8 at multiple reading levels. 

Justification

The graphic was designed to meet the ACE (Analyze, Create, Evaluate) model.(Lohr, 2008, p.73). With the new rigor involved in teaching I want my students to be able to analyze the graphic and make it their own. I will provide my reasoning as to why I created what I did but this will also be something that my students will be able to figure out and make their own justification as to why it is the way it is. 

First, I knew I wanted to show that Silt, Sand, and Pebbles all are centered around Rocks. These are also the 4 main vocabulary words for the unit.

Second, I wanted to use the color contrast used in the PAT model. (Lohr, 2008, p.76). The white words (definitions) against the black background makes the words stand out. Also the the four vocabulary words are in a contrasting color next to the black. 

Third, for the most part I used the same font for the vocabulary words as I have used in other graphics created to give repetition to all the graphics being created. 

Each part is an integral part in the ACE model. 

User Test

While I haven't shown this to my students because I will be doing the unit later in the year, I did show it to my colleagues who I collaborate and teach with. The liked the contrast and they liked that the word rock was in the center of the 3 other pieces to show that the rock is the main part of each of the 3 components that are being discussed in our unit.