Outcome: Students leave knowing the basic class systems, which papers need signatures, and how their comic cover gives readers first clues about the hero. They also assemble the paper booklet they will use for the Comics sequence.

Before class

• Print or distribute the English or Spanish syllabus for students to keep.
• Prepare one VILS Lab Usage Agreement and one Verizon media release per student. These are the two papers that go home for signatures and return.
• The CREATE classroom rules are a quick recap today. The classroom-rules slide deck is not an additional signature form.
• Make one sample folded comic from three sheets of paper. Number the inside pages 1 through 4.
• Set out pencils, erasers, and coloring supplies. Decide where comics will be stored between classes.
• Decide whether students will staple at their tables or bring folded booklets to a supervised stapling station.

Paper handoff: keep the jobs separate

1. Students keep: the English or Spanish syllabus.
2. Students return signed: the VILS Lab Usage Agreement and the Verizon media release.
3. Teacher recaps: CREATE expectations, including phones in backpacks unless invited out and careful use of assigned devices.

One-period route

1. 8 minutes: Distribute the syllabus, recap the class systems, and identify the two signed return papers.
2. 3 minutes: Superpower bellringer and a concrete Smart Solutions welcome.
3. 8 minutes: Model stacking and aligning first, then folding and creasing, stapling, and the booklet check.
4. 7 minutes: Analyze the model covers using title, image, color, size, and placement as evidence.
5. 4 minutes: Study the student examples and preview the four cover requirements.
6. 16 minutes: Students sketch three thumbnails, choose one, and build the cover. Leave the cover-outline work slide projected.
7. 4 minutes: Partner quick read, exit sentence, and signed-paper reminder.

Check before students leave

Each cover needs a readable title, the hero's name, one central hero image, and colors or details that fit the hero. Students should be able to name one trait or idea and point to a visible design choice that communicates it. Drawing skill is not the target.

Support without lowering the thinking

• Keep the three thumbnail frames visible before students commit to a final design.
• Allow stick figures, traced shapes, labels, and collage.
• Keep the trait word bank visible.
• Use the stem: “My cover suggests my hero is ____ because I used ____.”

Handoff to Lesson 2: The cover tells us how the hero looks from the outside. The biography explains why that hero makes particular choices.