TEACHER ONLY · LESSON GUIDE
Graphic Design Lesson 4 — Paths, Shapes + Color
Your name tag idea, rebuilt in Canva as a Pop Art T-shirt. Teach colors and fonts with real examples, demonstrate Canva once, then leave the work slide up.
Teach with slides
Graphic Design Lesson 3 — Pop Art T-shirt Live Teach · 13 slides with teacher notes, one click-to-reveal color comparison, and real Canva captures. Use the deck to teach the lesson, then leave the final slide projected during work time. It shows the task, two examples, what done looks like, the filename, and how to submit.
Download PowerPoint Make a Google Slides copy
Make a Google Doc copy of the facilitator guide
Sign in with your Irving ISD Google account to make a copy. The master stays unchanged. Video links open in a browser.
The deck formats and facilitator guide are in the graphic-design Google Drive folder. You can also open the PowerPoint in Drive.
Daily Learning Contract
Topic: Paths, shapes, and color as visual language
Objective: Students will explain how path, shape, and color choices affect readability and meaning in a digital graphic.
- §126.19(c)(12)(H) — select and use productivity tools found in spread sheet, word processing, and publication applications to create digital artifacts, including reports, graphs, and charts, with increasing complexity.
Demonstration of learning: Completed Paths, Shapes, and Colors artifact plus a brief explanation of two deliberate choices and their intended effect.
Your name tag idea, rebuilt in Canva as a Pop Art T-shirt graphic. Students recall the Pop Art features from their Lesson 1 name tag, learn the color and lettering vocabulary they need, watch one live Canva demonstration, and build a design with a repeating background, text, a border, and any extra shapes. They export a PNG and upload it to Lesson 3 with one reflection sentence.
Open the teaching deck · Open the existing Canvas assignment
This is student Lesson 3 in Canvas and facilitator-guide Lesson 4, because the Read Visual Design video sits between Lessons 2 and 3. Keep that course order.
Before class
Open Canva through the school ClassLink account and start a blank design. Open Lesson 3 in Canvas so you can show the upload and the Comments box. Students need their Lesson 1 name-tag photo, which is in their Lesson 1 submission.
The assignment stays the same: one Pop Art T-shirt graphic that includes a repetitive background, text, a border around a shape or the text, and extra shapes if the student wants them. Submit one PNG through Lesson 3 and answer the reflection stem in Comments. Points, rubric, and the bilingual tabs are unchanged.
New this revision: a filename. Students name the export LastName-FirstName-Canva-Tshirt.png, matching the Lesson 2 convention. It is on the work slide, in the demo checklist, and in the assignment's export steps in both languages.
Teach the concepts first
| Slide | What you do | What students notice |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Design a Pop Art T-shirt | Point to the four features in the POP! artwork: flat bright color, repeated dots, bold lettering, thick outlines. | Every feature returns in the assignment. |
| 2. As you enter | Two minutes. Students finish "My name tag uses ___ and ___." Take two or three responses, then say the bridge: same word, same energy, now in Canva. | Yesterday's paper choices are today's digital choices. |
| 3. Your mission | Read the four required parts from the actual mission box. Point out that the name-tag idea already gives them the word and the feeling. | The product is a graphic, not a printed shirt. The four-version level-up is optional. |
| 4. Primary, secondary, tertiary | Point around the wheel: the three large circles are primaries; the middle circles sit between two primaries; the small circles sit between a primary and a secondary. | Pop Art favors primaries beside black outlines, which is why it feels loud. |
| 5. Same design, different colors | Ask which poster shouts and what changed. Vote A or B. Click once to reveal both labels and the explanation. | Nothing moved. Only the colors changed, and the mood changed with them. |
| 6. Change a color in Canva | Show the ring: each color circle in the toolbar is one color in the element. | Recoloring is a few clicks, one circle at a time. |
| 7. Repeat a shape to make a background | Walk through one circle, a row of four, then rows. Name the copy and paste shortcut. | Copy and paste builds a pattern quickly. A ready-made dot element is allowed too. |
| 8. Find Pop Art elements | Elements, search "pop art," click or drag. | Bursts and speech bubbles make borders; dot and stripe graphics make backgrounds. |
| 9. Add a border | Compare the two circles: same fill, border is the only difference. Name the shape route and the text route. | A dark border keeps a bright shape readable on a busy background. |
| 10. A font is a style of lettering | Read POP! in each style. Name what changes: height, width, weight, curves. | Pop Art letters are chunky. Thin or script fonts fight the style. |
| 11. Change the font in Canva | Five steps, with the real Text panel and the font-name control ringed. | The font name in the toolbar is where the change happens. |
Keep these exchanges short. Slide 2 is the one planned opening discussion and slide 5 is the one point-vote-reveal check. The rest is teacher explanation with the example on screen. A student who reads the two posters differently should point to the visible cue.
PowerPoint presentation mode: slide 5 reveals both labels and the explanation with one click. The next click advances. The reveal uses the same exit-cover mechanism as the approved Lesson 2 deck.
Slide 12: live Canva demonstration
Switch from the deck to Canva. Model the following in one short demonstration, about 6 to 8 minutes. Use your own practice word, not a student's design.
| Show this | Demonstrate | Connect it to the design idea |
|---|---|---|
| A blank workspace | Open Canva through ClassLink. Start a blank design and name it. | The name-tag word or name goes in first, so the design has a job. |
| Background | Open Elements, search pop art, and add a dot or stripe graphic. Or add a circle from Elements, Shapes, copy and paste it into a row, then paste the row. | A repeating background is required. Both routes count. |
| Burst or bubble | From the same search, add a burst or speech bubble and resize it from a corner handle. | This can be the border around the word. |
| Colors | With the element selected, click one color circle in the toolbar. Pick a primary. Repeat for the other circles. | Recolor one circle at a time so students see each change. Keep outlines dark. |
| Text and font | Open Text, click Add a text box, type the word. Click the font name in the toolbar, search a display font such as Bangers or Anton, click it. Enlarge with the size box or a corner handle. | A font is one style of lettering. Pop Art letters are chunky and high-contrast. |
| Border on text | With the text selected, open Effects and choose Outline. Set its color and thickness. | The border requirement can be met on the text or on a shape. |
| Border on a shape | Select a native shape. Open Stroke style, choose the solid line, and raise Stroke weight. | Fill is inside; the border marks the edge. |
| Layers | If the pattern covers the word, open Position, then Layers, and move the background to the back. | Front-to-back order decides what shows. Ordinary layering; no Combo app in this lesson. |
| Undo | Press Undo once so students see mistakes are cheap. | Try, look, undo. |
| Export | Share, Download, PNG, Download. Rename the file LastName-FirstName-Canva-Tshirt.png. | PNG is the required file type. The name shows whose work it is. |
| Submit | Open Lesson 3. Show Start Assignment, the file upload, and the Comments box. Read the stem and word bank. | One PNG and one sentence in Comments finish the submission. |
Use the visible controls in your school account. The deck shows real Canva captures from the school account: the pop art search results, the Colors panel, and the Font panel from September 15, 2026, plus the Stroke style panel and blank editor from September 7, 2026. Labels can differ for a text box, a grouped element, or an uploaded image. Confirm before class that Bangers, Anton, Luckiest Guy, Bebas Neue, and Lilita One appear in the font list; if not, any bold display font works.
The two links at the bottom of slide 12 open the existing lesson tutorial in English and in Spanish. Use them for an absent student or a replay. They are alternatives to the live demonstration, not another segment after it.
Slide 13: explain the task, then leave it up
Return to the work slide and leave it projected for the entire work block. It carries the four required parts, the completion checks, the filename, the export route, the reflection stem and word bank, two examples, and the actual Canvas assignment banner.
During work, check three things in order:
- The four parts: a repeating background, a word or name, a border, and optional extra shapes.
- The design choice: ask, "Which Pop Art feature did you use, and where is it?" The student should point to the dots, the border, the color, or the lettering and name it with a word-bank term.
- The submission: the PNG shows the whole design, the file is named
LastName-FirstName-Canva-Tshirt.png, it is uploaded to Lesson 3, and the Comments box holds one sentence: "My design looks like Pop Art because I used ___ to create ___."
Word bank on the slide: bright colors, repeating dots, strong borders, patterns, circles, lines, bold text, repetition.
If a student is stuck, start with the name-tag word alone in a chunky font, then add one background element. The existing level-up is four copies of the finished design with a different color scheme on each, submitted as one panel. Keep it optional.
Existing objective and evidence
TEKS §126.19(c)(12)(H): select and use productivity tools found in spread sheet, word processing, and publication applications to create digital artifacts, including reports, graphs, and charts, with increasing complexity.
Evidence: one PNG Pop Art T-shirt graphic with a repetitive background, text, a border, and optional extra shapes, plus the reflection sentence in Comments. Keep the current assignment's points, rubric, submission settings, and bilingual student resources.