Lesson Description:
Student Introduction to Publishing with Canvastic is not really
a lesson plan per se but some suggestions for introducing the program
to your students. How deeply you go and how quickly you cover all
the tools and options in Canvastic depends upon the age/ability
of the students and your goals for publishing.
Of course, since Canvastic's interface can be customized your introduction
will depend upon which preference set you are using with the specific
group of students. See the Preferences
section of the online documentation for complete information
on setting Canvastic up for your entire student body. Grades K-8.
Implementation Steps:
First, the instructor should be completely familiar with Canvastic.
Take time to read the documentation
(it isn't that long - only 30 screens of information!) and use the
program for an hour or two.
Second, decide which preference
sets you are going to use with your students. Answer these questions
for yourself:
- Are you going to have a different one for each grade?
- Are there any special education students that will require special
sets?
- Do you want to rename the sets to be more self-explanatory that
the K, A,B,C labels that came with the Canvastic download?
- Are you going to customize them? If so, do it before introducing
the program to the students.
Third, once you have your Canvastic environments setup and installed
you can introduce it to the students. Begin with an explanation
of the kinds of publishing projects that you can create with Canvastic.
Here are some links to examples:
Then, you might want to mention the upcoming project they will
be working on to tweak their motivation.
Next, open Canvastic (explaining how to choose the correct preference
set) and give a tour of the tools, colors, and options that are
available. You usually do not need to explain everything at once.
Just give them the basics of creating a picture, adding text, and
editing their work. There is a one page Help
Sheet that can be printed.
Then, let them explore the program freely for 10 minutes or so.
This can be an interesting discovery session for them.
Next, focus their attention on how certain tools work by giving
them small "assignments" to accomplish. This will help
them learn how a tool really works. They are forced to solve problems
if something doesn't work the way they thought it would. Here are
some example assignments:
- Create a house, or car, person with only one tool such as the
Line, try different ones
- Create the same picture but try to use all the tools
- Create a simple scene (boat, ocean, sky, clouds) and label everything
Finally, engage the students in a "real" publishing project
that will support their curriculum! See the online Idea
Exchange area for some great lesson plan ideas.
Preparation Notes:
Canvastic has been installed and the preference sets have been
customized and re-named if desired.
Student Prerequisites:
None.
Assessment:
Observational.
Resources:
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