Elements of Design in a Real Room

Standards

Enduring understanding and essential question

Big idea: Every room is already made of the same eight things: line, shape, form, space, color, texture, pattern, and light. Designers do not add them. They notice them and move them.
Essential question: If you could change only one element in your room, which one would change the room the most?

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. (Low: remember or understand) Given the list of eight elements of design, define each in a phrase and give one example from a room.
2. (Mid: apply or analyze) Given a described room and the classroom itself, locate one example of each of the eight elements in both and explain what each one does to the feel of the room.
3. (High: evaluate or create) Given a rough sketch of a bedroom, create a rearranged version that changes at least three elements and justify each change by its effect on function or feel.

Vocabulary

Tier 2 (general academic): element, locate, effect, function
Tier 3 (FACS): line (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved), shape, form, space (positive, negative), color, texture, pattern, light (natural, artificial), interior design. See the unit vocabulary list for Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Materials and setup

• Handout, one per student: Handout 04.06 - Elements Hunt.md (the eight elements table, the described room, the classroom hunt, the sketch box)
• Pencils and a few rulers per table; colored pencils in a shared cup per table for the sketch
• Slides: Slides 04.06 - Elements of Design in a Real Room (one slide per element with a described photo; one slide with the described living room)
• Timer visible to the class
• Setup notes: before class, look at your own room with the eight elements and pick one obvious example of each you can point to (the vertical lines of the cabinet doors, the round clock, the rectangular tables, the empty corner, the color of the wall, the rough cork board, the tile pattern, the window versus the overhead lights). Allergy check: none needed.

Pre-assessment

The Home Safety and Conservation Quiz is graded; the "needs more" students are noted for the Lesson 4.7 review. For today, the do now is the pre-assessment: how many students already use words like line and texture without being taught.

Do now and hook (Time: 5 min)

On the board: "Look around this room. Write three words for what you see. Not objects. Not 'desk' or 'sink.' Words like straight, round, rough, bright, crowded, empty."

Debrief: cold call six students, one word each, and write them on the board. Group them out loud as you write: straight and tall go to line; round goes to shape; rough goes to texture; bright goes to light; crowded and empty go to space. Then the hook: "You just named five of the eight elements of design without knowing it. Designers get paid to notice these on purpose. By the end of today you will be able to walk into any room and see all eight."

Procedure

Questions to ask

Monitor understanding:

• What is the difference between shape and form?
• Is the empty corner of this room an element? Which one?
• Name the pattern nearest to you right now.

Deepen learning:

• Why does the same room feel different at noon and at night if nothing moved?
• A room has no pattern at all. Is that calm or boring? Who decides?
• If light changes every other element, why do people pick paint colors in a store instead of in the room?

Check for understanding

Clipboard checklist during Step 2: for each team, a yes or no on "all eight found in the described room," "all eight found in the classroom," and "the effect column says what the element does, not just where it is." A team with three yeses is ready for Lesson 4.7. A team writing "the wall is blue" in the effect column gets the question: "And what does blue do to the room?"

Closure (Time: 4 min)

3-2-1 exit card: 3 elements you can find in your own room tonight, 2 elements you changed in your sketch, 1 element you are still not sure about. Three students read line 3 aloud; answer each in one sentence. Sort into "got it" and "needs more." The "needs more" element (usually form versus shape) gets one more slide at the start of Lesson 4.7.

Differentiation and supports

• ELL: every element slide has a photo and the word in Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish under it (see Vocabulary 04.md); the handout's element table has a picture column; sentence starter for the effect column: "The ___ makes the room feel ___." Pair each ELL student with a partner who can point at the classroom example.
• IEP and 504 (general): teams of three so the classroom hunt can be split (one student takes line, shape, form; one takes space, color, texture; one takes pattern and light); the described room has each element in its own sentence; the sketch can be done with paper cut-outs from Handout 04.10 moved on the box instead of drawn; extended time on the sketch as homework; fidgets allowed.
• Grade 6 support: the hunt asks for five elements (line, shape, color, texture, light) in each place; the sketch changes two elements instead of three.
• Grade 8 stretch: the effect column must name a second element that the change also affects ("moving the desk to the window changes light and also space"); the sketch adds one sentence on what the change costs, free or money (this previews EDM 3. a)).
• UDL checkpoint used: multiple means of representation (each element is a photo, a phrase, and a real thing in the room) and multiple means of action and expression (the sketch can be drawn, built with cut-outs, or described in a list).
• No-kitchen or no-machine alternative: not a lab; no alternative needed.

Assessment

Homework

None. Optional: find the eight elements in one room at home and write them on the back of the handout. No photos.

Connections

Art: the art teacher teaches the same elements with a slightly different list (value instead of light, no pattern); a five-minute swap of vocabulary keeps students from thinking they are two different things. FACS gives the art teacher a real room as the canvas; art gives FACS the drawing skills the sketch needs. [Sal: ask the art teacher which list she uses so the Design Vocabulary Check matches.]

Sources

• NYS Middle Level CTE FACS Content Module 04, Environmental Design and Management (nyctecenter.org, June 2018), line 2. c). Copy in 02 Standards/NYS Module PDFs/.
• NYS Middle Level CTE Theme Module, Problem Solving and Innovation, lines 2. a) h. and 2. b). Text per 02 Standards/NYS ML CTE FACS Modules - verbatim extract of all twelve.md.
• NYS Learning Standards for Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences (1996), Standard 2, Intermediate. Wording per the crosswalk, Part A.6.
• National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education 3.0 (LEAD FCS Education, 2018), competencies 11.2.1 and 11.2.3, per 02 Standards/STANDARDS SOURCES - web research.md.
• Sal's own materials: the "Your Room, Your Rules" Brentwood packet (Unit_1_Interior_Design) supplied the eight-element list, the Design Element Detective table, and the rearrange-your-room sketch; the teacher side, the described room, and the effect column are new here.

Teacher notes

• If time runs short, cut Hunt A (the described room) and run only the classroom hunt; the described room becomes the Lesson 4.7 do now. Never cut the sketch; it is the first draft students will reuse in the project.
• Common mistake: shape versus form. Say it as "shape is the drawing, form is the thing." Hold up a piece of paper (shape) and a mug (form).
• Common mistake: writing where the element is instead of what it does. The clipboard question is always "and what does that do to the room?"
• Keep the sketches. They go in the FACS folder and come out in Lesson 4.11, when the client brief asks students to redo a room for someone else.
• [Sal: your Brentwood packet had the Marcus story about the cramped room. It works as a two-sentence hook if you want a story instead of the word list; keep the name fictional and do not reuse it in other lessons.]