What this course is. Graphic Design A is the first semester of a full-year career technical education course in the Arts, Media and Entertainment (AME) sector, pathway A: Design, Visual and Media Arts. It is the Open Curriculum Edition: it delivers the six units of The VR School’s approved UC record MQG4H5 on open sources and free software. The record names a commercial textbook; this edition replaces it with the CC BY 4.0 text Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals (BCcampus), U.S. government primary sources and SLS-written lessons. A separate Textbook Edition of the course is built elsewhere from the record’s book, so make sure students and families know which edition they are enrolled in.

Six record units in four course units. The record lists six units for the semester. Our four units cover all six, and each student unit states which record units it covers. The mapping is in the table below. The two record units that describe process, Developing Problem-Solving Skills and Practices for Better Solutions, are taught together in Unit 2 because the design process is one continuous skill; Design as an Iterative Process is taught explicitly in Unit 3 and practiced again in Unit 4’s revision cycle.

Standards. The CTE Model Curriculum Standards have eleven anchor standards (AME.1 academics through AME.11 demonstration and application) and eight pathway A standards (AME.A1-AME.A8). Across the full year every anchor and pathway standard is cited in a lesson; this semester alone touches every one. Each unit also carries CCSS literacy standards for technical subjects, mostly WHST.9-10 writing and SL.9-10 speaking, because students write briefs, analyses and rationales and present their work.

Why it is college-preparatory (area G). UC reviewers look for analysis, writing and reasoning, not only production. Point them to three features. First, every culminating project has a written component scored on its own criterion: a design analysis, an argument from test data, a reflection with evidence. Second, students reason quantitatively where designers do: pixel dimensions from print size and resolution, test percentages, proportions and type scales. Third, students read primary legal sources, including Copyright Office Circular 33, and apply the four statutory fair-use factors. Every project also moves through a plan, a peer-reviewed draft, a revised final and a presentation, which is the multi-draft process UC expects.