Lesson plan Grade 6 Art & Music
A New Look for Copperline Water District: Logo Design and Critique
A grade 6 design lesson where students create logo concepts for a water utility, then write a short argument recommending one draft using stated design criteria.
Objectives
- Students will design a simple logo concept for a water utility.
- Students will judge draft logos against a shared list of design criteria.
- Students will write a short argument recommending one design with reasons.
Vocabulary
Key words: logo, wordmark, symbol, criteria, critique
Teacher overview
Copperline Water District (a fictional utility for this lesson) is starting a long program to replace aging pipes, and it wants a fresh logo that people will notice on trucks, letters, and signs. Old buried pipes fail more often as they age, which is why many real districts pair a repair program with a public campaign so residents understand where their money is going. In this lesson students work as brand designers. They learn what makes a logo work at small sizes, sketch their own concept, and then judge a set of drafts against clear criteria. The lesson closes with a short piece of argument writing in which each student recommends one draft and defends the choice with reasons, so a design opinion becomes a supported claim rather than a matter of taste.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Show the class three well-known simple logos shrunk down very small. Ask which ones still read clearly at that size and why. Establish that a strong logo stays clear when it is tiny and works even in one color.
Direct instruction (12 min): Introduce three design criteria for the Copperline logo: it should be simple, it should connect to water or pipes in some way, and it should still read at a small size. Show a wordmark (the name styled as type) next to a symbol (a small picture mark) so students know both count as logo ideas. Post the criteria checklist where everyone can see it.
Draft logos (18 min): Each student sketches one logo concept for Copperline Water District, either a symbol, a wordmark, or both together. Remind students to test their idea by drawing it once large and once about the size of a coin.
Critique gallery walk (12 min): Lay three teacher-prepared draft logos, labeled A, B, and C, at the front, or use three strong student drafts. Students walk past and rate each draft against the three criteria on their checklist. As a formative check, take a quick thumbs poll on which draft best meets the "reads when small" criterion, and note any draft that fewer than half the class supports so its weakness can be discussed.
Argument write and share (8 min): Each student writes a short paragraph that names the draft they recommend and gives at least two reasons tied to the criteria. Two or three volunteers read their recommendation aloud.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Differentiation
Support
Provide a criteria checklist with a simple rating scale (weak, fair, strong) next to each criterion so students can mark judgments before writing. Offer sentence starters such as "I recommend draft ___ because ___" and "It meets the criterion of ___ since ___."
Extension
Ask students to redesign the draft they rated weakest so that it better meets all three criteria, then write a short note explaining each change they made and which criterion it improved.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "logo," "symbol," "wordmark," and "simple" with paired images. Allow the recommendation to be written as a short bulleted list of reasons before it is turned into sentences, and let students discuss their choice with a partner in their home language first where possible.