4th-6th Grade Style Guide

The Canvas Style Guide has been created to support teachers, students, and families in successfully navigating Canvas. This document provides a quick checklist for you to use when assessing your course and also lays out the expectations in more detail with links and other resources. Use this to help support you while building your Canvas course and in conversations with your Canvas support specialists and administration.

Keep in mind that Canvas is a platform that is used to facilitate outstanding pedagogy.

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In Provo City School District, Canvas is our chosen platform to share learning targets and success criteria, administer assessments, and provide feedback. It offers us the opportunity to further provide differentiation for each student's needs and to create flexible learning environments that help all students succeed.

Core Expectations:

Teachers and students should be comfortable using Canvas as a fundamental platform. Developing capacity for Canvas use in school early and regularly helps ensure that learning days are not lost in case of emergency.
Teachers should be prepared for an unexpected online learning day. Each teacher should prepare a few modules in advance that can serve as emergency sub plans or be used in case of illness, a snow day, or a digital learning day.
Teachers are not required to put everything on Canvas. Canvas should be used as an extension of your physical classroom but does not have to represent everything that takes place in that classroom. Use it to facilitate a flexible learning environment in class and provide needed resources outside of class.
Teachers are expected to be proactive in seeking assistance. Support is available through the Innovative Learning Initiative and your school-based Canvas support specialists to help you meet expectations and develop your proficiency in Canvas. Please do not hesitate to ask for needed help.

Teacher Account Settings

Required

Profile picture
Contact information
Notification preferences

All other information is optional.

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Canvas Course

Required

Use the Canvas for Elementary (C4E) interface
Use courses created from the Canvas/PowerSchool sync
Use the Homeroom course and designate it as the homeroom in the course settings
Use at least two of the subjects created from the sync - this helps students prepare for middle school and keeps subjects more organized
Publish subjects that are being used, unpublish any subjects that are not being used
If applicable, request cross-list of Canvas courses

Recommended

Add images to the course card for your Homeroom and subjects

Note: If a course you need isn’t created through the sync (e.g., Special Education, Extracurriculars, etc.), submit the New Canvas Course request form.

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Homeroom

Be sure to designate the Homeroom as such in the course settings

Announcements

Required

- Provide a welcome announcement at the beginning of the year including
  - A multimedia element
  - A welcome message
  - Instructions or video on how to navigate your Canvas course

Strongly Recommended

- Post an announcement every two weeks that includes a:
  - Banner image appropriate for the class/season
  - Teacher message
  - List/calendar of upcoming events, reminders, etc.
  - Any other celebratory content (e.g., focus students, etc.)
- Note: Your announcement could simply be the content of a newsletter that you already send home.
- Note: You can pre-schedule announcements and post duplicates so there is always an announcement on the homepage.

Resources

Using the Important Info page, include the following:

Required

- - Teacher welcome message, biography, and contact information
  - Link to disclosure document and other important class documents
  - Links for commonly accessed websites

Recommended

- - Link to learning supports page
  - Additional pictures, slides, etc. to help students get to know you
  - Links to previous class newsletters, if not in Announcements

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Subject Home Page

Required

Multimedia element (unless you have added a banner image in the course settings)
Links to commonly accessed websites
- Also posted under Resources using subject Important Info page

Recommended

Modules list or current module using DesignPLUS
A Daily Schedule

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Modules

Required

Use the modules to organize lessons and assignments
Clearly and consistently label modules (e.g., label modules by date, unit, topic, etc.)
Use a consistent organizational structure
The first page of each module is a content page that describes the learning targets, success criteria, and a sequenced list of the module tasks and assignments OR ensure that each lesson page or assignment includes this information
Prepare a few modules in advance as emergency sub plans or in case of an online learning day

Recommended

Modules may include the following content, as appropriate: content pages, assignments, discussions, files, external links, and quizzes
Include instructional materials used in class (e.g., Google Slides, guided notes, etc.) for students who were absent or may need to review, as appropriate.
Use icons and emojis to help students find materials.
If modules contain 10 or more items consider breaking it down into smaller pieces or use text headers to group content.
Unpublish modules not being used
Put the most recent module at the top of the modules list

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Assessments

Required

Clearly and consistently label assessments
Provide clear directions and success criteria
Provide due dates so assessments appear in the student's To Do list

Recommended

Use a variety of assessment types (assignments, discussions, quizzes, etc.)
Use rubrics
Grade using Speedgrader
If grading in Canvas, turn on "Hide totals in student grades summary" and "Hide grade distribution graphs from students" in Course Settings

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Recommended Design Elements

Use images that represent real people and diversity
Use consistent and appropriate fonts and colors
Use icons to represent specific learning tasks
Consider the length of content pages, and the amount of scrolling needed (less is more)
Embed content vs providing links that take students outside of Canvas, where possible
- Except YouTube videos, which should be linked
Monitor accessibility
- Provide alt text for images (including gifs)
- Provide closed captioning for videos
- Pay attention to contrast of text color and background color - be aware of color blindness

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