[Related Course: Create a Custom Block Theme #1] How Classic and Block Themes Are Developed - Lesson Plan #832
Description
IMPORTANT:
** This lesson plan belongs to part of a greater course, Create a Custom Block Theme #1 **
Please reach out to @arasae (Sarah Snow) in the #training team Slack if you would like to help with this lesson plan.
Topic Description
This lesson explores the differences between how classic themes were developed vs. how new block themes can be developed. One of the key goals is to illustrate that someone can create a fully functional block theme without touching much code; they can design almost everything they need right there in the site editor. I
It's important to also discuss the limitations as well theming during this lesson in order to set appropriate expectations and support the idea of where additional development resources (soon to be available in the 2nd Block Course series) can extend a theme even further to do even more remarkable things.
**Potential Ask: ** A workshop that explores the high-level processes of creating a classic theme vs. a block theme would be particularly helpful to include with the text-based content.
Objectives
After completing this lesson, participants will be able to:
- Explain the process of block theme creation
- Compare and contrast the differences between classic theme creation and block theme creation
Guidelines
Review the [team guidelines] (https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/guidelines/)
Development Checklist:
- Review any related material on Learn
- Description and Objectives finalized
- Gather links to Support, other learn.wordpress.org existing resources, and Developer Docs
- Create an outline of the example lesson walk-through
- Draft lesson plan
- Write Workshop Script to Accompany Lesson
- Find a Figma one-pager example.
- Copy edit
- Style guide review
- Instructional Review
- Final review
- Publish
- Announce to the Training team
- Announce to lesson plan creator
- Announce to marketing
- Gather feedback from lesson plan users about the quality
Repo Structure and Lesson Plan Template
Please remove all blockquote comments such as this before publishing.
Target Audience
Who is this lesson intended for? What interests/skills would they bring? Put an "x" in the brackets for all that apply.
- Users / Content Writers
- Designers
- Beginner-Level Developers
- Developers
- Speakers
- Organizers
- Kids
Experience Level
How much experience would a participant need to get the most from this lesson? Put an "x" in the brackets for all that apply.
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Type of Instruction
Which strategies will be used for this lesson plan? Put an "x" in the brackets for all that apply.
- Text-and-Image-Based, Remote-First Course
- Exercises
- Slides
- Video Tutorial
Time Estimate (Duration)
How long will it take to present this lesson? Put an "x" in the brackets for the one that applies.
- 1-5 Minutes
- 5-10 Minutes
- 15+ Minutes
- 1 hour or less
Prerequisite Skills
Participants will get the most from this lesson if they have familiarity with:
These are important to include in case someone wants to use this lesson plan in-person as a stand-alone lesson.
- See previous lesson plan: [Related Course: Create a Custom Block Theme #1] Different Types of Themes: Overview - Lesson Plan #831
Readiness Questions
See previous lesson plan: #831
Slides
If someone wanted to run this lesson as a stand-alone Online Live Workshop or at an in-person WordCamp, you could create slides for this here; if you run a Live Online Workshop on one of these topics or find someone else has, related slides would be welcome!
No slides; this could be an interesting live workshop, though, if someone wanted to run one on this topic!
Change the
/repo-name/in the link to match the URL name of this repo.
- Slides (files included in this repo)
Materials Needed
- Figma design for someone to emulate as they build their own theme (perhaps look for one in open source? Edit: FOUND A GOOD RESOURCE: https://www.figma.com/@wordpressorg - thank you, @colorful-tones ) - The one I was originally going to use doesn't work the way I thought it would, so I'm back to the drawing board.
- Potential design challenge with Figma (a designer could potentially use one of their own)
- Live Workshop (in progress) from Damon Cook to help show the Figma design process.
- Potential Tutorial on How Themes are Developed (@jonathanbossenger has expressed interest in creating this, but there is not yet a Github issue; will update this with a link if/when that is in development).
Notes for the Presenter
/Include any tips needed to present this topic for a Live Online Workshop or in an in-person classroom setting.
- Note 1
- Note 2
A list of any handy tips or other information for the presenter. (I suppose I could collect design tips from this)
For example:
- Participants may need to download the TwentySixteen theme before beginning
- What to do if there’s no projector or internet available
- What to do if a participant doesn’t have the necessary set up
- How to handle different opinions about the topic
Lesson Outline
- Hook: Think back to the first few times you built your first websites. What did that look like? How was that different than what you do now?
- Background: A Quick History - the problem early web designers solved with WordPress themes.
- Potential Tutorial: How themes are developed.
- Mini-Lesson - Comparison: Classic Theme Development vs. Block Theme Development (Timeline)
Exercises
What someone will DO with what they learn in each lesson; most lessons have at least one related exercise.
Exercise name
Short description of what the exercise does and what skills or knowledge it reinforces.
- Short point or step of the exercise
- And another one
These are short or specific activities that help participants practice certain components of the lesson. They should not be fully scripted exercises, but rather something that participants could do on their own. For example, you can create an exercise based on one step of the Example Lesson.
Assessment
These assessments will be auto-graded on Learn.WordPress.org.
There should be one assessment item (or more) for each objective listed above. Each assessment item should support an objective; there should be none that don't.
Write out the question.
- Option
- Option
- Option
- Option
Answer: 3. Correct answer
A few questions to ask participants to evaluate their retention of the material presented. They should be a measure of whether the objectives were reached. Consider having a question for each objective.
Additional Resources
An optional section which can contain a list of resources that the presenter can use to get more information on the topic.
For example:
- Link to information on the Codex
- Theme Review Team's Handbook
Example Lesson [Written for a text-and-image based, multimedia course rather than for a live classroom setting]
An example of how the lesson plan can be implemented. Written in script form as one possible way an presenter might use this lesson plan at an event, with screenshots and instructions if necessary.
Section Heading for Example Lesson
You will likely need to break the Example Lesson down into multiple sections.
Lesson Wrap Up
Follow with the Exercises and Assessment outlined above.