🗓️ Before Class: Teacher Prep
- Gather/set out: Computer with Photoshop.
- Pull up today's slide deck (see 🖥️ Slide Deck below) so it's ready to project.
- Heads-up -- This is exam-relevant: This lesson maps directly to an Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) exam domain. Keep a running personal vocabulary list all year -- it becomes your exam study guide. See the ACP Exam Prep section for a full study guide and practice questions.
🧑🏫 Substitute Teacher Guide
A scripted, step-by-step runsheet for today's class -- hand this to anyone covering the room who doesn't know the daily routine.
- Day 1: 📋 Open Substitute Guide
- Day 2: 📋 Open Substitute Guide
This is exam-relevant
This lesson maps directly to an Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) exam domain. Keep a running personal vocabulary list all year -- it becomes your exam study guide. See the ACP Exam Prep section for a full study guide and practice questions.
🎯 Essential Question
- How do we control typography precisely inside Photoshop using the Character and Paragraph panels?
📈 Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson (2 Days), students will be able to:
- Add and format type using the Character panel (font, size, tracking, leading, color).
- Control paragraph-level settings (alignment, spacing) using the Paragraph panel.
- Convert text to a graphic/shape layer when needed for special effects.
📐 Standards Alignment
CDOS (Career Development & Occupational Studies)
- CDOS 2 — Integrated Learning -- students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings.
- CDOS 3a — Universal Foundation Skills -- basic literacy, communication, and problem-solving skills required for a career.
ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) Photoshop Exam Objectives
- ACP 4.2 — Add and manipulate text using appropriate typographic settings.
🎓 Study this for the ACP exam: Domain 4: Creating and Modifying Visual Elements
📚 Key Vocabulary
- Character Panel
- Photoshop's panel for controlling font, size, tracking, leading, and other letter-level type settings.
- Paragraph Panel
- Photoshop's panel for controlling alignment and spacing at the paragraph level.
- Tracking
- Letter spacing applied evenly across a range of text.
- Convert to Shape
- Turning live, editable text into a graphic outline -- useful for custom lettering effects but no longer editable as text.
🧰 Materials & Tools
- Computer with Photoshop
🧠 Do Now (Warm-Up)
What is the difference between "tracking" (spacing across a whole word) and "kerning" (spacing between just 2 letters)? Take your best guess.
📋 Main Workshop / Lesson Sequence
This lesson spans 2 Days. Suggested pacing:
| Day | Focus | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Exploring the Panels | Do Now (5 min). Mini-lesson/demo (10 min): tour of the Character and Paragraph panels. Guided practice (25 min): systematically test every major setting on the same sample word/paragraph, screenshotting each change. Share (5 min). |
| Day 2 | Typographic Poster | Do Now (5 min): pick a favorite quote or your own name for today's poster. Applied project (35 min): design a typographic poster using at least 4 different Character/Paragraph settings intentionally, converting at least one word to a shape for a custom effect. Share (5 min). |
✅ Assessment & Exit Ticket
Typographic poster scored with a rubric: at least 4 typography settings used intentionally (not by accident), legible, and one text-to-shape conversion present.
Exit Ticket: Name one Character or Paragraph panel setting you used and explain the effect it had on your poster.
📊 Pull up the anonymous Class Check-In for students to fill out before they go.
🧩 Differentiation & Accommodations
English Language Learners: model every step live, then check in one-on-one; provide translated materials and vocabulary support as needed. Students with IEPs: apply the accommodations and modifications listed in each student's plan (examples include extended time, graphic organizers, speech-to-text tools, chunked instructions, and visual schedules). Students with attention-related needs: break tasks into short, checklist-driven steps and provide brief movement or focus breaks. Students ready for a challenge: take on a leadership role critiquing peers' work, extend the project with a second iteration, or research how today's skill is used professionally in the field.