What This Page Is
Beyond the daily lesson plans on this site, there's a much larger backup library sitting locally in the moreresources/ folder: seven full Adobe Education Exchange project units (the same kind of standards-aligned, ACA-linked curriculum this course is built from) plus a handful of original slide decks. None of the Adobe project PDFs are hosted on this site — they're Adobe's own copyrighted instructor guides, licensed for classroom use, not public redistribution — but this page catalogs what's in them so they're easy to find on the school computer when a unit needs more depth, a sub plan needs a ready-made activity, or a student needs an extension project.
The 7 Adobe Project Units
Each is a complete, multi-week project folder (Instructor Guide + student activity PDFs + how-to technical guides), all built around the same rhythm: design principles → client/audience work → production in Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign → review & redesign → present. They overlap heavily with each other (and with this course's own Unit 1 and Unit 3), so treat them as a deep bench of extra activities and rubrics, not a separate curriculum to run in full.
🖼️ Collages & Photography
Preparing images for web/print/video, getting started in Photoshop (layers, color management, new documents), digital photography basics, getting started with Acrobat, copyright & fair use. The most "fundamentals-heavy" of the seven — good source for extra Photoshop-basics practice.
💳 Business Cards
Design principles & typography, getting started with InDesign, page layouts, review & redesign, publishing. Shortest of the seven (8–13 hrs) — a good compact extension project for a student who finishes early.
📢 Advertisements
Focus groups, design comps, project planning & teamwork, working with clients, drawing/text in Photoshop, InDesign layouts. The fullest real "working with a client end-to-end" simulation in the library — pairs well with this course's own Unit 1 client lessons.
📄 Brochures
Tri-fold layout design, advanced image editing (blending, gradient maps, vanishing point), Illustrator symbols & patterns, interactive PDF documents, peer review, reflection papers. The most technically advanced unit — good for a strong 12th-grade extension.
📰 Newsletters
Research & writing for design (including writing_web.pdf — genuinely useful for web-copy writing generally), InDesign master pages & reusable templates, Illustrator drawing/text.
🎓 Mini Yearbooks
Planning, design comps, publishing, peer review. A lean unit — good template if the class ever wants to build a real class yearbook or zine.
💼 Final Portfolios
Career research, planning a portfolio, research & writing, design review. Maps directly onto this course's own Grade 11 portfolio unit and Grade 12 PBAT/portfolio work — see the cross-reference table below.
Recurring Topic → Where It Already Lives in This Course
The same handful of topics repeat across all 7 Adobe units. Most already have a matching lesson in the day-to-day curriculum — use the Adobe activity only when a class needs a second pass or a sub-day filler on the same topic.
| Recurring topic | Already taught here as… |
|---|---|
| Design principles & typography | Unit 2 & Unit 3 lessons (Typography & Color Basics; Design Principles for Layout) |
| Working with clients / interviews | Unit 1: The Client & The Designer (Purpose, Audience & Demographics; Communicating Like a Professional) |
| Copyright & fair use | Unit 1: The Client & The Designer (Copyright, Licensing & Fair Use) |
| Project planning & management | Unit 1: The Client & The Designer (Managing a Design Project) |
| Design comps / review & redesign | Client project critique days throughout Grade 11 |
| Presenting design projects / pitching | Grade 11 PBAT Presentation Rehearsal & Delivery — see Mouse.org's Pitch Perfect activity (official source, linked not hosted) |
| Career research | Career Research + Analog Mood Board (Unit 4) |
| Portfolio planning | Building Your Digital Design Portfolio (Grade 11); Archive & Portfolio (Grade 12) |
| Raster vs. vector, file formats, resolution | Image Terminology; Behind the Image: File Types (Unit 2) — see What Is a File Format? |
| Focus groups / peer review | Running a Focus Group: Testing Design on a Real Audience (Grade 11, Unit E.5) — original lesson written for this course, informed by this topic's coverage across the Adobe units |
| Design critique & talking about work | A full 4-grade progression: How to Talk About Design (Grade 9, opens Unit 3) teaches the “I notice / I wonder” protocol, reinforced in every Elements & Principles studio day, the Redesign Challenge, Grade 11's client-project critique days, and Grade 12's real Client Approval & Revision Loop — each step explicitly framed as rehearsal for a real client relationship. |
Original Teacher-Authored Decks (hosted on this site)
These were written for this class, with no third-party material embedded in them, so they're hosted directly in Resources and already linked from their matching lessons above:
- Color Theory — full deck behind Typography & Color Basics
- What Is a File Format? — full deck behind the raster/vector & file-type lessons
- HTML Basics — optional background for the Grade 11 portfolio-website unit
- How to Save & Hand In Files in Drive — source for the Tech Basics orientation's Drive section
- Removable Data Storage Options — source for the Tech Basics orientation's storage section
Not hosted here: Pitch Perfect Presentation.docx and Design an App with Slides.pptx both incorporate substantial material from Mouse.org's "Design League" program (their own copyrighted lesson plans and slide templates), so only the original portions were used as reference for this site's lessons — the full files stay local, in moreresources/, and this site links to Mouse.org's own official pages instead of hosting a copy.