Technology integration is a key mechanism for augmenting classroom instruction while teaching students essential digital communication skills that will help them become lifelong learners in the digital age. Use these lesson plans to structure projects using the Adobe® Digital School Collection when teaching about math and science, language arts, history/social studies, and visual and performing arts.
Using netbooks? Find teacher resources using Adobe Photoshop® Elements 8 for netbooks.
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Lesson plans
Jump to lesson:
Math and science
Language arts
History/social studies
- A Person in Time Online (ages 11–17)
- Advertising Poster for a Political Candidate (ages 11–13)
- Civic Documentaries (ages 11–17)
- Oral and Visual Histories (ages 10–13)
Visual and performing arts
Math and science
Geometric Concepts
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In this lesson, students define geometry terms and then take photos of geometric figures that illustrate examples of their use in the real world. As a final product, they create a vocabulary Photo Book in Photoshop Elements that combines their definitions with their photo examples.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 2.36M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 2.17M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 36M)
Graph Plotting
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In this lesson, students use a preexisting image to create a dot-to-dot image along x and y axes in Photoshop Elements. They then create a list of ordered pairs for which they apply mathematical problem-solving skills by locating coordinates of the ordered pairs and plotting lines to re-create the picture on graph paper.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 2.41M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 2.28M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 1.25M)
Marine World Digital Encyclopedia
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Students will create web pages to communicate information demonstrating their understanding of an academic concept. They begin by gathering information and images about marine life. They then use Adobe Contribute® CS4 to add text, links, and images to a page on the class website.
- Marine World school setup, teacher and student guides (PDF: 5.44M)
- Marine World school setup, teacher and student guides (British English version) (PDF: 6.42M)
- Marine World Contribute CS4 website templates (ZIP: 733k)
Patterns
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In this lesson, students, working in groups, construct a visual pattern in Photoshop Elements according to a set of rules. They then test their rules by making predictions. Finally, after swapping their patterns, each group identifies the rules and makes predictions based on the rules.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 2.82M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 2.80M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 140k)
Plant Growth
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In this lesson, students grow a plant, use digital photography to collect data about its growth, and create a time-lapse video in Adobe Premiere® Elements to present their findings. This activity enables students to investigate plant growth and begin to learn the complex task of collecting data.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 4.0M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 6.22M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 3.37M)
Visualization of the Atom
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Students will demonstrate their understanding of abstract concepts through the creation of a visual representation of the concept. In this lesson, students create visual representations of the atom to illustrate their understanding of the atom and its elements.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 4.23M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 4.23M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 7.32M)
- View an Adobe TV video tutorial to learn how to complete the Visualization of the Atom project
Volcano Eruption
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In this lesson, students draw pictures in Photoshop Elements showing how lava moves through the core of a volcano during an eruption. They then create a time-lapse video in Adobe Premiere Elements, using these pictures to replicate a volcanic eruption.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 7.42M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 6.96M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 6.18M)
Language arts
Alliteration Poem
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In this lesson, students write their own alliteration-style poems, create a visual illustration of the poems, and publish them using Photoshop Elements. This activity enables students to structure text and visualize ideas in innovative ways, helping them think critically about the concepts as they construct their final products.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 4.20M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 4.16M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 551k)
Creating Suspense
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In this lesson, students use Adobe Premiere Elements to write short scripts and make a movie that creates a suspenseful moment. Students learn about techniques used in literature and filmmaking that create tension, and they employ this knowledge to create scenes that surprise, intrigue, and confound the audience.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 5.03M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 4.93M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 231M)
Dolch Word Practice
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In this lesson, students enhance their reading skills by using Photoshop Elements to create visual representations of Dolch words used in sentences. Students turn their creations into flash cards so they can continue to practice recognizing Dolch sight words to improve reading fluency.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 2.96M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 2.93M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 222k)
Podcasts
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In this lesson, students write short scripts and make a podcast in Adobe Soundbooth® CS4. Topical podcasts can be made for most academic subject areas to enable students to explore a line of inquiry and convey meaning through script writing and commentary. Students learn how to creatively express their ideas through this novel medium.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 2.17M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 1.91M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 88M)
Storyboards
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In this lesson, students select a poem, identify the poetic devices, sketch a storyboard, and make a video for the poem. By doing this activity, students learn about presenting a story in pictures and about chronological order. They also learn about the importance of storyboards in creating digital movies.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 5.48M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 5.32M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 21.3M)
Understanding Idioms
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In this lesson, students investigate the literal and figurative meanings for idioms by visualizing their ideas in Photoshop Elements. These visualizations offer a different way to structure information, which can lead to students being able to identify new connections and draw new conclusions.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 2.93M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 2.91M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 208k)
Video Narratives
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In this lesson, students will take one scene from a work of literature, videotape it, and then tell the rest of the story by using animated titles in Adobe Premiere Elements. Students will use video production skills to adapt a story and in the process learn about the art of storytelling, scene selection, and distinguishing important from unimportant details.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 4.3M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 7.12M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 73M)
Visual Dictionary
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In this lesson, students define a word visually using Photoshop Elements and add it to their class visual and audio dictionary. Students analyze a word and construct a visual representation of its meaning, thereby building higher order thinking skills.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 3.59M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 3.55M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 172k)
Visual Pun Fun
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In this lesson, students create a visual pun — a play on images where students use two or more images to form a new meaning. Using Photoshop Elements, students combine unrelated images and employ interesting effects to create their visual puns. This lesson helps students use technology to enhance their language arts skills and to improve communication of their ideas.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 4.43M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 4M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 960k)
History/social studies
A Person in Time Online
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Students will conduct research on a historical figure and then design a web page based on how this person would want to be represented on the Internet. During this project, students will learn about primary and secondary resources, cite research, and make a case for their web page decisions.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 15.8M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 15.8M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 338M)
- View an Adobe TV video tutorial to learn how to complete the A Person in Time Online project
Advertising Poster for a Political Candidate
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In this lesson, students research a historical figure and create a mock advertising poster in Photoshop Elements that includes a campaign logo and slogan. They then present their posters to the class and explain how their poster design and campaign slogan were informed by what they learned about the life and times of their historical figure.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 3.20M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 3.17M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 724k)
Civic Documentaries
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Students will choose an issue that affects them, the school, or their community to document in a short movie. Students will interview individuals on both sides of the issue, integrate video clips, create the documentary, and write a reflection detailing the learning process.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 6.42M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 6.43M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 235M)
- View an Adobe TV video tutorial to learn how to complete the Civic Documentaries project
Oral and Visual Histories
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In this lesson, students interview someone about their visual and sense memories of an event and use those memories to create an oral and visual history. They then use the interview for creating a digital video in Adobe Premiere Elements and Soundbooth CS4.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 5.61M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 5.51M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 77M)
Visual and performing arts
Collages
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In a variety of academic subjects and concepts, students can use collages combined with audio clips to convey meaning and understanding by visually representing their ideas and communicating a story. In this lesson, students investigate the architecture of a certain time or place and visually represent the style in a collage.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 2.56M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 2.38M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 39.5M)
Digital Dali: Surrealism in Art Today
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In this lesson, students turn everyday digital photographs into surrealist-style artwork using Photoshop Elements. This activity helps students enhance their creativity and better understand surrealistic techniques by working with lighting, color, and movement to transform their pictures.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 3.92M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 3.82M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 1.14M)
Impressionist Artwork
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Students will explore the impact of photography on impressionism by taking photographs around the school to turn into impressionist works of art. Students will illustrate their understanding of impressionist-era work through the different imaging techniques they choose to use.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 5.70M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 5.71M)
- Sample final project and media assets (ZIP: 70.5M)
- View an Adobe TV video tutorial to learn how to complete the Impressionist Artwork project
Pioneers of Music

Students will choose a piece of music that they find interesting or transcendent; analyze the piece for its theoretical music form; research the historical and social context of the music and artist; collect supporting historical artifacts; evaluate the piece of music; narrate and record their commentary on top of the musical piece; and package and present a portfolio of their project.
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (PDF: 9.84M)
- Lesson plan and supporting guides (British English version) (PDF: 9.84M)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
Assessment tips
For innovative and effective assessment strategies to record and grade projects and semester or yearlong student work, you can use the same digital communication skills you teach the students. Following are three areas where these digital communication tools can be helpful. Open the Assessment Methods document to read more detailed ideas and techniques in these areas.
Feedback, comments, and critiques for assessment with Adobe Acrobat®
You can use Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro to provide feedback to students, engage students in peer collaboration and critiques, assess student work, and collect data.
For more information, see the guide: Digital Assessment with Adobe Acrobat (PDF, 2.6M)
Digital documentation for assessment with Adobe Premiere Elements or Photoshop Elements
You can use still images in slide shows or time-lapse videos to document the learning process and assess student progress and their final products.
ePortfolios for assessment with Adobe Contribute or Acrobat
You can use ePortfolios for assessment: as a documentation of student growth, a display of their best work, or an aggregate of all their work. Students can generate these portfolios for distribution on and offline using Adobe Contribute CS4 or Acrobat 9 Pro.
For more information, see the guide: Creating Electronic Portfolios with Adobe Acrobat (PDF, 2.4M)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
Digital portfolios

Digital portfolios with the Adobe Digital School Collection
Digital portfolios allow students and teachers to electronically communicate their accomplishments and share a large variety of documents, images, video, audio — almost any type of digital object — with peers, colleagues, and parents. A PDF Portfolio created in Acrobat 9 Pro is the ideal electronic portfolio container. Using Acrobat to wrap your material into a PDF allows everyone to view and interact with your materials. You control the presentation of all your digital objects, so everyone who interacts with them will have the same experience. This workshop, from Atomic Learning, will help you understand the nature and uses of ePortfolios, while showing you how easy it is to personalize your own ePortfolio and add media-rich content.
