This CorelDRAW Graphics Suite curriculum is designed to provide students with essential graphics and visual communication skills that they can use to enhance almost every aspect of their schoolwork and later apply to their careers. These 10 learning modules include lesson plans for teachers and self-guided lessons for middle and high school students. These lesson plans directly support core curriculum requirements* with unit studies and video training, as well as cognitive and interpersonal skills development. Each complete program includes practice sheets, worksheets, lesson plans and templates.
* While this curriculum is based on ISTE NETS*S Technology Standards in the United States, teachers and students worldwide will benefit from the valuable design concepts and helpful templates contained within these lesson plans.
Students will familiarize themselves with the basics of CorelDRAW, such as creating and saving documents, using fonts, resizing, rotating and moving documents and getting help. They will then create a report cover that contains a page border, an image from a symbol font, a title in artistic text and paragraph text. Suggested topics for discussion include legal issues surrounding font usage, design issues and the safety of downloading “free fonts” from the Internet.
Students will learn to identify tools in the toolbox and use several common tools to create a half-page flyer for a party invitation. They will learn about color usage and discover several ways to apply color to an object and/or its outline. Suggested topics for discussion include reflective vs. direct color and how this relates to RGB and CMYK colors and screen vs. printed colors.
Students will learn the basics of using vector graphics and node editing for graphics and text, while creating a side-fold greeting card for an event of their choice. In the process, they will work with multi-page layouts and the Print Preview dialog, and import and edit clipart. Suggested topics for discussion include copyright laws that apply to clipart and other graphics, and ways to protect images.
Students will learn to combine vector and bitmap images as they create a standard page (letter/A4) motivational poster that must include at least one photo to accompany the text. Students will be introduced to the Corel PHOTO-PAINT® program and learn how it works with CorelDRAW. Suggested topics for discussion include how editing a photo might be deemed deceitful, digital photography techniques and career opportunities in photography.
Students will learn to work with templates: open an existing template file, modify it and create their own templates. In creating a two-page newsletter, they will also learn how to use text in columns, flow text from column-to-column and page-to-page, wrap text around graphics and create drop caps. Suggested topics for discussion include the history and use of Lorem Ipsum text, possible modern replacements, and the difference between newsletters, blogs and other social media in usage and design.
Students will learn to work with bitmap and vector effects, layers, lenses and masks, while creating a collage of images and text on a chosen topic. The exercise project will be created in CorelDRAW, but students can use the techniques they have learned in the exercises and tutorials to create an original collage in CorelDRAW, Corel PHOTO-PAINT, or a combination of the two programs. Suggested topics for discussion include the usage of collage techniques in modern marketing and advertising campaigns.
Students will explore design and automation processes as they create a personal letterhead suite that includes mailing labels. They will be introduced to the Print Merge/Data Merge capabilities of CorelDRAW, as well as the Interactive Fill Tool. At the end of the module, they should be able to answer several essential questions about branding and the use of personalized mailings in marketing and other areas. Suggested topics for discussion include identifying what branding is, why it is important and whether it should ever vary.
Students will create a three-panel brochure for a real or fictional student-run business, beginning with a template from the CorelDRAW Page Layout dialog. In the process of learning about brochure designs and creating promotional materials, they will discover helpful tools for text and graphics creation, such as page layout options, guides and Extrude and Bevel tools. Suggested topics for discussion include how to identify the essential information to be included in the brochure and how to use graphics to influence emotions.
Students will explore how to add 3D effects to text and objects. They will use Callouts and Connectors for creating charts, the Ellipse tool to draw pie shapes and Table and Paragraph formatting tools for layout. At the end they will create a short slideshow that includes charts, graphs and 3D bitmap effects. Suggested topics for discussion include finding and evaluating the effectiveness of existing slideshow presentations.
Students will use a pre-recorded macro in CorelDRAW to create a 12-month pictorial calendar. They will also record a short macro using the Undo Docker in CorelDRAW. Suggested topics for discussion include identifying the difference between a Macro and a Script, learning how to write a script, and considering safety issues surrounding the usage of downloaded scripts.