Political Humor

Mindy and Autumn

Holliday, D. & Grskovic, J. (September, 2002). Using political cartoons: An activity for students of

every ability. Middle Level Learning, (15) m8-m9.

Subject: Social Studies

Grade: 4

Content Area: Civics, artistic expression

Key Concepts:  Politics, personal expression, comics

Learning Target: Analysis

Set-up/Background:

˛           The classroom is set-up with groups of four.

˛           Students will be at least one week into a unit on voting and the election process. They will understand the differences between political parties and some of the key issues brought up political debates (health care, social security, military, education etc.) This particular lesson will be used as a support lesson to review information that has already been studied in a format different from the reading and research they have been working with.

Materials:

Unit Goal:

Understand the role of voting as part of the election process on both the local and national level.

Lesson Objective:

After having one week of instruction in the election process and voting as well as a workshop about how to analyze a political cartoon using the 6 w’s, swabt make conclusions about the who, what, where, why and which of the cartoon and explain their reasoning for drawing those conclusion in their writing journal.

EALR:

Civics:

3.2.1a

Provide examples of conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among individuals, groups, and nations

Accommodations:

1.       If they can’t write then they can verbally tell a person or tape recorder or they can use different images to tell the same story.

  1. The process for analyzing the comics will broken down into single steps, so that students who might get overwhelmed by the idea of analyzing the comic can take it in small steps.  In addition, this allows the teacher to help the student as they come across problems and understand exactly which aspects of analyzing that students are having difficulty with.
  2. If students were not in class to receive the background knowledge or if they just didn’t understand, they can use their book as a resource or base their analysis on the student’s personal opinion or ideas.

Pre-Assessment:

At least 2 days before the lesson, present the same comic use for this lesson as a journal prompt.  This will allow you to see both how much students know about politics and analyzing comics.

Introduction: 3 minutes

  1. 2 min. Put a comic on the overhead and have students take two minutes to write what they think the comic is trying to say in their writing journal.
  2. 1 min. Have 2 students share what they thought. (At this point, I would not tell the students the true meaning of the comic or your personal interpretation.  It is better to let students draw their own conclusions. After students have gone through the 6 w’s and shared their ideas, the teacher can tell students what the true meaning of the comic is.)
  3. 1 min Explain that you are going to look at several different cartoons together then split into groups to analyze one comic using a specific model that you will be teaching them this period which will involve finding the who, when, where, what, why, and which of each comic.

Rationale: 1 minute

4.      There are often political or social messages in comics, however the reader can often miss those messages if they don’t know how to analyze the comic.  Today’s lesson will help you to understand the messages of comics that you may see in newspapers or on TV.  You will use all the knowledge you have gained thus far in our voting unit and decode these comics.

Lesson:  45 minutes (+/- 5 minutes)

  1. “In order to analyze political cartoons we are going to focus on determining the who, when, where, what, why and which of each comic.  We are going to start by going over those steps with this comic on the board.”
  2. Have students work with the same comic from the introduction to follow steps 6-20
  3. 45 sec. I think this would take more time Explain that the first thing to identify is the who.  The who is determining who the comic is about. Otherwise, who are the characters being represented in the comic. 
  4. Have students take 30-60 seconds to think about the who of this comic and write it down in their journal.   (Students will share this information 13)
  5. 1 min. I think this would take more time Explain that the next thing to do is determine when the comic took place if possible.  Usually there is not an exact date printed on the comic.  So ask students, what some possible ways to determine the when are. (Some possible answers are the characters or events the comic is about, the background or setting.)
  6. Give students 3 minutes to work with the person next to them to review who the comic is about and determine when the comic is set.
  7.  2 min. Ring a bell (or whatever else you do to get the class’s attention) and explain that you are moving onto the next step which is determining where the comic takes place.  Again, that might not be specified in the comic so students will need to rely on context clues.  Ask students what some things to look for are in determining where the comic takes place.  (Some possible answers are landmarks or landscape).
  8. Give students 3 minutes to talk with their partner about where the comic takes place and write what they decided in their writing journal. 
  9.  4 min. Before you continue, review the three sets covered so far and call on two different students for each of the concepts discussed already.  Those students will be asked to say either the who, where or when of the comic and why the decided that.  At this time also ask students if they had any difficulty coming to agreements on the concepts reviewed thus far.  If they have, ask two pairs who disagreed to explain what their disagreement was.  
  10. 3 min. Explain that the next thing to look for is which symbols are being used.  In order to do this, you need to briefly review what symbols are, then point out one symbol in the comic.  (Steps 15-17 should be done as a whole class.)
  11. 2 min. Choose anther symbolic object/person in the comic and ask students if they can determine what it might mean. 
  12. 2 min. Choose another symbol in the comic and tell the students what it means, but not which symbol it is.  Then, ask students if they can identify which object in the comic is used to represent that meaning.
  13. 5 min. Ask if there are any other symbols used in the comic and have students explain why they think those object are symbols and what they mean.
  14. Now the last step is to determine why the message of this comic is important.  “Before you can do that, you need to take all the information that you have and once again work with your partner.  This time I want for you to summarize what the comic is saying.”
  15. Give 2 minutes then have 2 pairs share their summarization.
  16. 8 min. Tell students to keep those summaries and their own in mind and think about why the message of the comic is important.  Continue to do a think-pair-share process.   
  17. After students explain why the comic is important, explain that not every comic has an important message.  However, all the comics that students will be working with for the next part of this assignment are intended to have an important message.
  18.  1 min. Explain that you will keep the 6 w’s up on the overhead and when you are finished talking, students will work with their groups to analyze a particular cartoon that I hand to them.  I will give them each a comic and a worksheet with the 6 w’s for them to fill out.  They will have 15 minutes to work on this and be ready to share the 6 w’s of their comic with the class.
  19.  15 min. Pass out papers and give work time. While students work, walk around and make sure that students understand and have enough background knowledge to analyze each cartoon.
  20. Gather classes’ attention then call on three groups to share.

Conclusion: 2 minutes

  1. Have students share what they learned today, then tell them what you saw or heard them doing well.
  2. Explain when and where to turn in the worksheet and remind students to put all group members’ names on the worksheet.
  3. Give students a brief look at what they will be doing for the rest of the day.

Assessment:

Follow-up Lesson:

Have students come up with their own political cartoon.