Editorial Cartoons in the Classroom

There are multiple ways to use editorial cartoons in the classroom. The focus of these lessons will be directed towards Humanity courses, such as History and Language Arts, and Government. However, editorial cartoons can be used in almost every course with a little creativity.

Unit and Lesson Plans

Interpreting Political Cartoons in the History Classroom by Jonathan Burack
- From Burack: "A lesson that introduces a framework for understanding and interpreting political cartoons that can be used throughout your entire history course."
- The lesson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 3.0 License.
Propaganda and American Imperialism by Jacques Weedon & Jennifer Post.
- From OERCommons: "This particular lesson has the students looking at four political cartoons that illustrate America's attitude towards imperialism. Students will also read various quotes from various American dignitaries that expresses their opinion on the matter. Students will work individually and within groups to examine the images and quotes."
- This lesson is licensed with a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US)
Satire and Wit Unit by Pearson
- From OERCommons: "Students will consider the different ways that humor can be used by a writer to criticize people, practices, and institutions that he or she thinks are in need of serious reform. Students will read satirists ranging from classical Rome to modern day to examine how wit can be used to make important points about culture."
- This unit is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0.

General Activities

Entrance Tickets to Review and Recall
Exit Tickets to Review and Summarize
Formative Assessments
Silent discussion with political cartoons: Students argue by drawing cartoons.
Video/article/lecture summary
Compare and synthesize past and present: For example, prohibition of alcohol versus prohibition of marijuana.

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