This lesson I used in my 7th grade Humanities class. I wanted them to become more comfortable looking closely at political cartoons. I modeled one of the cartoons on the Smartboard using the steps or questions shown on slide 2. I then picked another cartoon that the class helped me analyze or look at closely. Each group of 4 then received a separate cartoon to analyze. I took away the caption if there was one and the group had to come up with a caption for their assigned cartoon. They then switched seats so that one person could share out their cartoon to another set of students who did not see that particular one. It worked pretty well and left the students wanting to learn more about some of the stories that inspired the cartoon.

How to look closely at political cartoons:

• What are the people, objects, and words you see in the cartoon?

• Are there any objects that could be symbols? What do those symbols represent?

• Describe the action taking place in the cartoon.• What is the message of the cartoon? What is the

cartoonist trying to make you think?• Do you have any questions about the cartoon or

its message?