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Strategies for using cartoons

  • Cartoon Checklist
  • Creating captions
  • What came next?

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#1) Cartoon Checklist

  • Cartoons are NOT comics!
  • They are about social and political issues
  • They express strongly held viewpoints
  • It is impossible to fully understand most political cartoons without some background knowledge

http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/21733

http://teachinghistory.org/files/Cartoon_Analysis.pdf

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#1

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Just some from the “checklist”

VISUAL SYMBOLS AND METAPHORS: A visual symbol in a cartoon is any image that stands for some other thing, event, person, abstract idea or trend in the news.

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VISUAL DISTORTION: Changes or exaggerations in size, shape, emotions or gestures often add extra meaning to the symbols the cartoon includes.

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IRONY: Irony is a form of humor in which something is said in a way that undercuts or mocks its own apparent meaning.

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STEREOTYPES AND CARICATURE: A stereotype is a vastly oversimplified view of some group. Stereotypes are often insulting. Yet they may give cartoons a shorthand way to make a complex point quickly. They also reveal broad cultural attitudes. Caricature is the opposite of a stereotype

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Irony

  • VISUAL SYMBOLS
  • VISUAL DISTORTION
  • IRONY
  • STEREOTYPES & CARICATURE

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Modern Day Example of Irony

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Visual Distortion

  • VISUAL SYMBOLS
  • VISUAL DISTORTION
  • IRONY
  • STEREOTYPES & CARICATURE

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Modern Day Example of Distortion

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Stereotype /

Caricature

  • VISUAL SYMBOLS
  • VISUAL DISTORTION
  • IRONY
  • STEREOTYPES & CARICATURE

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Modern Day Example of Stereotypes/ Caricature

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Visual Symbols

  • VISUAL SYMBOLS
  • VISUAL DISTORTION
  • IRONY
  • STEREOTYPES & CARICATURE

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Modern Day Example of Symbols

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How is this ALL of them?

  • VISUAL SYMBOLS
  • VISUAL DISTORTION
  • IRONY
  • STEREOTYPES & CARICATURE

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#2) Create Captions

  • “Photoshop” images
  • Allows students to use perspective about people of the past
  • Can be used as an alternative to traditional assessments

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#2

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California as New Eden�William Jewett, The Promised Land, 1850

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#3

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#3) What Came Next

  • “In short, political cartoons employ complex visual strategies to make a point quickly in a confined space. Teachers must help students master the language of cartoons if they are to benefit from these fascinating sources of insight into our past”
  • So, SCAFFOLD the creativity

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Shouldn’t I just have them CREATE a cartoon themselves?

  • Have them create an image and/or text about what comes after, or even before your image

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Title: _________________

By: Ryan O’Donnell