Day 1: “Using Political Cartoons to Analyze History”
Standard:
 8.1.9 Identify the events leading up to the presidential and congressional
election of 1800 and the transfer of political authority and power to the
Democratic-Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson (1801);; Evaluate the
significance of these events.
Goals:
 Students will comprehend the use of political cartoons within Social Studies
classrooms.
Objectives: Students will be able to:
 Analyze the purpose of political cartoons in history and the issues they are
criticizing.
 Grasp the message that a cartoon is attempting to display
 Recognize the biases of the illustrator and his/her viewpoint on the issue
they are analyzing. Understand
Materials:
 Computer
 PowerPoint
 Political Cartoons
 Student Tablets
 Textbook
 Worksheet
Procedures:
Introduction:
1. This Day in History/Bellringer—5 minutes
a. As we do everyday, we warm up looking at “This Day in
History” and discuss the bellringer for five minutes
Middle:
A. Instruction—20 minutes
2. Reading what Political Cartoons—5 minutes
a. We read a segment in their book over what political cartoons
are, and steps for them to take when analyzing them.
3. Examples/Practice with Cartoons—15 minutes
a. I then guide them through 7 practice cartoons as we analyze
each one together and break them down. (Look at PowerPoint)
B. Tablet Activity—15 minutes
1. Using their tablets, they are to find their own Cartoon and analyze it
answering three questions on a piece of paper (Look at PowerPoint).
C. Worksheet/ Chapter Introduction—15 minutes
2. Following their tablet activity and after collecting the worksheet, we
are going to quickly go over the worksheet they did yesterday, and
introduce them to Chapter 9, which we are now beginning.
a. Using a map from the book (Scanned in) we go through the
map and I pose questions they have to answer about the map.
End:
1. Assignment:
a. Their homework is to complete the Backside of the worksheet
titled “Jefferson’s Inaugural Address”.
Assessment
 The student’s assessment is to complete the Primary Source Worksheet over
“Jefferson’s Inaugural Address”
Cartoon Questions:
1) The train represents Obamacare. What does the person’s shirt represent? In
the political spectrum what party moreover represents the “Right Wing”. So
is this making fun of obamacare or supporting it? Saying it’s a train wreck!
2) Who is the man on the left? What does the Elephant represent? Remember
we talked about the idea of how now the Republicans control congress. So
the elephant represents congress having control of Obama by giving him a
wedgie! Does it call them bully’s maybe?
3) First, who are the people? So this is saying congress doesn’t do their job, who
do you think the author supports?
4) This one is an unbiased account making fun of America. What is it saying
about us? We overlook the thinkgs that are really devastating our country
today and freak out over issues that don’t have a serious impact yet!
5) What is significant about the years? Who do you think the lady is in 2017?
What perspective does the author write this from Republican or democrat?
What’s the issue? Isis is back in Iraq and now we are faced with another
possible decision of what to do!
6) You guys have talked about this a little bit already. What does the snake
represent? The message?
7) What is the hidden message? Are those screws or Nails? What does this mean
about our foreign policy?