Computer- Based Lesson Plans: Interpreting Political Cartoons by Bill Lee

Integrating Computer Technology into the Classroom

Title: Interpreting Political Cartoons

Learner Level: Pre-GED

Pre-Instruction: Page 120-123, Steck-Vaughn text GED/Social Studies

Duration: Two hours    

Materials: Contemporary’s GED/MHC Interactive software program

                   Internet sites: Slate, CNN   

                   Microsoft Word     

Objectives:

To evaluate a political cartoon relating to a recent news event in order to prepare the student to answer questions about political cartoons the student is likely to encounter on the Social Studies portion of the GED test.

Procedure:

After reading the material on political cartoons contained in Contemporary’s GED/MHC Interactive software program, the student will answer five related questions found on Page D60 of Contemporary’s GED Teacher Resource Binder:

1.      In your own words, summarize what is happening in the carton>

2.      Can you tell what the setting of the cartoon is? If so, write it down. Explain how you know.

3.      Are there any symbols used in the cartoon? If so describe them. What do the symbols mean.

4.      What point is th3e cartoonist trying to illustrate in the cartoon? What is the cartoonist’s opinion?

5.      Did you find this cartoon amusing? Why or why not?

The student will be guided through the next steps so that he can find political cartoons on the web. The instructor will use the following for the search:

http://www.anybrowser.com/searchengines.html

Web Search: Political Cartoons

The search will yield the Slate daily cartoon briefing from newspapers around the country.

 http://cagle.slate.msn.com/politicalcartoons/

As an example, the student may be guided to the cartoon that shows George Bush getting out of a Fence Mending business truck with boards in his hand. He is approaching a fence that the truck ran down that had the writing on it “Foreign Relations.”

Now, the student will be guided to the CNN Web site

http://www.cnn.com/

Here he will conduct a story search using the CNN archives.

Typing in the words: “Bush in Europe,” he will find a listing of stories that related to the President’s recent trip to Europe.

The student then will be assigned to find another cartoon and matching story and answer the 5 questions asked in the Contemporary exercise above.

Using Microsoft Word, the student will prepare a document giving 1) the URL of his cartoon source, the name of the cartoonist and date of publication; 2) the URL of the related story, and 3) the five questions written out and answered.

Evaluation:

The student will be given credit for finding a cartoon and matching story, and his answers to the five questions will be reviewed by the instructor and discussed with the student. The student then will be tested on the subject of political cartoons by taking the GED Practice Test and GED Mini-Test on pages 124-127 of the Steck-Vaughn text. The level of success on the test will indicate mastery of the subject and determine if further review is necessary or if the student is ready to move on.