Political Cartoon Anlaysis & Revolutions

IB History Skills - OPCVL
American and Canadian curriculum - content: Revolutions and Themes; skills: analysis, research, discussion.
GSCE/Ireland - content: Revolutions and Themes; skills: analysis, research, discussion.

This resource is excellent for secondary students learning both analysis skills as well as themes to revolutionary movements. Through the lesson students are asked to complete a variety of tasks as a class, in small groups, pairs and individually. The lesson is scaffolded in order for students to learn the analysis techniques as a whole and then work to utilize these skills individually.

Students will be introduced to new vocabulary, review a TedTalks on Revolutions and a newspaper article that has them identify themes and causes of revolutions. Students will work individually as well as in small groups to address the themes. After the themes have been addressed as a class, students will work in small groups to research and analyze past revolutions in an effort to trace common themes. Findings will be presented to the class and debated/discussed.

Students will also look at past revolutions through the lens of political cartoons. In these activities students will be introduced to common elements used to create political cartoons (symbolism, exaggeration, irony etc.) They will work through a variety of interactive activities in which they will learn to analyze political cartoons and their messages.

The final assignment has students create their own political cartoon using the tools they have learned in the lesson.