Herbert Block's bio is very impressive, and this section could be used as a resource for students were you to introduce the analysis of political cartoons as a strategy
Herbert Block's own essay "The Cartoon" on the role political cartoons play in our view of history and current events, could also be an invaluable material source for any lesson plan on the analysis of political cartoons.
The Library of Congress organized these exhibits, centering on different points in history (and Herblock's career), thereby making it easier to search for a specific cartoon, as well as some ideas for how one might use it in the classroom.
This next post connects back to the lesson plan on interpreting political cartoons. This website - published through the Library of Congress - is nothing short of fantastic. Herbert Block's career covers an incredible span of the 20th century. Using this website as a resource, you can find insightful political cartoons of almost any event from the Great Depression to the Clinton era.
This website contains a great list of Historic Sites in DC - for example, I have bookmarked the page for the Old Stone House in Georgetown. If you select, "List of Sites" - you will be taken to a listing by neighborhoods of other historic sites in the DC area. This could allow you to search for places near your school that could be a great resource to incorporate into your lessons. Many, including the Old Stone House, offer tours throughout the day. The Old Stone House is also staffed by well-informed Park Rangers who are eager to share their knowledge.
The National Archives and Records Administration created this site for teachers who want to incorporate documents into the classroom. They offer lesson plans and ideas for teaching the texts.
The assessments done at our school are created by the teachers. The students are also judged considerably based on their classroom behavior. A sort of giveaway is the awards for wearing the proper uniform.
The Capital Gains program is a partnership between DCPS and Dr. Roland Fryer, economics professor at Harvard University and the founder of Harvard’s Education Innovation Laboratory (EdLabs). In addition to Washington, DC, EdLabs and Dr. Fryer work with school districts in Chicago and New York City on similar incentive initiatives.
I know we've all heard about the rather controversial Capital Gains program - where DCPS is paying students cash awards for good academic performance and behavior - but I wasn't certain how much anyone really knew about the specifics of the program. I just recently learned that my own school - Emery Educational Campus - is participating in Capital Gains. I can say that my own students do not seem to take the program very seriously, or at the very least not enough to study more to make certain they perform well on the mandatory assessments (said one student: "I don't really care about the extra money").
They have "Tech Tickets" at McKinley, it's just a huge joke because the rewards are like breakfast with Mr. Pinder the principal, who they hate. Last Wednesday, they started joking around about starting a black market for tech tickets, at least they are inventive about it. But it doesn't motivate them.
The particular value of this proposed lesson plan is that it is designed to set your students up with the skills and strategies to be able to critically interpret political cartoons throughout the school year.
A Cartoon Analysis Checklist, developed by Jonathan Burack, is presented here as a tool for helping students become skilled at reading the unique language employed by political cartoons in order to use them effectively as historical sources
1. Symbol and Metaphor
2. Visual Distortion
3. Irony in Words and Images
4. Stereotype and Caricature
5. An Argument Not a Slogan
6. The Uses and Misuses of Political Cartoons>
Much like other sorts of primary source documents - the caveat that "political cartoons are expressions of opinion" is an important thing for students to keep in mind.
They are evidence only of a point of view
The Library of Congress also has a fine collection of political cartoons by cartoonist Herb Block.
Because political cartoons are somewhat of special category of primary source images, I thought it would behoove us to find a particular strategy for analyzing and interpreting them - much along the same lines as the SOAPS method but one specifically designed for political cartoons. This lesson plan, and its "Cartoon Analysis Checklist" is a start.
Slavery and African Americans in Antebellum America | Causes of the War | Abraham Lincoln and the Course of the War | The Art and Literature of the Civil War | Reconstruction and After in Art and Culture | Related EDSITEment Websites
This website would be a valuable resource for teaching students about human rights. Students could use the country reports to research human rights conditions in a country of their choice.
This site could be used in conjunction with a unit on Human Rights perhaps using the Model UN organization's Global Classroom curriculum on Human Rights. Students could use this website as a resource to research human rights conditions in different countries around the world.
This site gives human rights reports listed by country and year. It is an excellent resource for information on human rights conditions throughout the world.