Pupils examine and practice the art of political cartoon-making by focusing on how and why they are so effective in making a political point.

Students examine political cartoons depicting opinions about Margaret Chase Smith's Declaration of conscience. After examining the cartoons, they create their own political cartoons about the speech. As an ongoing activity, students...

Students define humor and consider how people have different senses of humor and therefore different ideas of what is funny. They explore improvisation, cartooning, comics, body language and storytelling as the means to express humor.

Students examine the work of photographer Richard Billingham. They discuss why people produce art, the service it provides in society and how negative and mundance instances and feelings can also inspire artistic expression.

Students examine the art of Romare Bearden, focusing on a stained-glass window designed for a New York City elevated railway station. they visit the site and discuss the art after viewing it from various perspectives. Based on their...

Students study art by Matthew Ritchie. Students view pictures of the artist and discuss art that is created specifically for a designated area. Students create pen and ink drawings on letter size paper. Using an overhead, students...

Students explore U.S. history by researching famous Americans. In this Benjamin Franklin lesson plan, students read portions of a biography about Franklin and identify his position within U.S. politics and as a leader in the battle for...

Students assess the ways in which editorial cartoons offer insight into events that shape our world, specifically focusing on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Eleventh graders examine cartoons for examples of satire, irony, and sarcasm. They write essays about cartoons, art work, or literature analyzing it for satirical elements. Finally, they create their own piece in one of the three areas...

Students read 1984, noting the potential dangers of government. They keep private diaries to parctice freedom of expression. They create political cartoons for a secret publication and design posters and T-shirts with warnings on them.

Students investigate examples of animation made from a flipbook technique in order to learn how to create their own flipbook and to learn how this process looks like an animated cartoon. In this animation lesson, students will observe...

Twelfth graders identify satire in various fictional texts.  In this language arts lesson, 12th graders will learn to define satire, parody, and caricature. Students will identify different forms of satire in historical and...

Students examine the trials and executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. In groups, they use the internet to research the impact of the executions in the shape of political cartoons and writings. They discuss an article to...

Students deal with the historian's dilemma of how to write about people in the past who committed wicked deeds. They analyze a well-known cartoon, "Satan Tempting Booth to the Murder of the President."

Young scholars discuss superheroes, focusing first on the details of creating the character of Batman. They work in small groups to develop superheroes for the 1990s, and write stories or cartoons about their superhero's adventures on...

Learners explore conflict. In this contemporary history lesson plan, students participate in 4 weekly activities that require them to research current conflicts and create time-travel cartoons that illustrate how the conflcits...

Students view primary documents about the race for President in the time of Abraham Lincoln.  In this election lesson, students prepare arguments for and against Lincoln using an analysis sheet.  Students create a poster or...

Students explore the three branches of government. For this government and U.S. history lesson, students listen to a story about a boy who attempts to sponsor a bill to ban cartoons. Students interview three teachers who each represent...

Students explore emotions represented in artwork.  In this cross curriculum social studies and art lesson, students explain examples of political and social issues expressed in artwork by Dorthea Lang, Diego Rivera, Dan Eldon, as...

Students inspect visual arts by examining images on the web. In this art history lesson, students discuss the history of art after researching Keith Haring's work on the Internet. Students analyze the style of...

Students complete an art project. In this gargoyles instructional activity, students learn about gargoyles and other medieval architecture features and discuss their purposes. Students create their own monsters using an etching...

Students identify the plot and theme of cartoons. In groups, they discuss and compare the written and movie versions of popular fairy tales. Individually, they write their own fairy tale and share them with the class. They write their...

Students identify when and why quotations are used. Using comic strips and speech bubbles, they read and discuss examples of quotation marks, and in pairs write text for a cartoon on a piece of paper using quotation marks around the...

High schoolers examine Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fireside Chats. In this presidential history lesson, students listen to the radio broadcasts of select FDR Fireside Chats. High schoolers analyze the effectiveness of his messages to the...