CAROLYN
BEITZEL
Diary #17
Cartoon
History
I have been struggling to make American History relevant to my students. They are so far removed from historical events. Many don't have relatives that fought in World War II, and connecting history to current events is a challenge, too. They don't watch the news, read the newspaper or news magazines. Neither do most of their parents. They are so unaware of what is going on in the world around them. What does interest them is slavery and war. We have learned about the forming of American colonies and how we ended up being "American." We have discussed how our country formed its beliefs of democracy. All this with little engagement of the class. They just were not interested. Or I was not making it relevant."If history was this fun all the time I would love this class."
–R. S., a bright and engaging student in level 4.
Forward to the Civil War
Now we have started our unit on the Civil War. We marched through time beginning with the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and forward to the first shot at Fort Sumter in 1861. I have divided each class into the Union and Confederate. Each student must stay within his or her perspective for all activities. When we write a newspaper article about a battle or about spies, then that student must write the article based on what a Union or a Confederate might have thought. I want the kids to see that this time in our history was about people with stories. Each person had their own ideas and point of view about this war, which then affected their personal history.
We'll be reading primary documents: diaries, letters, military missives and analyzing photographs and political cartoons. I'll be using the PBS online series Freedom: A History of US written by Joy Hakim to supplement the text, as well as these two sites for cartoons: Professional Cartoon Index and Harper's Weekly Online. Earlier this year, we briefly studied how to analyze a cartoon when we looked at the famous "Join Or Die" snake from the 1700's. While webcerfing I came across a site that listed five questions we can use to analyze a political cartoon:• What is the event being depicted?I made a transparency of a cartoon that depicts an American eagle sharpening his talons with a metal file and showed this to the students. I thought the historical event portrayed in this cartoon was current enough for them to understand. We then went through each question as we looked at the picture. Student responses:
• Are there any people in the cartoon? Who do the characters portray?
• What symbols are being used and what are their meanings?
• Can you figure out the point of view of the cartoonist? What is it?
• Do you agree or disagree with the cartoonist's opinion? Why?
• War,
revenge, prey. When I told them the actual event was 9/11 then the cartoon
started to make sense.
• No
people.
• The
eagle America, muscular eagle American strength, the look in the Eagle's
eye determination, angry, focused, sharpening of claws easier to catch
the people responsible.
• The
cartoonist was patriotic, loved America, thought we should get revenge,
start to look for the terrorists, felt we wouldn't be caught unawares
again, and wanted war.
•Many agreed.
The next cartoons I showed were about the confederate flag and the debate in South Carolina, however I used them more to illustrate the slavery issue of the Civil War. The first cartoon depicts a black person's hands shackled to the Confederate Flag and the second is the point of view of two people about what the Confederate flag stands for. Cartoon #1 Student Responses:• Slavery,
the Confederacy, the North view, abolition
• Slave
portrayed with hands only
• Shackles
slavery, black hands slave, X on the flag extension of the slave's
arms, confederate flag the South
• The cartoonist is against slavery, the cartoonist supports slavery.
Wow, the kids were actually looking at this picture from two points of view. When asked to explain themselves: "The cartoon could have been drawn by an abolitionist who was letting others know the horrors the South was doing to people in slavery," said one student. Then another raised her hand, "Yeah, but it could also be from a southern person letting everyone know that their whole way of life is surrounded by slavery."
Kids can understand if we help them
On the district social studies final (which was written by the teachers from the other middle school) there is a political cartoon that the students must analyze. I have been told more than once and by more than one person that our students can't take that test because it is written above their level of understanding.
One teacher has told me in particular that our kids can't even begin to understand a political cartoon. Well, I am not one to let a comment like that go to waste. The day we spent this week studying cartoons certainly goes to show that when given the tools and skills needed, my kids can succeed at something that they have been told they cannot do. Hurray! The best responses for this lesson came out of my lowest level class.
My kids were interested and engaged for this lesson. When RS made the comment above, I was floored. I really didn't think this lesson was all that fantastic. However, I can see where she felt involved and smart today. She and many others actually "got it" and that made them feel good about the learning experience. The real test of understanding will come when they have completed their own political cartoons using their point of view (Union or Confederate) and one of the historical events we have studied so far. I will then show them to the class and they will have to guess the event that is being depicted and determine the cartoonist's point of view. I am excited about the learning in our classroom. The challenge for me is to keep it "real."
