Teacher's Notes

Focus On Cartoons is an online investigation into the history and use of political cartoons. It includes activities ranging from simple quizzes to in-depth interrogations of cartoons.

What are they?

This section introduces the student to what a political cartoon is and provides an introduction to the history of political cartoons. The section ends with a simple quiz.

Cartoons as Evidence

This section illustrates how cartoons can be interpreted by looking at the use of icons, captions and imagery. It leads the student towards making a judgment on whether cartoons are useful evidence for a historical enquiry. The section prepares students to tackle 'Your Turn'.

Your Turn

This section allows the students to use the knowledge they acquired in the other sections. It provides two cartoons which can be thoroughly investigated (students can type in answers which can be printed out alongside our interpretation) and an activity where students can build their own cartoons.