This document introduces a history lesson that teaches students to analyze and interpret political cartoons. It discusses how cartoons provide insights into public opinion and cultural assumptions of different eras. During a 2-hour course, the teacher helped students examine cartoons from various sources and connect them to the themes and issues of the historical periods they represented. The students demonstrated improved interest in politics and analytical skills through working with these primary sources.

2. A lesson that introduces a framework for understanding
and interpreting political cartoons in a history course

3. Perhaps the least explored art form
for serious historical analysis
is the political cartoon.
Political cartoons are vivid primary sources
that offer intriguing and entertaining insights
into the public mood,
the underlying cultural assumptions of an age,
and attitudes toward key events or trends
of the times.

4. Since the 18th century,
political cartoons have
offered a highly useful
window into the past.
The increase in
newspaper and
magazine circulation in
the 1800's provided a
rich environment for the
rise and use of political
cartoons.

6. Just about every school history textbook now
has its quota of political cartoons.
Yet some studies reveal that substantial
percentages of adults
fail to understand the political cartoons
in their daily newspaper.
How much harder then must it be for young
people to make sense of cartoons from the
distant past?

7. During the 2 hours interactive course, held in our school,
by the history teacher Mrs. Pefani Tina,
students succeeded to analyze and interpret political cartoons found in
newspapers, magazines, internet etc. and then connect them with the themes
and the problems of the historical era they were referred to.

9. Using political cartoons, caricatures
and drawings
during the history course,
we realized that students interest
in political issues
as well as their analytical thinking
skills were promoted

12. Edited by Koundouraki Eftyhia
March 2017