Activities to Get You Started with Drawing Editorial Cartoons

Grades 4-12

Source:   Understanding and Creating Editorial Cartoons, Knowledge Unlimited, Madison, Wisconsin, www.knowledgeunlimited.com, $29.95

All of these suggested activities are focused on getting students to learn right away that in drawing an editorial cartoon, YOU NEED TO START WITH A SINGLE, CLEAR IDEA.  The most common problem with student editorial cartoons is that they lack clarity about what the cartoons are saying.  So, it is important to give guided practice in thinking through the issue he or she is going to illustrate before drawing anything.  These activities are designed to help students improve their ability to identify the main idea in any complicated message.  When students try to write a one-or-two sentence definition of the point that a cartoonist is making in a cartoon, they are definitely using higher- order thinking skills  to make sense of the unique elements found in any cartoon that distinguishes it from all other cartoons. 

1.  Ask students to find an editorial cartoon in the newspaper, cut it out and attach it to a paper you give them, and answer name of newspaper, name of cartoonist, and in one sentence, to explain the main point.

2. Ask students to clip a news story that interests them, attach it to a sheet.  Have them use the story’s headline as a caption for a cartoon they draw on the paper.  Their drawing should somehow fit with the headline-caption.  Stick figures are definitely OK.  We are not focusing on clever art work here.

3. Have students search through newspapers (do not have to be current newspapers) and CHOOSE FIVE stories relating to important events in the U.S. or in the world.  Have them circle in each story  what they consider to be the most important sentence.  Then have them choose ONE of these stories, cut it out of the newspaper, and attach it to a paper.  On the paper, they should copy the sentence they circled for that story at the bottom of the paper (this will now become the caption)  and above it ask them to draw a cartoon illustrating the main idea of the news story.  Giving students a choice of five articles and having them focus on the one clear idea of the one story they decide to use for their drawing are the important keys to this activity.

4. Ask students to find an editorial cartoon they like from any source, cut it out or copy it, and attach it to a paper where you ask them to:

• Name the artist, the newspaper where it appeared, and the date it appeared
• Describe the subject, issue, news story, or problem the cartoon is about
• Explain the main point the cartoon is making in a brief paragraph

This one can be repeated as needed to get the necessary practice in focusing on the main idea or point of a cartoon.

5.Make overhead transparencies of cartoons that would fit your class and the times, go through the above process with your students as a warmup activity, or fit it in when you have any extra time.  Ask questions like:

• What is the cartoon’s main point?
• How does this element or that one contribute to make the point?
• What other features help it to make the point?
• If you took out this element or that one, how would it change the point?

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