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Cartoons for the Classroom: Campaign Fundraising
Although this political cartoon analysis assignment has your scholars glancing back at the 2008 presidential campaign, its message is relatable anytime. Background information provides context, giving learners access to the cartoon,...
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Cartoons for the Classroom: Spinning off of Eyjafjallajökull
The name itself may have your scholars' heads spinning: Eyjafjallajökull. Its recent volcanic eruption spurred many political cartoons on unrelated topics- using an analysis handout scholars examine the use of metaphor in 2 cartoons...
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Chasing Metaphors
Students use metaphors in order to see commonly experienced objects, events, and people in new and more meaningful ways.
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Language Arts: Ode to the Ordinary
Eighth graders select ordinary objects, determine their uses, and write poems about them. Once they select an object, they create a web about its uses to serve as an outline. Once they have written their own odes, 8th graders meet in...
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Cartoons for the Classroom: Sarcasm, Irony, and Satire
Satire, sarcasm, or irony? Editorial cartoons have long been the tool artists use to express their opinions about politics and politicians. Kevin "Kai" Kallaugher's four-panel cartoon offers readers an opportunity to examine how he uses...
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Cartoons for the Classroom: What's Next in 2011?
Examine the toolbox of political cartoons with this analysis handout, which features a cartoon utilizing satire, sarcasm, and irony as it predicts the current events of 2011. Interestingly, this will also serve to get scholars looking...
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Identifying, Mapping, and Personifying Countries Involved in WWII
Get artsy with this WWII group activity, starting with a whole-class assignment. Create a map of Europe, Northern Africa, and the Pacific using geometric shapes cut from construction paper and placed on the floor. Consider splitting the...
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You Have Egg On Your Face
Students explore and analyze how the human face is proportioned and explore ways artists use mathematics to make art. They demonstrate the basic face proportions by creating a reference sketch and illustrating visual clues to communicate...
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Cartoons for the Classroom: Gridlock in 2010 Elections
Investigate symbolism within a political cartoon in this critical analysis handout, which outlines issues of the 2010 election process. Background information (on the risk of gridlock in legislation and the challenges of either party...
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Cartoons for the Classroom: Social Commentary
Expose your class to the genre of political cartoons less concerned with serious political issues. This political cartoon analysis handout features social commentary on the many entertainments of youth, ironically paired with their...
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Cartoons for the Classroom: China, Tibet, and the Olympics
Political tensions have surrounded the Olympics for centuries; take a look back at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics with this political cartoon analysis worksheet. Background information gives learners context regarding Tibetan protests...
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Cartoons for the Classroom: 2012 Mid-Term Elections
Use a political cartoon to help scholars grasp the significant turnover in Congress following the 2012 mid-term election. A Mike Keefe cartoon uses symbols and current political lingo to convey perspective on the issue, and background...
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Teaming Up on Health Care
Use this political cartoon handout to help pupils understand the role the Blue Dog Coalition plays with regard to Health Care Reform. Football is used metaphorically to represent a player (Blue Dogs) tackling someone on his team (Obama)....
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What Does the Government Do Right?
Challenge your class to reevaluate preconceived notions about government with this political cartoon analysis. An image presents a clear example of irony, in which a disgruntled American complains about his government, yet fails to see...
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Using Vivid Language
Analyze the components of precise wording and vivid language in this language arts lesson plan. Middle school writers illustrate a passage from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and write a response to a Norman Rockwell print....
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Grammar - Revise Your Symbols
Explore the different symbols of grammar. Middle schoolers write two sentences using different symbols, including asterisks, apostrophes, and ellipses. They also read and answer guided questions.
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The Outsiders
Tenth graders complete a variety of activities related to the first two chapters of the book The Outsiders. They define metaphor, simile, idiom, and hyperbole, and take a vocabulary pre-quiz. In small groups, they write a character...
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Propaganda and World War II
What was the true meaning behind WWII propaganda posters? Historians analyze images from the U.S., Great Britain, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union, sharing findings in small groups. A poster analysis worksheet and all posters are...
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Carl Sandburg's "Chicago": Bringing a Great City Alive
Students examine the historical and cultural context in Sandburg's poem. The poetic devices of personification and apostrophe are utilized in the poem and identified by Students.
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Allegory in Painting
Students examine how allegory is defined and used in the visual arts. They create a list of the arts, and list the objects, symbols, and figures that suggest each art category, analyze various paintings, and identify the allegorical...
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In Depth with the Full Spectrum
High schoolers explore the basic color wheel and the ways that artists use color to guide the viewer's attention through a painting's composition. A creation of a sense of depth in a two dimensional space and the effect of color on mood...
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Follow the Leader: Line in the Visual Arts
Learners explore line in painting and drawing and examine how it is defined in the visual arts. Recognizing line in the composition of a number of art works and how it affects these works of art is the focus of this lesson.
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"Leap, Plashless": Emily Dickinson & Poetic Imagination
Students read and explore one of Emily Dickinson's nature poems, "A Bird Came Down the Walk-" through interaction with a variety of art forms. Clips of a hymn to hear meter and the viewing of bird images exposes them to the language and...
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Be the Poet
Students work through a Haiku Organizer to determine the characteristics they use to write eight haiku poems on a theme that they choose. They design presentation folders of their completed work.