At Pius XI High School, I taught my social studies lesson in a government

class composed of 14 sophomores, on political cartoons. I have always held a

passion for art analysis and find that students enjoy it as well. Perhaps it is the
understanding of the old adage a picture is worth a thousand words. At the
time of this lesson, the presidential primaries were in a heated, full swing, with
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker being one of the fourteen Republican
candidates. Therefore, students were aware of election going on, which gave me
ample opportunities to tap into student schema using a medium the students
were comfortable with, political cartoons.
One of the Wisconsin Teacher Standards that I used for my lesson was
teachers communicate well. I did this through my Prezi, which contained
several slides explaining different analytical strategies for political cartoons, and
handouts, which contained straightforward definitions for the strategies. In order
to accommodate the ELL students in the class, I put images next to the
definitions to help further explain the definitions. For the most part, I felt
students were comfortable with the materials. Often times the students would
readily answer questions. Yet there were some moments where students would
silently look at me after I had asked a question and no one would answer. This
would lead me to believe that some of the information may have been too much
for some students.
This WTS holds a strong connection with one of the Alverno abilities that
I used for this lesson, communication. Through the combination of my

presentation, discussion and demonstration of analysis for the political cartoons,

students were able to communicate their thoughts on the subject and use the
skills I had taught them on analyzing the political cartoons. I also used a group
activity in which the students analyzed different political cartoons in small
groups. In arranging my lesson in this manner, I exhibited another WTS through
teachers know how to manage a classroom. A part of this arrangement was
inspired by pairings of lower performing students with higher performing
students. In fact, part of the rationale was to help my ELL students through the
task. You must understand that these students were from China, where political
cartoons are rare. These students, however, through group discussion, explained
that while political cartoons were rare in Chinese media, it was understood that
they were prevalent within American culture and media. My lesson used CCSS
Literacy RH.9-10.5 in which the students used the text, in this case political
cartoons; to examine the structure of these cartoons and analysis of said cartoons.
One of the primary frameworks that I used for the lesson came from
Gordon Pasks conversation theory in which the students use different
analytical questions of inquiry to enhance the discussion. I also found out that
found out the other day from my cooperating teacher that the students in the
class recalled the items I emphasized in my lesson and used those items in the
lesson for that day. This gives me the impression that the students were able to
comprehend and connect with the material. Not only this, Mary, my cooperating
teacher, has begun to incorporate political cartoons in other parts of her

government classes to keep the students abreast of current events and the everchanging political world.