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Having students study cartoons can test their knowledge of current events and their ability to interpret visual as well as verbal clues. Assigning the interpretation of cartoons is a fun way to get students involved in current events. Refer to the Editorial Cartoons & Questions under Special Features on the Issues & Controversies home page, and also to cartoons in newspapers and magazines. Some pointers in recognizing students' ability to interpret cartoons:

1. In classroom discussion or assignments, determine whether the students have recognized all the information in the cartoons being studied—visual as well as verbal—that helps illustrate the point the cartoonist is trying to make. For each cartoon, ask students to write down everything they see in the drawing that makes a comment on the event. Remind them that cartoons often refer to more than one event, using the merging of two subjects as a way of highlighting the point they are trying to make. Assess their ability to understand the cartoonist's use of symbols, analogy, irony, caricature and exaggeration, among other tools.
2. Determine if the students can assess whether the cartoonist is liberal, conservative or neutral. Have they correctly interpreted the cartoon as the basis for that assessment?
3. Do the students have an opinion on what the purpose of editorial cartoons is or should be? Should they always have a serious purpose? Are they meant to educate? Are cartoons meant to sway readers to change their minds about a particular topic, or do they simply intend to inform and provoke discussion? Do the students see beyond the joke or absurdity of a cartoon, to the serious purpose underlying it?
4. Ask students to discuss whether cartoons have to be funny to best get their point across, or whether they should just make the reader think more incisively about a particular topic.

Ask the students to draw their own cartoons modeled on some they have studied in class. To start, have them read an article in Issues & Controversies on a subject that they are studying. Advise them to jot down some notes reflecting their opinion on that subject and think about how they might go about making a visual representation of their opinions. When they have completed their cartoon, they should write an essay on how they transformed their opinion into a cartoon.Then:

1. Evaluate how well the students have chosen the content of their cartoons. How original have they been in selecting their characters and other elements of the cartoon, including the use of symbols, analogy and irony, among other tools, to best illustrate the event?
2. Select two or three cartoons from the Editorial Cartoons & Questions feature that you think present some challenge in interpretation and ask students to write down what they think is happening in the cartoons. Have any students missed the point entirely? If so, what does that tell you about their ability to understand what is being reported in the news, or to interpret the visual messages found in cartoons? On the other hand, have any students come up with an imaginative and entirely relevant interpretation of the cartoons that was not immediately discernable?
3. Have students look at cartoons in a variety of newspapers and magazines. Have them note whether conservative newspapers include only conservative cartoonists and the same for liberal newspapers and cartoonists perceived to be liberal. Lead a discussion on whether publications should be concerned primarily with whether cartoons are effective or whether they agree with the publication's editorial philosophy.
4. Ask the students to study cartoons about an event in the news that could have incorporated a historical figure to help make a point about the subject matter. For example Richard Nixon could have been used in a cartoon about a contemporary politician in trouble for ethics violations, to strengthen its effectiveness.