Supplementary Material for Chapter 41

Captioning Political Cartoons from Different Perspectives as a Tool for Student Reflection

This chapter is published as:

Owens KA. 2016. Captioning Political Cartoons from Different Perspectives as a Tool for Student Reflection. In: Byrne L (ed) Learner-Centered Teaching Activities for Environmental and Sustainability Studies. Springer, New York. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28543-6_41

Katharine A. Owens

Politics and Government and Environmental Studies, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT USA

This file contains the following supplementary material:

  • A: Political Cartoon Resources… beginning on p. 1
  • B: Example Assignment and Assessment Rubric…beginning on p. 2

Supplementary Material A:Political Cartoon Resources

  1. The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) maintains a bank of open access blank Cartoons for the Classroom at their website The cartoons focus on a range of political issues. The site also includes a cartoon evaluation worksheet ( Several cartoons in the bank cover environmental issues such as:
  2. What’s the impact of falling fuel prices? (1/5/15)
  3. Climate triggers a monster debate (6/9/14)
  4. Climate warnings grow more dire (4/14/14)
  5. Stores see fat sales of Twinkies (7/22/13)
  6. March runs from hot 2012 to cold 2013 (4/1/13)
  7. US drought is worst in half century (7/23/12)
  8. Causes and effects of gas prices (3/12/12)
  9. Safety vs. energy (3/28/11)
  10. Oil spill perspectives (5/24/10)
  11. Drawing a bead on the climate change debate (11/30/09)
  12. Tooning into the issues: Conserve more or drill more? (8/4/08)
  13. Al Gore heats up debate (6/19/06)
  14. In addition, the AAEC has a searchable database of published and captioned cartoons under the Browse tab of their website
  15. has cartoons, often with captions, in a host of searchable categories (including but not limited to the topics of Agriculture, Climate Change, Energy, Extinction, Fracking, Fisheries, and Pollution) that are available for licensing. The licensing price for educational purposes is relatively inexpensive at around $11 per cartoon for indefinite use of an image by an instructor.
  16. Daryl Cagle’s offers a searchable database of political cartoons by topic, available for license at $5.00 per cartoon for educational use.
  17. The Union of Concerned Scientists creates an annual calendar featuring political cartoons. Entering the word “cartoon” on the search bar on their home page will provide you with a list of links to past cartoons. The rights to these cartoons remain with the original artists.
  18. The Opper Project provides lessons and examples using political cartoons to teach history and includes several types of analysis worksheets.

Supplementary Material B:Example Assignment and Assessment Rubric

Example Assignment

For illustration, an example of forest policy issues will be used. The links below lead to a pair of cartoons on this topic[1]. These cartoons should be matched to a text chapter on forestry or to an additional reading such as the CQ Researcher article Disappearing Forests (Struck 2011).

For forests, stakeholders include the forest industries, such as loggers and timber distributors (providing jobs in towns across America), preservationists, conservationists, residents of local communities—both from the perspective of those working in the industry, and those whose homes may be destroyed from flash flooding events after clear-cutting— recreationalists of many stripes (birders, anglers, hikers, skiers, ATV enthusiasts, etc.), as well as the wildlife and biodiversity impacted by logging.

Teaching Class What a Tree Looks Like by Stan Eales1

Four Views of a Tree by Andy Singer1

Cartoon / Teaching Class What a Tree Looks Like by Stan Eales / Four Views of a Tree by Andy Singer
Caption examples / “Can anyone name this?“ / “It’s all in how you look at it.”
“Apparently creatures named birds were rather fond of these so-called trees.” / “Utility is in the eye of the beholder.”
“We used these babies to build a lot of great shelters to protect us from the sandstorms.” / “They say you can’t put a price on a tree, but with a little more effort, I think we can.”
Alternative perspectives / “This particular species provided my pointer, this display board, and also your seats!” / “One man’s shade is another man’s furniture.”
“The world was full of ‘em, I tell you, all just sitting there—uselessly.” / “The invention of capitalism. And also dog parks.“
“Only one of these things feeds a family.”

Reflective Journal Assignment

For this assignment, complete a one-page journal on the political cartoon in-class activity.

Your journal entry should range from 500-750 words.

Tips:

  • Don’t simply describe the activity. This wastes valuable space. We all took part in the activity, so description is not needed. Instead, focus on what you learned during the activity.
  • Make connections between our readings, the activity, and class discussions.
  • Try using some of the prompts (below) to focus your essay.

Examples of Discussion and Writing Prompts

In class we discussed the stakeholders that become involved in this issue. Who are the stakeholders? What are their stakes? How might different stakeholders think differently about this issue (For example, a hiking enthusiast, someone in the logging industry, or someone in tourism)? Why do you think they might feel this way?

In environmental policy, business is often pitted against biodiversity. How might this play out in the issue of global forests? Is there a way to balance business and biodiversity for this issue?

What might a balanced policy be? Even considering your idea for a balanced policy, who might disagree with the idea? Why?

Did you learn something new about this issue after reading the chapter and taking part in the activity and discussion? Did you consider a different perspective on the issue during the activity and discussion?

Assessment Rubric

This rubric includes six areas for appraisal, namely analysis and evaluation, inference, reflection, explanation, connection, and self-examination (Kennison and Misselwitz, 2002). Alternatively, Leist et al. (2012) provide an excellent example of a critical thinking rubric based on the research of Linda Elder and Richard Paul. This rubric designates six categories for assessment including accuracy, clarity, precision, depth, relevance and logic (Leist et al. 2012). While they use the rubric for assessing reading assignments, it may be suitably applied here.

Presenting the Rubric to Students

Here is the rubric I will use to grade your reflective journal on the political cartoon assignment.

There are six areas of reflection, each with two examples of what I am seeking in your entry. I do not expect you to demonstrate all of these sub-areas in one page-long journal assignment.

Instead, the grading will follow this format:

A =Five or more sub-areas included

B =Four sub-areas total

C =Three sub-areas total

D= Two sub-areas total

F= No more than one sub-area

AREAS of reflection / Examples (sub-areas) of reflection / Score
Analysis and Evaluation / Examining ideas/claims / Identifying and assessing arguments
Inference / Considering alternatives / Drawing conclusions
Reflection / Demonstrating contemplation of thoughts/feelings connecting with experiences / Demonstrating thoughtful consideration
Explanation / Stating results / Presenting arguments
Connection / Clarifying personal connection to experience / Clarifying personal connection to subject matter
Self-examination / Challenging initial thinking and feelings / Demonstrating changes in understanding
Total

For the Instructor

How will you know when your student is providing an example of the sub-area of reflection? After some practice this becomes easier. In addition, prompts can be used to help guide students toward specific themes, providing a framework for reflective thinking and writing. All that said, students might need feedback on assignments to help them become more reflective thinkers and writers.

I use this rubric for weekly assignments in a semester-long journal where students produce a number of themed entries on a range of in-class discussions, activities, lectures, and reading assignments. Some assignments lend themselves more to different areas of reflection. I typically spend a class period early in the term walking through the steps of writing a reflective journal, giving examples of how they might do this. I also give the students feedback on journals at the midterm so that they can understand my grading system. I find it helpful to count the second-half of the journals as a higher proportion of the total journal grade so that students have freedom to make some mistakes and learn from them.

When guiding my students through the process, I not only point out where they accomplish the goal, but I also highlight areas where they are close, but not quite meeting the standard (for example, I indicate where if they continued and pushed a little farther in the same vein they would achieve the desired result). In conclusion: clear and frequent feedback helps the student to understand precisely what you’re seeking from the assignment.

Acknowledgements

This assessment rubric was developed in 2010 with funding from an Engaged Learning Fellowship from the University of Hartford.

References

Kennison, M M and Misselwitz, S (2002) Evaluating Reflective Writing for Appropriateness, Fairness, and Consistency. Nurs Ed Perspect 23: 238-242.

Leist, C, Woolwine, M, and Bays, C (2012) The effects of using a critical thinking scoring rubric to assess undergraduate students’ reading skills. J of Coll Read and Learn 43: 31-58.

Struck, D (2011) Disappearing forests. CQ Res 5: 27-52.

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