Cartoons

Cartoons are a great way to challenge our thinking about an issue. The simple drawings with or without captions are packed with meaning and stir many responses. Cartoons capture new ideas through humour, satire, caricature and bringing together disparate ideas or symbols. Sometimes the message is clear while at other time it takes some unpacking. Cartoons are often specific to a particular time and culture and can be misunderstood and cause offence outside that context. They can be used to push a particular point of view and indoctrinate as well as educating people about issues such as health and the environment. Cartoons can be used in the global education classroom to: stimulate interest and involve students across a range of literacy levels challenge thinking on controversial topics analyse historical or current issues gauge understanding and attitudes develop visual literacy How can cartoons be used? Tell the story Cut up the pictures and ask students to re-order the story. Make this more difficult and linguistically challenging by giving separate frames to each student in a group and asking them not to show the pictures until they have arrived at an order through describing them. Remove the last picture of a cartoon and ask students to think of or draw an ending. Discuss the results. Remove the captions and ask students to match them to each cartoon or write the sentences that tell the story. Interpret an issue Answer questions such as: What is shown in the cartoon? What does it mean? Who or what are the characters? How do you respond to the cartoon? Compare the points of view shown in a number of cartoons on a similar issue. Express ideas Write captions or speech bubbles for cartoons by replacing the existing ones to give a different interpretation. Draw cartoons, developing a character through simple line drawings and a repertoire of symbols.

	Cartooning for kids
	This site lists web sites on cartooning and drawing for kids. Topics covered include drawing basics, clipart, advice from experts, online cartoon strips, cartoons in the classroom and resources for teachers on visual literacy....
	INKCINCT Cartoons
	Social and political cartoons with a slightly black and esoteric flavour. They are Drawn on Australian and World issues but from an Australian perspective....
	Cartoons for Children's Rights - UNICEF
	Cartoons for Children's Rights is a UNICEF broadcast initiative that aims to inform people around the world about child rights using the medium of animation....
	Australian Cartoonists' Association
	The Australian Cartoonists' Association (ACA) is the world's oldest cartoonist organisation, formally the Australian Black and White Artists' Club, founded in 1924. Site includes a history of Australian cartooning and cartoonists, an archive of Inkspot - the official ACA journal and related links....
	Cartoons from the New Internationalist Magazine
	Consumerism, fashion, sweatshops, Free Trade Zones, multinationals, transnationals, corporate propaganda, corporate PR, artificial babymilk, babyfood substitute, fair trade, consumer reports: these are all themes that recur in New Internationalist Magazine articles and cartoons as we chart the cause...
	World Comics
	Almost any issue, idea or fact can be expressed in a comic. This kind of visual storytelling is flexible, attention-grabbing and relatively inexpensive. World Comics promotes the use of comics as a means for social change. The site includes instructions to create comics for individual information ca...