Informal:

• Teacher monitoring of cooperate groups
• Journal Entry/Exit ticket
• Class participation/discussion

Formal:

• Student written responses to the interpretation of the political cartoons

1. Have students briefly summarize the main points of the Versailles Treaty as a review of the previous lesson. Explain that Wilson now must have the United States Senate approve this treaty in order for the United States to participate in the League of Nations.

2. Provide a little bit of background to aid students with the political cartoon analysis.
Briefly review/discuss the following with the class:

• Process of ratifying a treaty (Senate must approve)
• What influences Senator's votes? (public opinion, party affiliation)
• What would be some reasons to ratify the treaty? (have class share opinions)
• What would be some reasons to be against the treaty? (have class share opinions)

3. Break class into groups of four. You can decide if you want to give all of the groups the same cartoon or different cartoons (Several examples with the website have been included in the attachments labeled Political Cartoons. You can select which cartoons would be appropriate for you class to examine.) Give each student a political cartoon and the Political Cartoon Analysis Worksheet (Student Handout#1).

4. Have the students decide on which of the following roles they will accept in order to finish the assignment.

• Examiners (2): These students will examine the cartoon and point out words, symbols, cartoon caption/title, people, or objects seen in the cartoon.
• Researcher (1): This student will use his/her textbook, Internet etc. to look up any word, person, phrase, that may be unfamiliar to the group.
• Presenter (1): This student will be responsible for presenting the interpretation of the cartoon to the class.

5. All students are responsible for recording the result of the group's discussion on each of their Political Cartoon Analysis Worksheet.

6. Have the presenter from each group explain the message of his/her group's cartoon. While the presenter is doing this have a transparency projected of the cartoon so the class can view the cartoon while the presenter is discussing it.

7. After the groups have presented their work, have the class vote on whether to ratify the treaty or not. Then inform the class that the United States Senate did not ratify the treaty.

8. Either as an exit ticket or journal assignment have students answer the following questions:

• What will be the impact of the United States decision to not join the League of Nations?
• Define the word inseminate
• Consider this quote:
  "This war has not ended war, and no war can end war, because war does not inseminate the spirit of peace, but the spirit of revenge."
  British writer Walter L. George, 1919
• Predict what will be some of the consequences of World War I.

Differentiation:

Gifted and Talented
The students can create a political cartoon that presents an opposite or differing viewpoint than the political cartoon they were assigned.

Special Education
Consider groupings of students-pair different strengths together.

ESOL
Select cartoons that are straightforward and contain more images/symbols than words/phrases.

Note to teacher: All students often find cartoon symbols difficult to interpret so they may need clues or additional help while they are working on interpreting them.

• Overhead machine
• Transparencies of selected political cartoons
• Copies of selected political cartoons (see attachments)
• Political Cartoon Analysis Worksheet (NARA analysis worksheet)
• Access to Internet/Textbook for reference

Books:

Bragdon, Henry W., Samuel P. McCutchen, Donald A. Ritchie; History of a Free Nation; Gelncoe/McGraw Hill; 1998

This book is the textbook we use in most Fairfax County Public Schools for US and Virginia History instruction. This is helpful for background knowledge and understanding of the key points discussed in this lesson plans. While examining the political cartoons, the students may use the text as a reference for unfamiliar symbols, words, people's names etc.

Internet Sites:

http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/cartoon.html

This is the specific link to the political cartoon analysis worksheet that was included in the lesson plan.

http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/worksheets.html

The website has many document analysis worksheets that were designed and developed by the Education Staff of the National Archives and Records Administration. There are worksheets designed for written documents, photographs, cartoons, posters, maps, artifacts, sound recordings, and motion picture. A wonderful resource if you use primary resources.

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/text/versaillestreaty/vercontents.html

This website contains a copy of the entire Versailles Treaty, and maps, charts, photographs, and cartoons that reference the treaty. The website also contains links to additional World War I websites. This website was used to gather the examples of political cartoons that could be used with this lesson plan.

1. Political Cartoon Selections
2. Cartoon Analysis Worksheet
3. Exit Ticket