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NEW! Videos of cartoonists talking cartooning

How they got started | Where they get their ideas | How they draw |
Tap the growing video library here

Downloadable lesson for 11/21/08

Draw your own conclusions

Download blank cartoon here for students to try writing their own captions.

This week's lesson

Click to download lesson

Cartoon Evaluation Worksheet
For use with these lessons or with cartoons from your newspaper

Tooning into the Election: Campaign Echoes

Teachers: Download the lesson and print it out for use in your classroom. (PDF format)

Learning standard: Comprehending and evaluating the content and artistic aspects of oral and visual presentations.
Grade Level: Middle grades and up.

NOTE: You'll need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to use these files. If you don't already have it, click here to download it.

Videos: Drawing the candidates

Animations from CNN's Dan Shefelman:

Sarah Palin

Ballad of Joe the Plumber

Giving the right to bear arms a big bear hug

Teachers: Contact Dan Shefelman about speaking to your class about political cartooning. Visit danshefelman.com or email Dan at dshefelman@gmail.com.

There are now 134 lessons in our online library

Click here to download any lessons you might have missed at no charge

Click here for a list of election-year lessons from our library

Upcoming Lessons

New lessons are posted for download every other week.

Coming 11/24/08

Sisyphusian bailouts: The auto industry

Archived lessons

Click here to retreive lessons you might have missed.

State of the Art

Editorial Cartoons: The Impact and Issues of an Evolving Craft

In their December 2004 issue, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism published a series of articles looking at political cartooning and its position in journalism today. The issue is available for download as a pdf file.

Download the issue here

Toons in books!

New, noteworthy and the editor's suggestions

Get details

Tooning into history

They were there

Are you studying Reconstruction? The McCarthy era? World War II? View history through the eyes of the political cartoonists.
Check the online resources here.

Give us feedback

Stay tooned!

Like what you see? Got some ideas on how to make this project better? Please let us know. We welcome your comments, criticism or warm, gushing praise. If you like, we'll notify you when new lessons debut online.
Email us at cftc@nieonline.com

More Cartoon Resources

Stop laughing, this is serious*

Association of American Editorial Cartoonists:

What you'll find: Collection of political cartoons, articles dealing with cartooning and cartoonists.

Where you'll find it: Click here

The Opper Project: Teaching history through political cartoons

Ohio State University has launched a project that uses editorial cartoons to teach history. You'll find lesson plans, downloadable toons and much more.

Click here for the Opper Project

Daryl Cagle's
Cartoon Index:

What you'll find: Huge selection of Political Cartoons updated daily. Collections categorized by topic.

Where you'll find it: Click here

What you'll find: Major political cartoonists from the world press in over 75 countries.

Where you'll find it: Click here

*How far do Toons reach? The cartoon Australians consider the best and most famous in the world features two workmen hanging in the air from a steel girder, one by the pants of the other, pulling them down. The caption words, "For gorsake, stop laughing, this is serious," have since become a byword in Australian culture. See the cartoon and read more about it at Witty World