Quick fix materials for a teaching unit on political cartoons

To make a collection of handouts for a unit on cartoons
1) Design a title page
2) Introduce political symbols (use this page with copyable material. (DOC-file)
3) Show students in examples from the Web or their local paper how symbols are used.
4) Introduce students to symbolism, exaggeration, labeling, analogy, and irony, as done on this handout.
5) Project a cartoon from Cagle and analyse it together with the students using a sheet like this.
6) Coax students into using typical interpretaion phrases, cull these from the web. (Here is a small collection of useful phrases.  -  You may also use this handy worksheet
7) Students should also have a tentative model for an interpretation. They can find some (suitable if not always perfect) models here. (Scroll down!) If need be write one yourself.
8) You could also prepare a checklist for symbols that appear in cartoons very often. Here's a model.
9) If you want to create a more detailed sheet for analysing cartoons, use this as a model.
For a more thorough analysis
a) refer students to the Wikipedia entry on editorial, editorial cartoon, and caricature.
b) provide students with a list of feelings
(.doc)
c) Go to Cartoons for the Classroom for further ideas