Sample of Best Practice Strategy
Engagement Activity: Image Analysis
Image Analysis
To begin the lesson of the Presidency of George W. Bush, I presented a political cartoon image as my engagement piece. I scaffold the students by having them describe the scene. I asked them questions such as the following: what do you see? Who is being depicted? What words do you see? Are there any clues in the cartoon that suggest biases? Through these guiding questions, students were able to make inferences about the political cartoon and were able to explain and describe the narrative that was being depicted.
This engagement activity achieved many goals required for analyzing a primary source—first and foremost, this political cartoon peaked the interest for the upcoming lesson. This engagement activity also allowed students to practice what they already know about analyzing sources; it also invited the students to speculate and ask questions about the image and facilitated new learning by connecting prior knowledge.
Then, through the use of scaffolding, student were able to process and digest the image in sophisticated ways, from description, to inference, to analysis. This activity also provided students the opportunity to exercise interpreting primary sources from a historical viewpoint.