Collaborative Review

I will review tha assignments in order.

Roosevelt cartoon: I liked the use of the cartoon. When I was reading the historical background I wasn't sure if you were talking about Franklin Roosevelt or Teddy Roosevelt at first. I read down to the next paragraph to see that you were talking about Teddy. I did like the use of your cartoon and the shadowy figure. One thing I would suggest is that you try to compare it with a favorable Roosevelt cartoon to show that there were supporters of Roosevelt and a third term.

Nixon and Tapes: This classic cartoon demonstrates the situation that Nixon allowed himself to get into. The thing I liked most about this choice is the background information that you gave which included the fact that there were six other Presidents that had done the same thing but didn't get caught. I think to carry this assignment one step further would be to include what other Presidents had done and gotten caught when others got away with their sometimes illegal acts. You could throw in Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe and Clinton and Monica Lewinski.

US/Britain and the Battle in the Atlantic: These cartoons were good choices for your background information. I noticed that you had students compare the two cartoons but no contrasting. I know that this is a big "testing" item and should be thrown in whenever possible. You could have had them do a venn diagram of the two cartoons and then answered the question of why were the Germans perceived as the winners at that time.

Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan: What a great comparison with the use of modern media to define how a president is received by the American public. In both the background knowledge and the cartoons you stuck to strictly explaining them, I think you should elaborate on your background knowledge a little bit, such as including how former President Kennedy used the media to win the first televised presidential debates.

Corruption in US elections: This was a good comparison and I liked how you spanned time with how corruption as effected US government for years. A couple of things I would like to add would be adding a contracting or more comparison of the cartoons. Even having them analyze how the facial expressions change over time to show corruption or how their body language is expressed in the different cartoons.

Overall, I like the cartoons that you picked and I will use some of your lesson plans. I personally do more compare/contrast just because that is a testable item and it is being pushed in our district.