Low Tech, High Engagement with Primary Sources

Here's a great way to work with cartoons. My AP World kids are working on the causes of World War II and reviewed the six steps to war for homework (Rearmament, Rhineland, Austria, Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, and Poland). 

For this activity, each pair of students received one cartoon dealing with the development of the war. They had to paste the cartoon in the center of a small sheet of butcher paper, give the cartoon a title, and in one corner, provide context (circumstances surrounding the event). In another corner, students provided a short summary (what's happening, what do you see), and in a third corner, students analyzed the cartoon for meaning and symbolism. Finally, students developed a test question in the last corner. 

After students finished this part of the activity (about 15 minutes), we posted the cartoons around the room and in the hallway.  Students then did a gallery walk noting the title and event of each document.

The two samples above show different treatments of the Nazi-Soviet pact.