Students in Kurt Raducha’s journalism classes at Ramstein Middle School are currently learning about the news industry. Recently, the classes studied political cartoons. Students analyzed the cartoons for the message or statement they were making and examined the use of symbolism. The classes discussed common symbols such as Uncle Sam representing the U.S., donkeys for Democrats and elephants for Republicans.
The students were then tasked with creating their own political cartoons on a current topic. The cartoons needed to express a clear message and include symbols. The results were impressive. Messages ranged from the U.S.’s reliance on China, to Congressional partisanship harming the country, to Obama being the first African-American president. These are samples of some of the quality work from these seventh and eighth grade journalism students.