Free Teaching Guides from CBLDF Highlight Women in Comics

March 8th is International Women’s Day, a day around the globe to celebrate and share the accomplishments of women throughout history and today. In honor of that mission, CBLDF has collected some of our most popular teaching resources that demonstrate the integral role of women in comics, both on and off the page. With these free resources, educators of any kind can prioritize inclusion in their lesson plans, not just in March, but all year round.

She Changed Comics

CBLDF Presents: She Changed Comics is the definitive history of the women who changed free expression in comics, with profiles of more than 60 groundbreaking female professionals and interviews with the women who are changing today’s medium, including Raina Telgemeier, Noelle Stevenson, G. Willow Wilson, and more! She Changed Comics also examines the plights of women imprisoned and threatened for making comics and explores the work of women whose work is being banned here in the United States. A must for readers of all ages, students, and educators.

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Interdisciplinary Wonders Abound

She Changed Comics can be used in classrooms from middle school through higher education. With the diverse women profiled, the wide variety of their own bodies of work, and the rich backdrops of historical and political factors that influenced them, this compendium can be used to teach important lessons in countless educational settings, opening the door to using comics in the classroom, and breaking stereotypes of what those comics and their creators looked like.
Utilize She Changed Comics in:

  • History
  • Political Science
  • Gender Studies
  • Women’s Studies
  • Queer Studies
  • Ethnic Studies
  • Comparative Literature
  • Creative Writing
  • Art Theory

Other disciplines that may coincide with work include psychology, sociology, criminology, and cultural studies. Download free teaching guides for middle school, high school, and higher education below.
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Women On and Off the Page

CBLDF also has teaching guides for seminal works in the comics field, to aid teachers in presenting the ideal benefits of the material, preparing them to combat views from administrators and/or parents that comics represent “low value” speech and literature. Take a look at these guides for comics by women that focus on female protagonists.

Integrating with She Changed Comics

Graphic Novel Author Page in She Changed Comics Resource
Fun Home Alison Bechdel Page 55 Adding Fun Home to Library or Classroom
Fun Home Alison Bechdel Page 55 Discussion Guide
Persepolis Marjane Satrapi Page 77 Discussion Guide
Persepolis Marjane Satrapi Page 77 Adding Persepolis to Library or Classroom
Persepolis Marjane Satrapi Page 77 Classroom Guide
Stuck in the Middle Ariel Schrag (Editor) Page 79 Classroom Guide
Saga Fiona Staples (Artist) Page 91 Adding Saga to Library or Classroom
Lumberjanes Noelle Stevenson Page 142 Classroom Guide
This One Summer Mariko Tamaki Page 145 Adding This One Summer to Library or Classroom
This One Summer Mariko Tamaki Page 145 Classroom Guide
Drama Raina Telgemeier Page 148 Adding Drama to Library or Classroom
Drama Raina Telgemeier Page 148 Classroom Guide
Smile Raina Telgemeier Page 148 Classroom Guide
Ms Marvel G. Willow Wilson Page 154 Classroom Guide

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