TEACHER'S GUIDE: Zen Pencils Comics

[Ryan Goble]

For those of you not familiar with Zen Pencils, I share Australian-based artist Gavin Aung Than's comics of famous quotes around the Ning - they are really neat. See for example:

TOON: Richard Feynman on Multidimentional / Interdisciplinary Thinking

COMIC: Invictus / Mandela / Zen Pencils

POSTER: Newton Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Gavin has now collected a lot of the comics in a book and there is a teacher's guide to go with it...see e-mail below from his mailing list:

Great news to all the teachers out there who have been using Zen Pencils comics in the classroom. My publisher Andrews McMeel has partnered with non-profit Reading With Pictures to put together a free Teacher’s Guide companion for the Zen Pencils book.

The 6-page PDF has plenty of activities for teachers to spice up their classes with. These include discussion topics based around specific comics, brainstorming original ideas, breaking down what cartooning and storytelling techniques I’ve used and of course applying everything they learn to make their own comic. It’s aimed at high school students but there are some activities appropriate for all ages. The guide is for use with the Zen Pencils book, but I’m sure teacher’s can still make do if they use this website only. 

Download the PDF from the official Zen Pencils page on Andrews McMeel.