From Dawn Stahura, Simmons College Library
Here are some reasons why zines should be considered in student research:
1. Zines are primary sources.
2. Zines are written by marginalized and oppression voices. These are the voices oftentimes missing from standard scholarly resources.
3. Zines humanize our research. When students read zines on their topics, they get to really hear the methodologies section that they mostly skip over (because it's boring).
4. Zines allow students to really think about their topics and how it relates to not only their own lives but the lives of others. Research and education should be about liberating others. Zines are just one way this can happen.
Using zines in your classroom is pretty easy! There are a few ways this can be accomplished.
1. You can assign zines to be read just as you would other types of resources for your course.
2. You can allow students to use zines in the understanding of their research. This means giving them the okay to use them as cited sources in the bibliographies and Works Cited.
3. You can assign your students to create a zine as either a group project or as an individual project.
4. You can have a zine workshop where students learn about zines and make their own.
Lesson Plans
From Barnard Library, (to be used in conjuction with Barnard's Election and Protest online exhibit)
The following lesson plans were developed for three different levels of ability, but each lesson plan could be used in any classroom with the appropriate modifcations. Select the lesson plan that best fits your students, or download all three and create your own unit to suit your needs. Each lesson plan was originally developed by Melissa L. Jones, MS Ed, MS LIS, based on her expertise as a public school educator.
Lesson A - What is a zine? What is the value of protest?
Content Areas: English Language Arts, Information Literacy
Level: Intermediate, Grades 7-9
Lesson B - Why zines? How can those outside the mainstream get their voices heard?
Content Areas: Media Literacy, Information Literacy
Level: Secondary, Grades 10-12
Lesson C - How do systems of power repress voices of dissent?
Content Areas: English, History, Political Science, Information Literacy
Level: 12th Grade or Early College
Pencil Drawing by LadyDark64
link info 
