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By Paddy Bowman, Sylvia Bienvenu, and Maida Owens A culture must be preserved one generation at a time. --Dewey Balfa, Acadia Parish Introduction Introduction Louisiana Voices is a pioneering online education guide that provides rich teaching resources on Louisiana folk and traditional arts and culture while integrating the Louisiana Education Content Standards. Every lesson addresses Social Studies and English Language Arts, and some also address Visual Arts, Music, Foreign Language, Mathematics, or Science Content Standards. These lessons target 4th and 8th grades, but they can be adapted to any grade level. The 8th grade activities are especially adaptable for high school students. In addition to introducing students to Louisiana folklife and their own community traditions, the units include extensive cutting-edge technology applications and authentic assessment strategies, as well as Internet connections that link students to high-quality folklife videos, music, stories, bibliographies, and websites. Thus, these units provide a fascinating blend of high tech and low tech, marrying the traditional and the technological. The goal of the project is to provide frameworks for the study of culture and an academically sound basis for both multicultural and technology education. The interdisciplinary study of traditional arts and community-based research in classrooms validates students' heritages and traditions, while fostering critical-inquiry skills, developing primary research skills, and relating curriculum and classroom to students' lives and communities because students participate as experts on their own folk groups and cultural traditions. Louisiana Voices is easy to use! You may choose to teach whole units or select individual activities from the guide depending on your curricular needs. No matter the length of study you are planning, it is important that you read Getting Started, Unit I Defining Terms, and Unit II Fieldwork Basics. These sections provide essential background and seed ideas for classroom applications. Review the Curriculum Connections in Getting Started to spark ideas for integrating folklife into your teaching. Unit III Discovering the Obvious: Ourselves as "The Folk" is the best way to introduce students to folklife because they find where their own traditional arts and folklife exist in daily life. Then they can more easily study others' cultural expressions and find commonalities as well as differences with greater understanding and tolerance. Unit V Oral Traditions-Swapping Stories and Unit VI Louisiana's Musical Landscape are long units that provide many stories, songs, activities, and especially rich resources. Unit IV The State of Our Lives: Being a Louisiana Neighbor emphasizes map skills and regionality. Unit VII Material Culture: The Stuff of Life incorporates more visual arts than other units. Unit VIII The Worlds of Work and Play and Unit IX The Seasonal Round and The Cycle of Life encourage students' interaction with adults in the community through fieldwork. To survey units and activities, use the Units and Lessons Summary. For an outline of the entire guide with all lessons, Content Standards met, student worksheets, and rubrics, check out the Units and Lessons Outline. Whether you have a week, a semester, or an entire school year to study Louisiana folklife, start with Unit III Discovering the Obvious: Our Lives as "The Folk." Then choose among lessons in the other units in an order that fits your curriculum needs. As students progress, consider preserving their findings for future classes and your community (see Unit II Fieldwork Basics). Documenting students' journeys into community and state folklife over their course of study by keeping a journal of your observations, taking photographs, and measuring students' improvements. Our assessment tools and rubrics will help you assess your students and guide them through activities. Consider partnering with other teachers, community groups, or administrative agencies. Link with other teachers in your school or elsewhere in the state to share problems and successes. Ask administrators and the parent teacher organization for support and send a letter home with students outlining your plans (see Letter to Parents and Caregivers). Involve families, community members, and the school community during the year. Publicize students' work in the school paper and local media. Give presentations at teacher workshops or regional education meetings. Invite local school officials to events that you and your students organize. Studying folklife in depth connects students and communities in powerful ways and you'll want to share students' work. Adapting the Educator's Guide The material in this educator's guide is public domain, so please use and adapt these units to suit your needs. Just note that some rubrics require licensing as indicated. All we ask is that you acknowledge the source and that funding was provided by the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The other online Louisiana folklife resources (articles, photographs, stories) with the www.louisianafolklife.org web address are not public domain. Contact the Louisiana Folklife Program director concerning using or adapting them: Maida Owens, Folklife Program director, Louisiana Division of the Arts, P.O. Box 44247, Baton Rouge, LA 70804, 225/342-8180, 225/342-8173 fax, folklife@crt.la.gov Project Partners
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