Louisiana Voices Educator's Guide  
Getting Started With This Guide  
Study Guide Summary  
Outline of the Study Guide  
Study Unit I Defining Terms  
Study Unit II Fieldwork Basics  
Study Unit III Discovering the Obvious: Our Lives as "The Folk"  
Study Unit IV The State of Our Lives: Being a Louisiana Neighbor  
Study Unit V Oral Traditions--Swapping Stories  
Study Unit VI Louisiana's Musical Landscape  
Study Unit VII Material Culture-The Stuff of Life  
Study Unit VIII The Worlds of Work and Play  
Study Unit IX The Seasonal Round and Life Cycles  
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Educator's Guide Glossary  
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Educator's Opportunities For Professional Development  
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Unit III Outline

Introduction: Our Lives as "The Folk"

Lesson 1:The Child: Games and Play Today and Yesterday In Louisiana

Lesson 2: The School--School Culture Across Louisiana

Lesson 3: The Family--Louisiana Family Folklore

Lesson 3, Activity 1: Naming Traditions

Lesson 3, Activity 2: Family Pictures

Lesson 3, Activity 3: The Family--Louisiana Family Folklore

Unit III Resources (this page)

 

 

LDOE

  Unit III
Discovering the Obvious: Our Lives as "The Folk"

 

Resources

Find resources helpful for Unit III lessons below. More resources may be found online in the and Louisiana Folklife Bibliography.

Blatt, Gloria T., ed. Once Upon a Folktale: Capturing the Folklore Process with Children. Twelve authors share their use of folklore in elementary and middle school classrooms. Includes suggestions for drawing on students family and community folklore and explores the darker side of some folklore such as inherent racism and nationalism.

Bowman, Paddy and Marsha Weiner. Bullfrog Jumped Children's Folksongs Learning Guide Alabama Folklife Association, 2007. This online guide includes audio clips of children's songs recorded in 1947, some of which are still familiar to children.

Bronner, Simon. American Children's Folklore. August House, 1988. This compendium of children's culture provides lots of examples from innocent rhymes to parodies and is useful as a teacher resource.

Cantú, Norma, Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera, University of New Mexico Press, 1995. A folklorist and English professor, the author uses family photos as starting points for writing family stories.

Culin, Stewart. Games of North American Indians. Desriptions and drawings of over a thousand games.

de Caro, Frank. Folklife in Louisiana Photography: Images of Tradition. LSU Press, 1990. Louisiana public libraries may have this fine collection.

Doucet, Michael. Le Hoogie Boogie. Rounder/Polygram, 1995. Cajun and zydeco music by Beausoleil for children with French and English lyrics. Book includes chord symbols, simple dance directions, and activities for each song.

Ellefson, Connie. Melting Pot Book of Baby Names. Betterway Publications, 1995.

Hufford, Mary. A Commonwealth of Cultures. American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, 1991. Good essay on folklore and the work of folklorists.

Jones, Bessie and Bess Lomax Hawes. Step It Down. University of Georgia Press, 1987. This classic collection of African American children's folklore for teachers and K-8 has an accompanying CD.

Lindahl, Carl, Maida Owens, and C. Renée Harvison, eds. Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana. University Press of Mississippi in association with Louisiana Division of the Arts, 1997. Some stories are online.

Knapp, Mary and Herbert. One Potato, Two Potato: The Secret Education of American Children. Norton, 1976. The authors analyze and categorize their wide-ranging collection of children's lore in a good teacher resource.

Library of Congress. Folklife and Fieldwork: A Layman's Introduction to Field Techniques. American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, 2002. This basic, accessible guide to developing collection projects with sample forms is available online in English and Spanish. .

MacDowell, Marsha. Folk Arts in Education: A Resource Handbook II. Michigan State University Museum, 2008. Order or download at www.folkartsineducation.org

Morton, Laura E., ed. "Toys, Games, and Play in Louisiana and the Southeast," a special edition of Louisiana Folklife Journal, Vol. XVIII, 1994. Available from Louisiana Folklife Center, Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, LA.

Opie, Iona and Peter. The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. Oxford University Press, 1969. The classic collectors offer many examples of comparative research of English and American children's lore as a teacher resource.

Owens, Maida and Pat Mire. Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana. Louisiana Public Broadcasting, 1998. Companion 30-minute video and website to the publication.

Samuelson, Paula, et al. Baby Names for the New Century. Harper, 1994.

Seeger, Mike and Peggy. American Folk Songs for Children. Rounder Records 1997 reissue, B0000003EU. A hundred tracks on two CDs offer children lots of sad, happy, and funny songs.

Martha C. Sims and Martine Stephens. Living Folklore: An Introduction to the Study of People and their Traditions. Utah State University Press, 2005.

Simons, Elizabeth. Student Worlds, Student Words: Teaching Writing Through Folklore. Heinemann, 1990. A teacher and folklorist, Simons offers background and detailed lesson plans for writing and folklore studies, including games and play, family folklore. Invaluable resource for all disciplines and grade levels. Out of print but used copies are sometimes available.

Stone, Elizabeth. Black Sheep and Kissing Cousins: How Our Family Stories Shape Us. Penguin Books, 1989. Great supplement for teachers directing family folklore units.

Sunstein, Bonnie and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research. Prentice Hall, 2002. This teacher resource provides exercises to deepen students' fieldwork, observation, and writing skills.

Sutton-Smith, Brian. The Folkgames of Children. University of Texas Press, 1972. A major collector of children's lore examines games and changes in games over the years.

Toelken, Barre. The Dynamics of Folklore. Utah State University Press, 1996. A good general college text useful for teachers and older students.

Touchstone, Samuel J. Yesterday's Toys and Games. Folklife Books, 1994.

Wagler, Mark, Ruth Olson, and Anne Pryor. The Kids' Guide to Local Culture and The Teacher's Guide to Local Culture, Madison Children's Museum. 2004. Available as PDFs online, these practical guides provide simple yet compelling fieldwork strategies for young people to document their families, neighborhoods, and communities. Instantly accessible for students and their teachers.

Weitzman, David, My Backyard History Book. Little, Brown, and Co., 1975. Learning history begins at home.

Winston, Linda. Keepsakes: Using Family Stories in Elementary Classrooms. Heinemann, 1997. Offers ways to use stories to create classroom community and involve parents.

Wolfman, Ira. Do People Grow on Family Trees? Workman, 1991. Child-friendly resource on family names, photos, genealogy.

Zeitlin, Steve, et al. A Celebration of American Family Folklore. Pantheon, 1982. A full selection of family stories, customs, and photos for K-12 teachers to help students start family writing, oral history, and folklore collection projects.

 

Unit III Outline

 

National Endowment for
            the Arts.

 
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