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  
Educator's Links  
Educator's Guide Glossary  
Educator's Guide Credits  
Educator's Opportunities For Professional Development  
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Louisiana's Living Traditions: Articles, Photos and Virtual Exhibits about Louisiana Folklife  

Unit IX Outline:

Introduction

Part 1: The Seasonal Round

Lesson 1: Birthday Calendars

Lesson 2: Constructing Personal Calendars

Lesson 3: Folklife Around the Year

Part 2: The Cycle of Life

Lesson 1: Birth and Early Childhood

Part 2, Lesson 2: Rites of Passage

Part 2, Lesson 3: Elders' Ways

Resources (this page)

 

 

LDOE

 

 

Unit IX The Seasonal Round and Life Cycles Resources

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

Ancona, George. Fiesta USA. Lodestar Books, 1995. Introduces four Latino celebrations in the U.S..

Beeler, Shelby B. Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World. Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Teeth may be the same around the world, but students in lower grades will enjoy seeing what children from other countries do when they lose a tooth.

Bruhac, Joseph, et al. Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back: A Native American Year of Moons. Paper Star, reprint, 1997. A picture book of poems based on different Native American traditions for each of the 13 moons of the year, grades K-4.

The Life Cycle. CARTS Newsletter, Vol 3 1999, Local Learning and City Lore. This issue plumbs the deep knowledge embedded in rites of passage and life milestones to build bridges from self to school, student to student, classroom to the world.

Cobblestone Publishing. Faces: People, Places, and Cultures. This magazine full of illustrations, activities, and information for students in grades 4-9 concentrates on different cultures and cultural practices around the world.

Davis, Shari and Benny Ferdman. Nourishing the Heart: A Guide to Intergenerational Arts Projects in the Schools. City Lore, 1993. Encourages bringing senior citizens into classrooms to engage young and old in joint ventures to recreate their own and their communities' cultural heritage in visual arts, theater, and writing projects, all grades.

Doros, Arthur. Tonight Is Carnaval. Puffin Books, 1995. Picture book illustrated with appliquéd cloths portrays a Peruvian boy's day as he prepares for Carnaval, the Latin American version of Mardi Gras, K-4.

Dresser, Norine. Come as You Aren't: Feeling at Home with Multicultural Celebrations. M. Evans, 2006. Explains the "rites and wrongs" of events such as birthdays, marriages, coming of age markers, funerals, and holidays.

Dresser, Norine. Multicultural Celebrations. Random House, 1999. A folklorist who has written extensively on contemporary customs, Dresser offers background and rules of etiquette for celebrations of many cultural groups living in this country.

Dresser, Norine. Multicultural Manners for the 21st Century. John Wiley & Sons, 2005. Teachers and students can research ways to avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings and learn customs of various cultural groups.

Florence, Robert. New Orleans Cemeteries: Life in the Cities of the Dead. Batture Press, 1997. This photography book includes much of the folklore of New Orleans cemeteries.

Gaudet, Marcia. "Charlene Richard: Folk Veneration Among the Cajuns," Southern Folklore, Vol. 51, no. 2, 1994, pp. 253-166.

Gaudet, Marcia. "Christmas Bonfires in South Louisiana: Tradition and Innovation," Southern Folklore, Vol. 47, 1990, pp. 195-206.

Gaudet, Marcia. "The New Orleans King Cake in Southwest Louisiana," Mid-America Folklore, Fall 1989, pp. 114-121.

Gaudet, Marcia. Tales from the Levee. Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1984. See chapters one and two, The Calendar Year--Holiday Tradition and Lore and Rites of Passage: Birth Courtship, Marriage, Death.

Gillis, Candida. The Community as Classroom. Heinemann, 1992. Teacher resource for encouraging students' insight into and work with elders and community.

Hamilton, Virginia. In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World. Harcourt Brace, reprint 1991. This Newberry winner has 25 creation myths for grades 3-8 and a useful bibliography.

Hand, Wayland D., ed. American Folk Medicine. UCLA Press, 1976, paperback 1980. Although out of print, libraries may have this useful resource.

Hoyt-Goldsmith, Diane and Lawrence Migdale (Illustrator). Las Posadas: A Mexican-American Christmas Celebration. Holiday House, 1999.

Hoyt-Goldsmith, Diane and Lawrence Migdale (Illustrator). Mardi Gras: A Cajun Country Celebration. Holiday House, 1995. This picture book follows young Joel Savoy of Eunice, Louisiana, through the Cajun Courir de Mardi Gras.

Intergenerational Programs. CARTS Newsletter. Local Learning and City Lore, 1999. Three excerpts describe ways to link students and elders.

Johnson, Dinah, photographs by Richard Samuel Roberts. All Around Town: The Photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts. Holt, 1998. Simple text and striking photographs illustrate the lives of African American citizens of Columbia, SC in the 1920s and 1930s. Features weddings, families, people at work and play, grades K-8.

Kindersley, Barnabas and Anabel. Children Just Like Me: Celebrations. DK Publishing, 1997. Vivid color photographs detail foods, clothing, traditions, and the words of children bring children's festivals worldwide to life. Includes a calendar of celebrations, grades 3-8.

Lindahl, Carl, Maida Owens, and C. Renée Harvison, eds. Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana. University Press of Mississippi and Louisiana Division of the Arts, 1997.

Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. KnowLA: Encyclopedia of Louisiana, 2012. This online encyclopedia features articles, audio, images, and video about the history and culture of Louisiana. One section is Louisiana Folklife.

Luenn, Nancy. Celebrations of Light: A Year of Holidays Around the Year. Atheneum, 1998. Bold illustrations and short explanations of a celebration of light for each month, grades 4-8.

Maestro, Betsy. The Story of Clocks and Calendars: Marking a Millennium. Lothrop/Harper Collins, 2000. Describes clocks and calendars of many cultures and times. Grades 4-8.

McKissick Museum. Jubilation! African American Celebration in the Southeast: An Educator's Guide. University of South Carolina, 1993. This online guide includes lesson plans, photos, and lists of resources.

Palkovich, Ann. "Exploring Historic Cemeteries," AnthroNotes. Vol. 20, no. 2, Winter 1998, pp. 8-12.

Pitre, Glen, director, Good for What Ails You. Louisiana Public Broadcasting, 1998. A 60-minute video available from LPB 7733 Perkins Rd., Baton Rouge, LA 70810, 800/973-7246, $24.95. Explore the film's online study guide.

Santino, Jack. All Around the Year: Holidays and Celebrations in American Life. University of Illinois Press, 1994. Good teacher resource that older students can use for research on old and new holidays, including several Louisiana celebrations.

Santino, Jack. New Old-Fashioned Ways: Holidays and Popular Culture. University of Tennessee Press, 1996. A teacher resource examining the many ways popular commercial culture influences traditional holidays.

Sexton, Rocky. "A Kinder, Gentler St. Nicholas: Transformation and Meaning in a 'Louisiana German' Tradition." Southern Folklore. Vol. 56, no. 2, 1999, pp. 149-160. An article for teachers and older students on Louisiana German traditions in Robert's Cove.

Slovenz, Madeline, et al. Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's New Year. Scholastic reprint, 1991. Vivid color photos follow a boy through a New York City Chinese New Year celebration, K-5.

Wesley, Valerie. Freedom's Gifts: A Juneteenth Story. Simon and Schuster, 1997. The African American tradition celebrating Juneteenth is the setting for this tale of renewed understanding of the joy of freedom when a Northern girl visits her Southern family, grades K-4.

Westridge Young Writers Workshop. Kids Explore America's African American Heritage. John Muir Publications, reprint 1996. Kids write for other kids about celebrations, foods, folktales, music, history, and more, grades 4-9.

Wiggins, William. O Freedom: Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations. University of Tennessee Press, 1987. A scholarly collection that explores Juneteenth and other emancipation traditions.

Wilkinson, Philip. A Celebration of Customs and Rituals of the World. Facts on File, 1996. A vast array of historical and contemporary celebrations and life cycle events from every corner written for young adults with a voice that avoids ethnocentrism.

Wilson, Charles, et al. The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. UNC Press, 1989. This large, accessible volume covers hundreds of topics, useful for older students and teachers, available in many public libraries, 1,656 pages.

Woods, Michael and Mary B. Ancient Medicine: From Sorcery to Surgery. Runestone/Lerner, 2000. Background on medical practices from the Stone Age to Ancient Rome. Grades 5-8.

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

 

Unit IX Outline

 

National Endowment for the Arts.

 
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