 The Library
of Congress >> Research Centers |
|||
|
Folklife Resources for EducatorsMaterials Related to CraftsThere are 34 titles in this list.
Cerámica y Cultura: The Story of Spanish and Mexican Mayólica A teacher resource guide for grades K-12, created in 2003, which details the history and cultural background of Spanish and Mexican mayólica ceramic pottery. It was developed in conjunction with a traveling exhibition of the same name, which opened at the Museum of International Folk Art in 2002. The guide presents materials for educators to use in introducing students to forms and functions of mayólica ceramic pieces as a way to show how to study culture through the examination of objects and as a point of departure for developing their own creative expression. It includes background information on mayólica for incorporation into classroom lesson plans, questions for discussion, and student activities related to calligraphy, design-making, ceramic tiles, and other projects. (50 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Craft Revival: Shaping Western North Carolina Past and Present Educational website documenting the Craft Revival movement in western North Carolina from 1895 to 1945, drawing on a virtual collection of photographs, documents, craft objects, and artifacts maintained by Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library. The site includes over 25 accompanying lesson plans for grades 3-12, which focus on weaving, basketry, pottery, and other mountain crafts and traditions found in the Southern Highlands of North Carolina. Additional lesson plans cover cottage industries, industrialization, the Cherokee presence, and the social, economic, and cultural aspects of the Craft Revival in the Appalachian Mountain South. Curriculum areas covered include language arts, social studies, history, art, and math.
Sponsoring Organization: Crossroads of the Heart: Creativity and Tradition in Mississippi Educational website that profiles community-based Mississippi traditional artists and musicians. It includes a teacher's guide with background on the traditions described, a glossary of terms, student activities, and a resource guide for additional materials and websites. The site is organized into five sections: "Mississippi Music" (blues, gospel, fiddling, and sacred harp singing); "Handmade Objects" (Choctaw basketry, wood carving, pottery, and pine needle basketry); "Maritime Traditions" (boatbuilding, netmaking, Vietnamese fishing and boatbuilding, and model boatbuilding); "Mississippi Quilting" (quilter Hystercine Rankin, Crossroads Quilters, and quilter Elaine Carter); and "Mississippi Narrative" (storytelling, church oratory, and fiction). Each artistic form highlighted includes streaming audio of interviews and musical performances or photos documenting the traditional form. For upper elementary and middle school.
Sponsoring Organization: Dave - I Made This Jar Educator guide that focuses on the contributions of the enslaved potter and poet, David Drake, who worked in the pottery industry that flourished in the Edgefield District of South Carolina in the 1800s. Curriculum materials were designed to be consulted in conjunction with the McKissick Museum's "I Made This Jar" exhibit, but they may be be used independently of the exhibit. Lesson plans address pottery making, written and oral traditions in poetry, and the economics of slavery in relation to antebellum craft work. The guide also includes student activities, teacher background, and a bibliography. It was created for classroom use in grades 3-12, with guidance on teaching content and skills geared to different grade levels. (45 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Explore Culture Online Online educational activities, podcasts, videos, exhibitions, oral histories, databases, bibliographies, and multimedia resources created for the Arizona State Museum about their exhibits, collections, and programs related to the material culture of Southwest Native Americans. Includes cultural and archaeological topics such as masks, pottery, textiles, painting, and weaving from Northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona. Can be used in the classroom.
Sponsoring Organization: Folk Artists: New Roots Educational web pages designed for use with students in grades 5-8 which provide activities and primary source materials about recent immigrant and refugee communities in Pennsylvania. A 12-page teacher's guide, "Using the Folk Arts of Newcomers in Your Classroom," offers curriculum suggestions and activities for exploring traditional forms of culture found in the Ahikskan Turk, Bosnian, Chinese, East Indian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Sudanese, and Vietnamese communities in Pennsylvania. Accompanying the guide are stories and videos, some in Spanish, of individual Puerto Rican, Chinese, and Mexican individuals, representing dance, foodways, and other cultural and artistic traditions. The guide correlates with Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and the Arts and Humanities.
Sponsoring Organization: Folklife and Folk Art Education Resource Guide Guide created in 1997 with lesson plans and activities related to teaching a general folklife and folk art curriculum for the upper elementary school grades. It also provides background on the diverse ethnic, occupational, and regional traditions of the state of Utah. Included in the guide are sample cultural surveys for fourth and fifth graders to use in doing fieldwork plus activities such as hosting a folklife fair. Some of the many traditional arts areas explored are cowboy poetry, children's folklore, occupational folklore, foodways, celebrations, and verbal folklore genres.
Sponsoring Organization: Heartfelt/Handmade Activity: Hand-Molded Pottery Pottery-making activity, geared to K-12 grade levels, with accompanying resources and images of 19th century folk art from the Illinois State Museum website. Introduces students to hand-molded and decorated pottery and folk art of the kind that was made before the age of electric equipment. Addresses Illinois Board of Education Goals and Standards for Art. (2 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Heritage Arts Build-A-Picture Activities Activities to introduce students in grades 3-12 to New Hampshire traditions and heritage arts. Puzzle activities on traditional arts topics include ash basket making, blacksmithing, dog sledding, fly tying, contra dance, and sheep sheering. The activities are designed to help students learn about traditional arts and artists, broaden literacy skills, develop basic research interests, and nurture writing skills. Background information is provided to expand on the activities in the classroom and community.
Sponsoring Organization: Hmong Cultural Tour Teacher's guide for organizing cultural tours for students in the upper elementary grades, developed as an educational resource for a Madison Children's Museum exhibit, Hmong at Heart, created in 2004. This site documents a class trip of 4th and 5th graders to seven cities in Wisconsin to introduce them to Hmong culture and communities firsthand. Includes a "How We Did It" section, to help teachers plan their own cultural field trips, and students' essays about the trip. Hmong traditions and history, including music, foodways, crafts, games, healing practices, and textile arts are described in the "Field Guide to Hmong Culture," (91 p. PDF). Links to the "Teachers' Guide to Local Culture" (69 p. PDF), which includes a generic lesson plan for grades 3-5, with adaptations for K-2, plus teaching strategies. Also links to the "Kids' Guide to Local Culture," (139 p. PDF), which includes student activities.
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Iowa Folklife: Our People, Communities, and Traditions Learning guide for middle and high school students plus elders in senior centers based on field documentation of Iowa traditional culture, communities, and groups done in preparation for the Festival of American Folklife and the Festival of Iowa Folklife, both held in 1996. The guide includes lesson plans with objectives, background, conceptual and hands-on activities, and handouts, arranged by subject matter: Social Studies, Language Arts, Music, and Art. Accompanying the lesson plans are activities with guidance on developing a community research archive, collecting field recordings, and creating exhibitions, festivals, and publications based on fieldwork done by students. On the site are two streamed videos for classroom viewing, streamed audio of a CD exemplifying a variety of Iowa traditional musical styles, and "Inherit Iowa," a senior citizen activity guide.
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Iowa Folklife -- Volume II Online curriculum resource guide for K-12 students and educators that explores the traditional music, foods, dance, rituals and crafts of Iowa's diverse cultures. A companion resource to "Iowa Folklife: Our People, Communities, and Traditions," it includes content pages, audio samples, suggested readings, lesson plans and other online resources. Lesson plans and accompanying materials focus on the blues, Gospel, Latino music, Old Time music, Polka, First Nations Peoples, Vietnamese Tet, and cultural traditions from Laotians, Danes, Bosnians, and Asian Indians who have settled in Iowa.
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Keeping Us in Stitches Activity: Be a Quilt Detective Research activity with accompanying resources, geared to grades 6-10, for uncovering history recorded in handmade objects by researching quilt patterns, fabrics, and colors. Site includes links to Illinois State Museum quilt collections. Addresses the Illinois State Board of Education Goals and Standards for artistic expressions of culture and analyzing and classifying art by style, period, and culture. (3 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: King County and Western Washington Cultural Geography, Communities, Their History and Traditions Ten-week curriculum unit of forty lesson plans (85 p. PDF), with accompanying essays on cultural background and traditional art forms, plus a searchable database of Washington state traditional artists. Designed for use by 7th and 8th grade Social Studies teachers for the Washington State Culture and History curriculum. Curriculum unit focuses on the traditional art forms of Cantonese Opera, Kathak Dance, Hmong Basketry, and Oud Music of the Arabic World. Cultural background essays describe communities of Puget Salish, Chinese Americans, Asian Indians, Laotian Americans, and Arab Americans living in Washington state.
Sponsoring Organization: Louisiana Voices : An Educator's Guide to Exploring our Communities and Traditions Comprehensive resource guide for K-12 educators on the folklife of Louisiana. Although written for Louisiana, lessons and activities are adaptable to any region. The guide contains forty two lessons and many activities in nine units, correlated to Louisiana Content Standards, particularly those in English Language Arts and Social Studies. Units include: 1) Defining Terms; 2) Classroom Applications of Fieldwork; 3) Discovering the Obvious; 4) The State of Our Lives; 5) Oral Traditions; 6) Louisiana's Musical Landscape; 7) Material Culture; 8) The Worlds of Work and Play; and 9) The Seasonal Round and the Cycle of Life. It includes over 1000 pages, some in PDF-format, and links to many essays, slide shows, video and audio clips, and other web resources.
Sponsoring Organization: Lucreaty Clark, White Oak Basket Maker Lesson plans, photographs, and audio interviews with Lucreaty Clark, basket maker, about the history and practice of making white oak baskets. Correlated to Florida State Standards, the lesson plans were created for grades 6-8 in a Social Studies or Language Arts curriculum. The primary source materials in this educational unit belong to the State Library and Archives of Florida's Florida Folklife Collection, available on the Florida Memory Web site.
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Nebraska By Heart A multidisciplinary instructional unit developed in 2007 for grades 6-8 designed to explore folk and traditional arts and folklife, generally and as they exist in Nebraska. The unit includes four lesson plans: 1) An Exploration of Folklife and Folk Arts; 2) Folk Arts and Folklife in Nebraska Culture; 3) Understanding the Folk Process; and 4) Reflecting on Folk Arts, Folklife, and Culture.
Sponsoring Organization: Needles and Pins: Textiles and Tools Education guide designed for teachers to use with grades 1-8, focusing on themes of an exhibition, "Needles & Pins: Textiles and Tools," on display at the Museum of International Folk Art from 2007 to 2009. The lesson plans and art activities focus on textiles and the tools used to make them. It includes background on the art and technology of weaving and permanently coloring cloth, including the techniques of printing, stamping, and painting. Activities in the guide include the making of a Ghanaian Adinkra banner and a weaving project. The lesson plans are correlated to the New Mexico State Art Content Standards.
Sponsoring Organization: Neutrogena Curricula Two lesson plans for grades 1-8 related to objects from around the world found in the Museum of International Folk Art's Neutrogena collections. The first lesson plan deals with hats and headdresses and the second with resist-dye techniques used in textile design. Both include background information for teachers, resource lists, and ideas for extending the lessons into other curricular areas. The lesson plans are both correlated to the New Mexico State Content Standards for Art and Social Studies.
Sponsoring Organization: Ojibwa Sewn Bead Designs Activity geared to grades 6-9 to examine and recreate the Ojibwa sewn beading styles that were influenced by seventeenth-century French floral embroidery and fabric prints imported by French traders, using beaded objects found in the museum's collections and on the web. Includes discussion of Ojibwa beading styles and their motifs. Addresses the Illinois State Board of Education Goals and Standards for the Visual Arts and Social Science.
Sponsoring Organization: Our Arts, Our Land: A Young Reader's Guide to Selected Folk Arts of Hawaii Music, photographs, and interviews of traditional master artists from Hawaii designed as an introduction to folk arts for young people. The audio recordings were originally aired on Hawaii Public Radio as part of the "Pacific Visions" radio series. Hawaiian traditional arts represented include chant, lauhala weaving, fishnet knotting, quilting, slack key and steel guitar music, medicinal herbs, gourd carving, and hula ki'i puppetry. Also included are practitioners of Chinese Opera, Okinawan koten music and dance, Filipino dance, Korean pansori singing, and Japanese Mingei pottery. A folk arts quiz is provided for students.
Sponsoring Organization: Papel Picado: A Traditional Mexican Folk Art Lesson plan with art activities created by the Museum of International Folk Art on the topic of traditional cut paper folk art called "papel picado," found in former Spanish colonies. For most holidays in Mexico, the brightly-colored strings of cut tissue paper banners are strung in homes and across streets. Curriculum materials are geared towards grades 1-8 and are correlated with the New Mexico State Content Standards for Art.
Sponsoring Organization: Puerto Rican Mundillo (bobbin-lace) Maker: Rosa Elena Egipciaco K-12 curriculum ideas for studying the life and artistry of Rosa Elena Egipciaco, a 2003 NEA National Heritage Fellow. Egipciaco is a master bobbin lacemaker of Puerto Rican heritage who lives in New York City. These resources and activities can be used in the curriculum areas of language arts, math, and the visual arts.
Sponsoring Organization: Row Upon Row: Sea Grass Baskets of the South Carolina Lowcountry Educator guide that introduces students in grades 1-12 to the sea grass basket making tradition of the South Carolina lowcountry. Lesson plans address the basic concepts of tradition, folk groups, and folk art, with examples drawn from lowcountry basket making and basket makers. In addition, the guide focuses on the value of studying one's own local history and emphasizes the connections between African American hairstyles and heritage. The units of the guide include student activities and teacher background, geared separately towards elementary, middle and high school levels. Curriculum covered is useful for classes in social studies, art, language, and South Carolina history, and is correlated to the South Carolina Basic Skills Assessment Program. (100-page PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Seminole Doll Making Lesson plans, photographs, and audio interviews with Seminole doll maker Mary B. Billie and her daughter, Claudia C. John, about the history and practice of Seminole doll making. Correlated to Florida State Standards, the lesson plans were created for a Visual Arts curriculum for grades 6-8. The primary source materials in this educational unit belong to the State Library and Archives of Florida's Florida Folklife Collection, available on the Florida Memory Web site.
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Skeleton Esqueleto Puppets and Día de Muertos Ofrendas Two activities associated with Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) for students in grades 1-8. Also known as All Souls' Day, Día de Muertos is rooted in both indigenous and Catholic religious belief and is increasingly being celebrated throughout the United States. The Skeleton Esqueleto Puppets activity will help students learn how puppets can reflect the cultures from which they come from, using Mexican skeleton puppets as an example. The Día de Muertos Ofrendas activity will give students an understanding of how ofrendas, or altars, are set up in people's homes for dead relatives during this holiday. The activities correlate to New Mexico State Content Standards for Art and Social Studies.
Sponsoring Organization: Teacher's Guide for Nevada Folk Arts Roster Folk arts education guide created to accompany the Nevada Folk Arts Roster program and to provide an overview of the traditional arts and folklife of ethnic communities in Nevada. Includes lesson plans for the general study of folklife and also lessons on Mexican, African, Asian, Western and Eastern European, Hawaiian, and Native American cultures in Nevada, plus information on individual traditional artists working in the state. Accompanying worksheets and activities provide guidance in doing fieldwork. Lessons are designed for 4th and 7th grade students, but may be adapted for other age groups or skill levels. Correlated to Nevada Standards for Education for the areas of History, Social Studies, Geography, Library, Music, Physical Education, Visual Arts, and English Language Arts. (46 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Teacher's Guide to "In My Heart, I Am a Dancer" Curriculum guide to accompany the publication, "In My Heart I am a Dancer," about the Cambodian community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Topics include Cambodian classical dance and costume, and the history and culture of Cambodia. Created for use with children in grades K-4 and also with older students. The guide includes background for teachers in working in the classroom with folk arts plus lesson plans, activities, and questions for students as they read the text.
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: A Teacher's Guide to Kentucky Folklife Teacher's guide to Kentucky folklife written in 2004 with lesson plans, student activities, and background essays. The guide has individual units on folklore in general and Kentucky folklife in the following areas: fieldwork, interviewing, folk art, foodways, occupational folklife, traditional music, and recreational folklife. The lessons can be used separately or together and are intended for use in the upper elementary and middle school classroom. (87 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Teaching Folklife: Educational Materials for Students and Teachers This educational resource contains lesson plans designed to introduce teachers and students to a basic understanding of traditional culture in Tennessee. It is most useful for students in the 4th through 7th grades. The guide includes five lesson plans: I) Introduction to Traditional Culture; II) Storytelling and Oral History; III) Folk Arts and Crafts; IV) Traditional Music; and V) Foodways. The resource includes a glossary of folklife terms and readings brought together from a wide variety of sources on the topic of Tennessee traditional arts. Materials in the guide can be used in the classroom for teaching Language Arts, Music, Visual Arts, Social Studies, and Math.(179 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: The Texture and Weave of the Traditional Arts Teachers' guide for middle and high school students focused on traditional life and folklore. Originally created to accompany a Nevada Arts Council exhibit entitled "The Texture and Weave of Traditional Art," the five lessons in the guide present general folklife concepts that can also be used in a stand-alone capacity, with examples taken from Nevada traditional culture. The guide explores how culture, traditional art forms, local history, and heritage are created by everyone and shared in communities and families. It also seeks to guide students in creating an awareness of cultural diversity in their local communities. Lessons meet the Nevada content standards for Visual Arts. (29 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: The Ties that Bind Multi-media resource created in 2006 for K-12 classroom teachers to address Colorado model content standards in History, Geography, and other disciplines. The tool contains the following: Written essays (Sections 1 and II); Lesson plans (Section III); Lists of additional resources (Section IV); plus audio and video resources that can be downloaded from the site. Eleven lesson plans include: "The Art of Interviewing" (14 p. PDF), "Colcha Embroidery" (8 p. PDF), ""Exploring Cowboy Life Through Cowboy Poetry," (30 p. PDF), "Folklore Bingo" (10 p. PDF), "Hmong Cultures" (12 p. PDF), "Introduction to Folklore for Grade 12" (6 p. PDF), "Latino Cultures" (10 p. PDF), "Quilts across Cultures" (12 p. PDF), "St. Patrick's Day and the Irish" (12 p. PDF), "Take a Trip to a Special Place" (6 p. PDF), and "Wheat Weaving" (10 p. PDF).
Sponsoring Organization: Weaving with Seed Beads on a Bead Loom Activity geared to grades 5-7 to demonstrate how Native Americans and others wove beads on a loom to create long, narrow bands for hair and bracelets in order to produce a patterned beaded bands using geometric patterns. Includes discussion of how color, shape, and value in Native American beading has changed over the years due partially to the influence of other cultures. Addresses the Illinois State Board of Education Goals and Standards for the Visual Arts and Social Science.
Sponsoring Organization: Wisconsin Folks Website for students, educators, and the general public featuring traditional artists, art forms, and cultures of Wisconsin. Includes background on regional and ethnic traditional crafts, foodways, music, and dance. Information on the site has content for 4th, 8th, and 12th grade themes in Social Studies, the Visual Arts, Music, Dance, English, Information and Technology Literacy, and Business, correlated to Wisconsin Model Academic Standards and Benchmarks. Also includes contact information for engaging Wisconsin traditional artists and performers for public and classroom presentations.
Sponsoring Organization: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Back to
Top
| ||||