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No matter where we live, folklife and place intertwine. From
place names to local legends, traditional music and crafts to
religious practices and foodways, every place may be experienced
through all our senses. Although often invisible or overlooked,
folklore opens windows into other times as well as today, making
history come alive and connecting students to community and to the
past. In this workshop, we explore Sense of Place through the
folklife and traditions of participants' own lives and regions as
well as the American Memory collections. We begin with the
seasonal round to define folklore and its potential in the
classroom. Next, we explore individuals' Sense of Place, analyze
and categorize images, and investigate folklore found across the
American Memory collections.
Objectives
At the end of this workshop participants will be able
to:
- identify folklife and traditional culture in their own lives and communities;
- define folklore as a dynamic cultural process and distinguish between folk, popular, and elite cultural expressions;
- recognize and integrate into their lesson plans examples of overt and "invisible" folklife across the American Memory collections;
- use the theme, Sense of Place, in ways that elicit students' sense of place, traditional culture, and "markers" of community and region;
- replicate and adapt activities that introduce students to folklore and to their own traditions and sense of place.
Tasks in brief
In this workshop, participants will:
- complete individual Seasonal Round Calendars, filling in days and seasons important to them, and compare calendars with one another;
- draw a "Postcard of Place" and share stories of their sense of place;
- uncover folk and traditional arts and culture in their own lives;
- define folklore and consider how folklore content and fieldwork methodologies might enhance existing curricula and American Memory lesson plans;
- analyze images and categorize them into a museum exhibit; and
- search for examples of folklore in American Memory collections in an online scavenger hunt.
Resources
- Seasonal Round of Activities on Coal River, WV
- Seasonal Round Worksheet, from All Around the Year: Holidays and
Celebrations in American Life by Jack Santino. Copyright 1994 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Used with permission of the University of
Illinois Press. Adapted from Louisiana Voices.
- Defining Folklore
- Folk Culture Clues to Sense of Place
- Images for the Museum of Place activity
- Online Folklife Scavenger Hunt
- Folklife and Fieldwork: A Layman's Introduction to Field Techniques, American Folklife Center
- American Folklife: A Commonwealth of Cultures, American Folklife Center
- Folklife Sourcebook: A Directory of Folklife Resources in the United States, American Folklife Center
- Selected Folklife and Oral History in Education Webography
- Folklife and Oral History In Education Selected Bibliography
Note: Paddy Bowman, Coordinator of the National Network for Folk Arts in Education, developed this workshop.
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