New Instructional Materials and Resources

  
by Gregory Hansen  
   
The Folklore and Education Section welcomes announcements of new instructional resources for teaching about folklore. Send word of completed projects as well as descriptions of works-in-progress to Gregory Hansen at ghansen@astate.edu.

  
   
Tina Bucuvalas of the Florida Folklife Program announces the availability of "The Florida Music Train" by Laurie K. Sommers. This educational module includes an audio CD of archival, field, and studio recordings of Florida's traditional music; five lesson plans; a poster; and background information about the artists and musical traditions represented in the unit. Designed for use in elementary and secondary classrooms, the resource integrates music education with curricula in language arts and social studies. The module can be ordered for $50.00 with a check payable to the Friends of Historic Properties and Museums. Include your name, address, phone number, and email address with your payment, and mail your order to the Florida Heritage Education Program, Museum of Florida History; 500 South Bronough Street; Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250.
 
   
Tom Davenport writes the Web site "Folkstreams" at www.folkstreams.net. The site's purpose is to create a public cultural preserve of important films and videos about American traditional or "roots" culture, to be video streamed on the Internet with supporting materials about their artistic, social, and cultural meaning. The site will make these works easy to find and to explore, giving renewed and greater exposure to work originally funded in large part by the two National Endowments and their state counterparts. This public reserve of materials that can be mined for educational purposes. Several of examples of the prototype site include teacher guides. For more information, contact Tom Davenport at TDavenport@aol.com or at 540-592-3701.
 
   
Susan Eleuterio writes that The Illinois Arts Council (IAC) has developed a new curriculum guide, Exploring the Arts and Culture of the Illinois Mississippi River Valley: A Guide for Educators, based on a regional survey of Illinois ethnic and folk artists, writers, storytellers, musicians, and contemporary artists whose work is rooted in the Mississippi River. The 75 page illustrated guide includes an overview of the Mississippi River along with curriculum units, vocabulary, student activities, and resources on the visual arts, literature and legends, musical heritage, and ethnic and folk arts of the Illinois Mississippi River Valley. The guide will be available on the IAC website at www.state.il.us/agency/iac in spring of 2003. For more information, contact Sue Eleuterio at Susan@arts.state.il.us or Mark Murray at Mark@arts.state.il.us.
 
   
Laurie Sommers of Valdosta State University announced that she and Diane Howard along with educators from Georgia's Cook County Public Schools have edited and compiled Folkwriting: Lessons About Place, Heritage, and Tradition for the Georgia Classroom. This workbook is geared toward Georgia Quality Core Curriculum standards, and it combines folklife and writing with lesson plans, resources, rubrics, and student writing samples organized around themes associated with placemaking. The resource includes lessons on a number of folklife topics and a wide variety of writing genres using the writing process, and it is adaptable for all grades. Laurie explains that Folkwriting is available online in PDF format at www.valdosta.edu/folkwriting. Hard copies and CD-ROMs with both PDF and Microsoft Word formats are available c/o Diane Howard, Dept. of English, VSU, 1500 N. Patterson St., Valdosta, GA 31698, dhoward@valdosta.edu for $25.00.
 
   
Natalie Underberg of the University of Central Florida writes that the university has received a CHESP educational award to complete a service-learning project focusing on foodways among African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and other black residents in Orlando. Workshops are held to teach K-12 students artistic journal/zine-making and skills for documenting stories about food customs and practices. Near the end of the school year, one page from each of the students' journals will be selected and compiled into a desktop publication. This desktop publication, along with selected stories and recipes, will be presented at a videotaped public event later this Spring. For additional information on the project and its resources, contact Natalie at the University of Central Florida; College of Arts and Sciences; Trailer 541, Room 102A; Orlando, FL 32816-1990. She can also be reached at nunderbe@mail.ucf.edu.  
   
Joan Zaretti, Manager of World Music Programs at Carnegie Hall, announces that she and staff from the Carnegie Hall Corporation have completed Global Encounters: Sounds Along the Silk Road: 2001-2002 Teacher's Guide. This resource includes the audio CD "Music on the Silkroads," a full-color poster useful for classroom presentation, and an extensive guidebook featuring profiles of instruments used along the Silk Road, resources for additional references, and lesson plans on the people, stories, traditions, and representations of musical traditions of the Silk Road. For more information, contact Joan at Carnegie Hall; Education Department; 881 Seventh Avenue; New York, NY 10019, or at www.carnegiehall.org.
  
 

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