New Instructional Materials
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.
 
Laurie Sommers, Director of the South Georgia Folklife Project, announces that "Folkwriting, Lessons on Place, Heritage, and Tradition for the Georgia Classroom" is now on the web at http://www.valdosta.edu/folkwriting/folkwriting.htm.

Edited by Diane W. Howard and Laurie Kay Sommers (with Cook County Georgia educators Vanessa Mitchell, Judith Phillips, Margo Harris, Trina Brown, Adam Hathaway, and Jeremy Williams), this workbook combines folklife in education, placed-based education, and the writing process into an accessible K-12 resource of classroom-ready lesson plans. The South Georgia emphasis is evident in the folklife examples used and in the use of State of Georgia Quality Core Curriculum Standards, but educators from other regions will find much of interest.

Although many lessons have cross-disciplinary potential, the success of the folklife and writing partnership is in language arts and social studies classrooms. For more information contact Laurie Sommers at 229-293-6310; lsommers@valdosta.edu.
 
Ellen McHale announces that "Voices of New York Traditions" is available from the New York Folklore Society. This curriculum resource on New York Folklore includes materials on traditional music and dance, narrative, material culture, and occupational lore, and the resource consists of classroom exercises, rubrics, resources, and aids for instruction. The primary teaching resource is a CD recording of eleven listening exercises, and it features masters of various traditional arts who were recorded on location. The activities are designed to meet the English Language Arts standards for New York State. It can be ordered for$25.00 plus postage from the New York Folklore Society; PO Box 764; Schenectady, NY 12301. (518) 346-7008, newyorkfolkloresociety@juno.com.
 

Karen Ellis continues to add to the Cyber Playground, and she has written a new resource, "The Importance of Crafting Culturally Relevant Content." It is available at http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/AboutUs/aboutus.html. Just click on the link with the name of the resource to download the PDF file.

Karen notes that as more and more classrooms are wired, the Internet provides teachers a new gateway to relevant, diverse and engaging content. Along with this essay, the CyberPlayGround portal offers an interdisciplinary guide to using the Internet to deliver online curriculum. It provides comprehensive learning resources for different cultural and ethnic groups, and also for those with different approaches to learning. The Educational CyberPlayGround can be accessed at http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/.
 

Catherine Kerst of the American Folklife Center announces that "A Teacher's Guide to Folklife Resources" has just been posted on the American Folklife Center's website at: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/teachers/.

This online guide includes a list of materials that will be useful to educators incorporating folklife projects and programs into their teaching, whether in classrooms, home schools, youth groups, museums, or libraries. Cathy coedited this guide with Carol Moran, and it is based on the print publication "A Teacher's Guide to Folklife Resources for K-12 Classrooms," originally compiled by Peter Bartis and Paddy Bowman in 1994.

The current version provides links to materials or distributors and offers a variety of searching possibilities. She requests assistance with expanding and improving the guide. Corrections and up-dates can be made by clicking on "Adding to and Up-Dating This Database," and by filling out the form that is provided. AFC staff have also allocated several shelves in the Folklife Reading Room at the Library of Congress for educational materials in the guide. If you would like to donate appropriate items for the collection, please contact Cathy directly about procedures for sending materials to the AFC. Cathy can be contacted at American Folklife Center; Library of Congress; Washington, DC 20540-4610, (202) 707-1730 or by email at cker@loc.gov.

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