Resources

For Teachers, Folklorists, Academics, and Beyond

Folk arts contribute not only to students’ understanding of cultural traditions but also to their ability to think critically, gather and analyze evidence, and express their ideas and interpretations through personal creativity. Folklife and the tools of the folklorist can support learning in all subjects, including the arts. Folk arts are uniquely suited to explore the ways in which traditional art forms reflect the history, culture, geography, and values of different cultures and communities.

Everyone has folk traditions — expressive customs practiced within a group and passed along by word of mouth, imitation, and observation. Calling on the work of folklorists and the field of folklore in the classroom educates, motivates, engages, and fosters the creative expression of students and powerfully links them to their communities. Integrating the study of folk arts into existing curricula awakens self-awareness in students of their own roles as tradition bearers, their families as repositories of traditional culture and history, and their communities as unique resources.

(Text above adapted from: Local Learning: A Folk Arts Integration Handbook)

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Note: These resources are shared as a service and include historic texts that don’t always reflect the current views of Local Learning. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about the readings or activities in our library.

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Learning Activity and Lesson Plans

Foodways Icebreaker

Use this activity to introduce a group of people to each other and to foodways as a form of folklore.

Postcard Museum

This technique helps students understand that there are many ways to represent themselves visually and to categorize and organize information.

Two-Minute Interviews

A key skill in interviewing, one of the most challenging for inexperienced interviewers, is learning to listen carefully and make the interview feel like a conversation, even though the narrator is doing most of the talking. The activity below—the first one to use with students— helps develop those skills.

Artifact Inquiry

What is the difference between seeing and thinking? Use this worksheet to go beyond assumptions and look further into the significance of an artifact.

Insider and Outsider Reflection

What lenses are you bringing to encounters with new cultural experiences?

Museum Activities and Resource Guide

Museums offer multiple paths for learning. From decoding the museum itself to the artifacts in the exhibitions, this Local Learning Resource Guide provides educators practical tools and useful frameworks for engaging learning in museum spaces.

Research and Readings

Artists as Educators

CARTS, a publication of City Lore and Local Learning | Originally published in 2012
Our featured artists consider educating young people essential to their lives as artists. Their stories of sharing a specialized skill or passing on knowledge of a culture or tradition offer insights into effective practices and ways of teaching and learning that are underutilized. They collective make the case for preserving pedagogical diversity in education. Read […]

Teacher's Self-Discovery

by Susan Eleuterio | Originally published in 2000
Teaching teachers acceptance and respect through training that begins with the teacher examining their own culture and then expanding to the cultures of other people. For a similar approach with students, see “Engaging Diversity: A Teacher Talks about Folk Arts-Driven Educational Reform” by Susanne Nixdorf

A Child's Salute: Iowa's Project Honors Newcomers

by Gail Matthews-DeNatale and Rachelle Saltzman | Originally published in 2000
Information on how teachers can identify folk groups and then incorporate the exploration of these groups into the classroom learning experience.