Folk Arts in Education

The Oregon Folklife Network welcomes educators and students of all levels to explore this page and discover the K-12 Folk Arts In Education (FAIE) resources that have been created by folklorists around the country.  Below find links to some selected FAIE web sites and publications that might be of interest to Oregon teachers, students, and parents.  This page will be updated regularly, so make sure to check back for new resources.

SELECTED FOLK ARTS IN EDUCATION WEB SITES:

________________________________________________

Folklife in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest

________________________________________________

  • Cannon Beach History Center and Museum preserves the history of Cannon Beach, Oregon by seeking, collecting, and protecting historical memorabilia of all kinds, by recording oral histories, and by making these materials available to the public whenever possible.  See especially Kids and Educators.
  • Curriculum Guides for teaching Oregon Folklore resources for teaching about Oregon folklife, including Chinese traditions, maritime folklife, and traditional arts of the region.
  • Linda Allen/October Rose Productions:  Linda is a songwriter, folklorist, and teacher who has worked with the Washington Women’s History Project,  the Cultural Enrichment and Folklife Programs of the State Arts Commission and the Folklife in the Schools program.  Her website includes song samples and links to curriculum books.
  • Maritime Folklife in Lincoln City is a curriculum packet designed for use by students in grades 3-8 of Oregon schools.  Topics explored are: “What is Maritime Folklife?”; “Native American Fishing Traditions”; “Commercial Fishing: A Traditional Occupation”; “The Old Days of Commercial Fishing”; “Recreational Fishing”; and “Community Life.”
  • Mexican American Folklife in Oregon is a teacher’s guide that features text, photographs, and suggested student activities.  Teachers can open this link and connect it with their SMART boards to help grades 2-8 to understand more about Oregon’s tribal peoples and Mexican American communities.
  • Miracle Theatre Group/Teatro Milagro gives a prominent voice to issues affecting the local and national Hispanic community.  The group produces a broad array of programming that includes public performances as well as specialized touring and education projects that currently encompass all of the Western states.  Study guides relating to Miracle Theatre Group’s plays are also available to educators.
  • Northwest Heritage Resources is a non-profit organization first established in Washington state in 1995.  Its’ mission is to conserve cultural heritage and to present, promote, preserve and document the diverse cultural traditions of the Pacific Northwest.
  • Northwest Oral History Association is a regional organization of oral historians, users of oral histories, and others interested in the collection and preservation of historically significant memories through recorded interviews.
  • Oregon Folklife Student Resource is designed to provide teachers, students, and the general public a sense of the diverse people and events that comprise the history of Oregon.
  • Oregon Is Indian Country: A Student Magazine is a companion piece to a traveling exhibit produced by the Oregon Historical Society in partnership with Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes.  The activities in the magazine were created and reviewed by folklorists and educators and they are geared toward students in grades 6-12.
  • Oregon Historical Society: “Masters of Ceremony” is a virtual exhibit that looks at how we–as cultures and individuals–mark life passages and how traditional art, rituals, and stories communicate knowledge about transitions from one phase of life to the next.
  • Oregon Parks & Recreation Heritage Bulletins provide useful information on historic preservation, including information about state laws, historic registration processes, and how to publicize heritage preservation.
  • The Pacific Northwest Folklore Society is devoted to the understanding and development of the folklore of this area. Collection, study, preservation, publication, and performance are all aspects of the Society’s activities.  The website includes useful links, downloads, and resources for teachers and student.
  • The Pacific Northwest Labour History Association is a non-profit association dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of workers in the Pacific Northwest.

________________________________________________

Regional/State Resources

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

National/ International/ General Resources

________________________________________________

  • American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress offers many digital collections containing myths, legends, fairy-tales, superstitions, weather-lore, and ghost stories.
  • American Folklore contains retelling of folktales all over the Americas.
  • American Folklore Society website offers background on folklore.  The Folklore and Education Section publishes an annual newsletter with useful article and the latest resources.
  • American Folktales provides lesson plans, videos, books, activities, and background information about folktales.
  • American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writer’s Project, 1936-1940.  These life histories were compiled and transcribed by the staff of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers’ Project for the WPA from 1936-1940.
  • American Slave Narratives.  This web site provides an opportunity to read a sample of these narratives, and to see some of the photographs taken at the time of the interviews.
  • ArtsEdge supports the placement of the arts at the center of the curriculum and advocates creative use of technology to enhance K-12 education.
  • The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University teaches, engages in, and presents documentary work grounded in collaborative partnerships and extended fieldwork that uses photography, film/video, audio, and narrative writing to capture and convey contemporary memory, life, and culture.
  • ChinaVine interprets China’s cultural heritage for English reading/speaking audiences through multimedia. Contributors from China and the U.S. include University of Oregon scholars and students.
  • Dane Wajich: Stories and Songs: Dreamers and the Land is an online exhibit created through the collaboration of Doig First Nation Elders, youth, ethnographers, linguists, and web-designers.  This site provides an introduction to a long line of Dane-zaa Dreamers, key places within the Doig First Nation territory, and the efforts to reclaim them from the effects of colonialism and development.
  • Education through Culture & Historical Orgranizations (ECHO) develops educational programs and resources in place- and culture-based learning for students, teachers and communities.
  • EDSITEment offers a treasure trove for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality material on the Internet in the subject areas of literature and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and social studies.
  • Educational CyberPlayground provides the public, teachers, administrators, policy makers, parents, librarians, and home schoolers a “webliography” of links to educational resources in a wide range of subjects.
  • Exploring Everyday Folklore is an interactive workshop with author Nina Jaffe.  Jaffe provides an introduction to different kinds of folklore and shares tips for researching, recording, and creating folklore from everyday experiences.
  • FEAST: Folklore Education and Story-Telling for Teachers provides an excellent bibliography on folklore topics, and sample writings by teachers who have attended Bank Street College of Education and have studied folklore as part of their degree program.
  • Folklore Resources contains a large list of listing of internet stories and folklore resources.
  • Folkstreams is a video-streaming national preserve of folk culture documentaries and offers users extensive background materials for each, including films by Sharon Sherman of the University of Oregon. See the Educators Portal for student worksheets and lesson plans for middle and high school and higher education.
  • Folkvine gives users multimedia options to explore folk artists’ environments and aesthetics, including bobble head dolls representing real-life scholars, thematic guides, and even a board game for younger students.
  • H-Net’s Oral History Projects creates and coordinates Internet networks with the common objective of advancing teaching and research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
  • Indivisible: Stories of American Community is a national documentary project exploring community life in America today.  See especially the K-12 Educator’s Guide.
  • Institute For Cultural Partnerships facilitates opportunities for understanding among diverse cultures and communities.
  • The Labor Heritage Foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote knowledge of the cultural heritage of the American worker through the arts, including music, poetry, written works, theatre, and artistic work.
  • The Library of Congress provides ready-to-use materials that bring the Library’s primary sources into the classroom.
  • Local Learning advocates inclusion of folk arts and artists in the nation’s education and provides virtual residencies with NEA National Heritage Fellows, a library of articles for teachers, regional resources, and tools for engaging young people in fieldwork and folklore.  See the virtual artist residency with Eva Castellanoz of Nyssa, Oregon.
  • National Council for the Traditional Arts is a private, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the presentation and documentation of folk and traditional arts in the United States.  Founded in 1933, it is the oldest folk arts organization in the nation.
  • National Museum of the American Indian is the first national museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans.
  • The Oral History Association seeks to bring together all persons interested in oral history as a way of collecting and interpreting human memories to foster knowledge and human dignity.
  • Promise of Place immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences;
  • Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage has online curriculum guides, exhibits, and the Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide in the Education portal.
  • The St. Joseph School Library provides a large listing of internet stories and folklore resources.
  • Storytelling…Tales to Tell provides an extensive listing of internet storytelling and folklore resources.
  • Stories and other Storytelling Resources includes a large listing of internet stories and folklore resources.
  • The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance Program is one the nation’s leading providers of anti-bias education resources.
  • Tin Sheppard’s Storytelling Resources: a collection of storytelling resources on the web, annotated and categorized for easy reference
  • USC Shoah Foundation Institute presents video testimonies from survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust.  The institute’s mission is to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry—and the suffering they cause—through the educational use of the Institute’s visual history testimonies

________________________________________________

Publications/Handbooks/Guides

________________________________________________