Folk Arts in Education
Pennsylvania Teacher Training in Folk Arts, Folklife, and Oral
History
SUMMER 2008
-
May 12-June 21, Anthropology of Education, School of Education,
University of Pittsburgh, taught by Linda Deafenbaugh. This course
introduces educators to the intersection of the fields of
anthropology and education. Core topics, explored
cross-culturally, include formal and informal cultural
transmission, sense of place, identity, metaphors and story,
cultural congruence and conflict in schools, community and school
celebrations as vehicles for moral education, and folk, popular,
and elite cultural processes operating in schools.
Contact lindadeafenbaugh@yahoo.com, 412/915-6382. -
Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers July 5-August
8, Voices Across Time: Teaching American History Through Song,
Center for American Music, University of Pittsburgh.
This NEH institute
is open to full-time teachers in all disciplines.
Contact Kathy Haines kmill@pitt.edu and see www.voicesacrosstime.org. -
July 7-August 10, Writing and Culture, Place Graduate School of
Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, taught by
Miriam Camitta. This course looks at writing as several variable,
multiple, diverse, and changing practices contingent upon specific
cultural and social contexts. We want to understand what writing
means to the individual, to his or her community, and to larger
social entities. The approach and readings draw on the theory and
methods of anthropology, folklore, sociolinguistics, and the new
literacy studies.
Contact Penny Creedon, 610/898-8434, or mpcamitta@aol.com. -
July 7-11, Developing Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity I,
Allegheny Intermediate Unit 3, Homestead, led by Linda
Deafenbaugh. This workshop focuses on understanding cultural
differences, the processes that lead to prejudice, and the basic
concepts underlying multicultural education program models. We
explore the range of cultural issues that confront English
Language Learners and approaches to working with all students and
teachers to help these newcomers to our schools adjust.
Contact lindadeafenbaugh@yahoo.com, 412/915-6382. -
July 21-30, Developing Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity II,
Allegheny Intermediate Unit 3, Homestead, led by Linda
Deafenbaugh. This workshop deepens our learning about the issues
raised in the introductory workshop. We will look at the dynamics
and tensions inherent in the assimilation and acculturation
process in our country, focusing on the effects this has had on
the cultural identity of English Language Learners in our schools.
We work with several multicultural education program models to
explore their strengths and limitations at addressing pressing
issues in the schools.
Contact lindadeafenbaugh@yahoo.com, 412/915-6382.
The
Center on Education Policy
, an independent advocate for public education and effective
schools, has updated research on the effects of NCLB on the
curriculum. Their press release states, We knew that many school
districts had made shifts in the time spent teaching different
subjects since the No Child Left Behind was enacted, but we had
little evidence of the magnitude of these changes within those
districts. Digging deeper into the data, we now know that the amount
of time spent teaching reading, math, and other subjects has changed
substantially. In other words, changes in curriculum are not only
widespread but also deep. Learn more at
www.cep-dc.org
.
American Folklore Society
workshop for local educators, students, and folklorists. Were
looking for ideas, volunteers, and local teacher contacts, email me.
Learn more about folklore and the conference at
www.afsnet.org
.
Lesson Plans & Classroom Materials Ways to Use Primary Sources
from the Library of Congress in the Classroom
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/edresources/ed-classroom.html
The following linked pages offer a wide range of teaching strategies
and learning activities for K-12 classes in American and world
history, civics, politics, the visual arts and literature.
Activities and lesson plans contain a wealth of primary source
materials and are also designed to teach students the skills and
techniques that folklorists, historians, anthropologists, and
librarians use in the course of conducting research, interpreting
their findings, and presenting the results of their research to the
public.
Some Tips of the Trade: A few guidelines make oral history easy
Technology has made recording oral histories cheaper and the results more engaging. Here is some advice for getting started.
Covers such aspects as:
+ Preparation (”Head to your local library and dig up newspapers from pivotal dates in your subject's life (i.e., wedding, first day on the job, death of a parent). By reading not only the headlines but also the advertisements, sports scores, and entertainment pages, you might be able to take the subject back to the old days and prompt unusual responses.)
+ Technology (”Archivists argue over the best format and the medium with the most longevity. But the basic rule is to use the best technology available to you. First and foremost, choose between audio and video. Each has its own advantages and drawbacks. Audio is intimate and less obtrusive in the interview process, but the poignancy of a moving image is considerable.”)
+ Questions (”Avoid yes-or-no questions at all costs. The purpose of oral histories isn't to ascertain a given set of facts but rather to take a collection of memories and feelings. Open-ended questions like 'How did it make you feel to…?' work best.”)
NEA
Congress appropriated a $20 million increase for NEA from $124.4 to
$144.7 million, and each program will receive more funding. Learning
in the arts is an indispensable part of American education: 1)
children celebrate and participate in their cultural inheritance,
and 2) academic and social maturity follow directly from arts
education experiences. The guidelines again allow applications for
professional development for teachers and artists and encourage
projects that involve National Heritage Fellows in arts learning
with goals and assessment based on the values and benchmarks
appropriate to the traditions studied. Contact Terry Liu with ideas
and questions,
liut@arts.endow.gov
.
Folkstreams Educators Portal
offers strategies for teaching with folklife documentaries and
several lesson plans for high school students
Heritage Education - National Center for Preservation Technology
and Training
www.ncptt.nps.gov for lesson plans. The program curriculum was
developed to encompass the primary subjects of math, English
language arts, science and social studies, using culture and
heritage resources as the method of delivering the lessons.
South Georgia Folklife Collection
Education guide
Folkwriting
, by Laurie and Diane Howard.
Folkvine
www.folkvine.org
A Game Room features virtual board games for students, who start by
designing their own bobble-head doll playing pieces. Visit artists,
use multimedia guides, and play the games.
FOLKART
The Hohle Fels Venus figurine cave discovery suggests the humans,
who are believed to have come to Europe around 40,000 years ago, had
the intelligence to create symbols and think abstractly in a way
that matches the modern human. "It's 100 percent certain that, by
the time we get to 40,000 years ago in Swabia, we're dealing with
people just like you and me," Nicholas Conard said, referring to the
southern German region where the Venus Hohle Fels ivory sculpture
was recovered.
Erotic art, the Venus of the Hohle Fels unveiled in Germany by
Nicholas Conard of TubingenUniversity in Germany said that sexual
symbolism was alive and well in ancient human cultures, just as they
are today. Some theories in Germany suggest the cave, Hohle Fels,
where the ancient "Venus" figurine was unearthed could indicate an
ancient human sexual hiding place. In 2005, researches found a
20cm-long 28,000-year-old piece of stone shaped like a penis in the
same cave. The discovery predates the well-known Venuses from the
Gravettian culture by at least 5,000 years and radically changes our
views of the context and meaning of the earliest Palaeolithic art.
Before this discovery female imagery was entirely unknown. It is
clear that the sexually symbolic dimension in European, and indeed
worldwide, art has a long ancestry in the evolution of our species.