Unit III
Discovering the Obvious: Our Lives as "The Folk"
Lesson 1 The Child: Games and Play Today
and Yesterday In Louisiana
I loved to be alone. I'd go in the
woods by myself a lot. I discovered a tree that turned like this and then
it went up this way. I used to go sit on that. It was my tree. Nobody else
knew about this tree, and it was like a horse. So I'd go sit on there and
lay and just let my mind go. It would go to Bayou Pom Pom, a fictitious
bayou in Cajun music where one can escape and get away from
everything.
--Floyd Sonnier, Evangeline
Parish
Grade
Levels
4-8
Curriculum Areas
English Language Arts,
Social Studies
Purpose of
Lesson
This lesson uses the study
of play and games to introduce students to definitions of folklore, folklife, folk
group, to an
awareness of themselves as tradition bearers of folk groups, and to the
idea that everyone has folklife.
Lesson
Objectives/Louisiana Content Standards, Benchmarks, and Foundation
Skills
1. Students realize that
everyone, including themselves, has folklore and belongs to various
folk groups.
H-1A-M1 Describing chronological
relationships and patterns. (1, 3, 4)
H-1A-M2 Demonstrating historical
perspective through the political, social, and economic context in which
an event or idea occurred. (1, 2, 3, 4)
H-1A-M3 Analyzing the impact that specific
individuals, ideas, events, and decisions had on the course of history.
(1, 2, 3, 4)
2. Students recognize how folklore is
passed on and functions in people's lives.
H-1C-E4 Recognizing how folklore and other
cultural elements have contributed to our local, state, and national
heritage. (1, 3, 4)
H-1D-M6 Examining folklore and describing
how cultural elements have shaped our state and local heritage. (1, 3,
4)
G-1B-E2 Identifying and describing the
human characteristics of places including population distributions and
culture. (1, 3, 4)
G-1C-E4 Identifying and comparing the
cultural characteristics of different regions and people. (1, 2, 3,
4)
3. Students study play traditions of
their own and others' childhoods.
H-1B-E1 Describing and comparing family
life in the present and the past. (1, 2, 3, 4)
H-1B-E2 Relating the history of the local
community and comparing it to other communities of long ago. (1, 2, 3,
4)
AP-2Th-M4
Understanding voice mechanism in
representing self, role, scene, dialogue, and character. (1,
4)
4. Students categorize folklife into
types or genres.
H-1A-M3 Analyzing the impact that specific
individuals, ideas, events, and decisions had on the course of history.
(1, 2, 3, 4)
ELA-5-M2 Locating and evaluating information sources (e.g., print
materials, databases, CD-ROM references, Internet information,
electronic reference works, community and government data, television
and radio resources, audio and visual materials). (1, 3, 4,
5)
ELA-7-M Problem solving by using reasoning
skills, life experiences, accumulated knowledge, and relevant available
information. (1, 2, 4, 5)
5. Students explore Louisiana folklife
on the Internet.
H-1A-M4 Analyzing historical data using
primary and secondary sources. (1, 2, 3, 4)
ELA-5-M2 Locating and evaluating information sources (e.g., print
materials, databases, CD-Rom references, Internet information,
electronic reference works, community and government data, television
and radio resources, audio and visual materials). (1, 3, 4,
5)
Time
Required
2-5 class periods
Materials
Drawing supplies,
posterboard or chart paper for master lists. If your students will be doing fieldwork, you may need digital cameras, audio recorders, or video recorders in addition to notepads and pencils as well as appropriate fieldwork forms. Print out and duplicate any worksheets or rubrics that you will be using.
Technology
Connections
Internet
Resources
Creole
State Exhibit -- Folk Toys
Louisiana Voices Venn Diagram
American Memory
Project, Library of Congress
John and Ruby Lomax Collection
International String Figures
Association
Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O
Student
Worksheets
Adult Game List
Worksheet
Louisiana Folk Toys
Worksheet
Student Game List
Worksheet
Assessment
Tools
Rubric for Firsthand
Biography
Rubric for Oral
Presentation
Evaluation
Tools/Opportunities
Process
1. Journals
2. Portfolios
Summative
1.
Interviews
2. Oral
presentations
3.
Rubrics for Oral
Presentation
4.
Rubrics for Firsthand
Biographies
Products
1. Venn
diagrams
2.
Completed worksheets
3. Concept maps
Background Information
for the Teacher
All across Louisiana,
children live, play, and go to school in widely differing landscapes:
asphalt playgrounds, busy streets, bayous, prairies, and small town parks.
They ride horseback in trail rides, play pick-up basketball and Friday
night football, make mud pies and catch mud puppies, practice cheers, jump
rope to complex rhymes, hunt squirrels, play hide and seek, join the
second-line in city parades, and try their hand at rodeo. Their verbal
artistry echoes from the Red River Valley to the Florida Parishes, New
Orleans' Irish Channel to the bayous.
The folk groups of childhood
forge strong memories and values that live on in us as we grow older. As
children move out into the world from the folk groups of their immediate
and extended families, they begin a lifelong process of moving in and out
of groups that share special knowledge, language, customs and skills. The
lore of childhood lives among many circles of folk groups defined by age,
gender, school, neighborhood, religious affiliation, teams, clubs,
hobbies, family, language, and ethnicity. Three-year-olds can already sing
"Happy Birthday" at friends' parties. Seven-year-olds love the word play
of riddles and jokes. Adolescents devote themselves to defining their
personal styles and manipulating the latest teen slang.
We cast back to the visceral
world of play and games, a common language for children the world over, to
introduce the study of folklife to students because here they can readily
find folklore in their own lives. By understanding their participation as
teachers and learners in various folk groups, students begin to recognize
that we are all bound up in generations of traditional cultural processes
no matter how modern our lives.
This lesson is based on work
that teacher and folklorist Elizabeth Simons has done with students. Find
her extensive unit on play and games in Student Worlds, Student
Words. On the playground or in the locker room, teachers hear students
play games and play with words. Often recess sounds just as it did 20 or
40 years ago. Even young children like to look back to games they played
when they were younger. By remembering and sharing games and memories of
childhood play with your students, you will build a strong bridge to the
study of folklife and deepen trust and understanding in the classroom.
Look for and use examples of play throughout the year in literature,
history, arts, music, math, science, and foreign languages. Play is the
universal language of young people.
To Prepare
Review Unit I, which defines terms you
will need: folklore, folklife, folk group. Remember some games from your own childhood to
share with students. If using Venn diagrams, Venn Diagrams shows
how to use them for comparisons. For Step 6, review Unit II.
Choose one or several of
these assessment tools/opportunities to use with students during this
lesson, and prepare the required materials:
Journal Writing - Have students
keep journals during the times of the lesson, where they record
procedures and results of their investigations, observations,
hypotheses, and inferences about the information collected. Also
encourage them to record questions and thoughts that occur as they work
through the activities.
Portfolios - Include list of games,
interviews of adults, graphs, worksheets, oral and written reports,
artwork, cooperative group presentations, online research,
etc.
Create rubrics that let them know
how many points various components will count for: list of games,
interviews of adults, graphs, worksheets, oral and written reports,
artwork, cooperative group presentations, online research,
etc.
4th Grade
Activities
1. Help students to
brainstorm the names of games they've played. Begin by writing the names
of games you, the teacher, played as a child. Have the students call out
games, then add them to the board or list. Don't forget card games or
pretend play.
2. Begin compiling a class
master list of "Games We Play and Know," or make a concept map by writing
the names in ovals and connecting them to show the
relationships.
Technology Option: Use a concept map
software program to make the concept map on a
computer.
3. When you've built an
array of types of games, discuss who children play games with, where they
play, when. Folk groups such as school playmates, neighbors, and relatives
will emerge. Discuss this concept and begin to define these terms in the
context of games: folk
group, folklore, folklife, variants.
4. Discuss game governance,
pointing out that there are "official" rules but also folk rules,
negotiations over play, and the setting of boundaries specific to the
group playing the game. For example, some families have their own
traditions about card games or even commercial board games. Ask students
to write a list of games they know either in class or as homework, using
the Student Game List
Worksheet.
5. Next class period, begin
categorizing the class master list of games your students know,
eliminating duplicates but including variations. For example, use the
generic "tag" once but include variations such as flashlight tag or Marco
Polo. You and the students may compile this list on computers, a notebook,
or poster board.
6. Now ask students to
interview an older family member or other adult using the Adult Game List
Worksheet. See
related activities in Unit VIII Lesson
3. A good way to
prepare students for their interviews is to practice. Students can
make a game of performing the two scripts from Unit II, How Not To Conduct an
Interview and The
Reluctant Guest. See Unit II for detailed fieldwork and interview preparation.
7. Have students compare
games over time by using adults' birthplaces and birth years. Other ways
to categorize games include by type, location, or participants. Ask
students to compare the lists using a Venn diagram to
find out what games appear on both students' and adults' lists and what
games don't. Discuss the similarities and differences between age groups
and how folklore passes over time (generation to generation) and space
(from place to place).
8. Ask students to interview
a guest such as a student from another grade level, a staff member or a parent about games and play as a group in the classroom. They should take
notes and perhaps photograph the interviewee, and secure an oral or
written release.
9. Have students synthesize
all the information gathered into a report, essay, or multimedia
program.
10. The Creole
State Exhibit
features several folk toys. Ask students to search for them online and
describe what they find on the Louisiana Folk Toys
Worksheet. They
can then design computer slide shows.
11. Students can present
their reports orally. Have them share what they liked about each student's
presentation of their research. Explain that they are to make specific "I
liked . . ." statements about such things as the accurateness of the
facts, the relevance of the insights and comparisons, the student's voice
modulation and expressiveness, clarity of speech, etc.
12. Evaluate the oral
presentations by using the Oral Presentation
Rubric.
4th Grade Explorations
and Extensions
1. As your class goes
through the school year, look for ways to use your play research. Many
games played today have been played for hundreds of years. You can
research play in ancient history, literature, artwork, and music or find
out how grown-ups play (see Unit VI and Unit VIII Lesson
3.)
2. Research more games in
some of the books listed in Lesson Resources, such as One Potato, Two
Potato: The Secret Education of American Children and American
Children's Folklore.
3. Do any of the following
activities:
Research and report on a favorite
game or collect more games from other age groups.
Draw pictures of yourself at play
for a classroom exhibit.
Observe or record children at play,
categorize types of games according to several criteria, and use
computer software to produce graphs and charts of the
results.
Demonstrate or teach a
game.
4. Compare string games you
know with those on the International String Figures Association
website.
5. Watch Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O and list the jump rope rhymes the girls recite. Write the words to a rhyme that you know.
8th Grade
Activities
1. Follow directions above
for 4th graders but ask 8th graders to interview younger students instead
of adults to compare master lists after completing their own student
worksheets. Teenagers' play expresses their changing status and shifting
identities through word play, daredevilry, fortune telling, slumber party
customs, school traditions, surfing the Internet, and using social media.
2. Ask students to write
about a memory of childhood play, describing the setting, players, rules,
negotiations, boundaries, sounds, equipment, age group. They should
conclude the essay by analyzing the folk elements of this game. Students
should incorporate at least three of the following terms into the
analysis: folk group,
folklore, variant, motif. They may also
illustrate the essay.
3. For related activities on
student paperfolding and fortunetelling, see Unit VII Lesson 2 and Sample
Fieldnotes: Teen Memories of Grade School Tradition.
8th Grade Explorations
and Extensions
1. Conduct an online search for photos of
children at play from different eras of American life in the American
Memory Project, where thousands of photographs, songs, and
documents have been digitized. Use the site's search tips to find images
and songs. Many children's songs may be found in the John
and Ruby Lomax Collection from a 1939 field trip through the
South, including Louisiana. Songs include examples found today, such as
"Little Sally Walker" or "Ring Around the Rosy" and more obscure songs,
such as "Pop Found a Crawdad."
2. Finalize the research activities by
writing a formal biography about one of the interviewees, either adults or
younger students. Access the Rubric for Firsthand Biography to
review performance elements that will be used to evaluate final products.
Use the rubric as a guide while writing biographies, and to evaluate
them.
Unit III Resources
Unit III Outline
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