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Unit III Discovering the Obvious: Our Lives as "The Folk" Lesson 3 The Family: Louisiana Family Folklore
My daddy was a carpenter and my brother also became a carpenter later on. . . . I have cousins that were carpenters too, so the carpenter trade was in the family. I don't know exactly how. --Amdee Castenell, Orleans Parish Introduction The families we are born into or grow up in constitute our first folk groups. Like families around the world, Louisiana families may be as small as two people or extend to great-grandmere, Auntie Louisa, and eleventy-hundred cousins. Each family creates and passes on its own unique folklore: naming traditions, customs, expressions, stories, foods, beliefs, mementos, music, and so on. By exploring family folklore, students see traditional culture in action in familiar, everyday settings. They will learn things they didn't know about their families, and they will see themselves and family members as important tradition bearers, carrying their special folklife into the future, where it will continue and evolve. "That's how we did it when I was little." When studying family folklore, remember that some students and families may not want to share their family lore for reasons such as privacy, beliefs, difficult circumstances, or customs. Line up some alternative adults for students to interview. Other teachers, school staff, senior citizens, and volunteers make good partners. Despite the difficulties many children face, students and their classmates usually handle them well. Embarking on an extensive study of family folklore requires a trusting atmosphere in the classroom and a teacher willing to share his or her own lore. Such study is worth the effort because students gain new perspectives on factors they share with other students, find ways they are unique, and realize their families are tradition bearers and part of community history. Family folklore is useful across the disciplines: testing family folk beliefs in science; measuring the volume of family treasures such as teapots and baskets or learning fractions from family recipes in math; listening, writing, and speaking in public in language arts; geography, regions of the state, cultural differences and similarities, and changes in social studies; family songs in music; family objects and aesthetics in art. Take our ideas and build on them. Use the themes of names, photos, and treasures in Activities 1-3, below, as models for your own themes such as family foodways, stories, or customs (see Unit VII for a lesson on family food traditions and Unit V for lessons on family heroes and personal experience narratives). Develop family folklore portfolios, choosing some or all of the activities described here or others as well, such as collecting family expressions, foods, or songs. A presentation to class members' families is another way to culminate these activities. Choose topics that you feel comfortable sharing and that fit into your curriculum. We offer activities on naming traditions, family photographs, and family treasures. There are many genres of family stories and family traditions you can choose from. Most importantly, students will view themselves and family members as important tradition bearers, and families will deepen their understanding of the curriculum and their connection to schools.
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