About Us

Louisiana Voices Educator's Guide  
Getting Started With This Guide  
Outline of the Study Guides  
Study Unit 1: Defining Terms  
Study Unit 2: Fieldwork Basics for Teachers  
Study Unit 3: Discovering the Obvious: Our Lives as "The Folk"  
Study Unit 4: The State of Our Lives: Being a Louisiana Neighbor  
Study Unit 5: Oral Traditions--Swapping Stories  
Study Unit 6: Louisiana's Musical Landscape  
Study Unit 7: Material Culture-The Stuff of Life  
Study Unit 8: The Worlds of Work and Play  
Study Unit 9: The Seasonal Round and Life Cycles  
Educator's Links  
Educator's Guide Glossary  
Educator's Guide Credits  
Educator's Opportunities For Professional Development  
Join The Community
Louisiana Folklife website Homepage  
Louisiana Folklife Program Home  
Louisiana's Living Traditions: Articles, Photos and Virtual Exhibits about Louisiana folklife  

 

 

LDOE

 

About Us

Mission

History

Louisiana Voices Milestones

 

Mission

The Louisiana Voices Folklife in Education Project provides educators with tools for teaching Louisiana folklife -- including extensive teaching materials, training, research strategies, student activities, concepts, and content -- via the Louisiana Voices Educator's Guide.

History of the Louisiana Voices Folklife in Education Project

Before the creation of Louisiana Voices in 1997, information and materials on Louisiana's folk cultures were used by only a few teachers who had the time or motivation to research a folklife topic and create a lesson based on that topic. Interested in seeing greater use of existing resources in K-12 classrooms and also in seeing that new scholarship was available, Maida Owens, the director of the Louisiana Folklife Program, initiated Louisiana Voices with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Division of the Arts.

The heart of the project is this Educator's Guide with nine study units that include dozens of lesson plans and student activities. They are theoretically and methodologically informed by the disciple of folklore and draw upon folklorists' research of Louisiana's traditional cultures. The Educator's Guide is flexible and easily adaptable to any curriculum, aligned with educational mandates, and accessible to teachers with no previous exposure to folklife studies. The lessons align with the Louisiana Content Standards, accentuating and augmenting existing curricula rather than creating extra work for teachers.

Our partners have included:
  • Tulane University's Deep South Regional Humanities Center
  • Teachers Learning Technology Centers (TLTCs)
  • University colleges of education throughout the state
  • T.H.E. | QUEST
  • Louisiana Learn and Serve
  • Louisiana Department of Education Office of Quality Educators
  • Louisiana Center for Educational Technology (LCET)
  • State and federal parks
  • State and local museums
  • Louisiana Public Broadcasting
  • LINCS
  • American Folklore Society
  • American Folklife Center's Veteran's History Project
  • Louisiana Alliance for Arts Education
  • Arts councils
  • Regional Folklife Program

The Louisiana Voices project is the first of its kind and has become a national model. In honor of this achievement, Louisiana Voices was awarded the prestigious Dorothy Howard Prize from the American Folklore Society in 2000. Louisiana Voices also received pointed recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts as an outstanding project, able to serve as a model for other arts-in-education efforts.

 

 

National Endowment for the Arts.

 
Folklife in Louisiana Home | Living Traditions Home | Louisiana Voices: Educator's Guide
Folklife Program Introduction | Planning and Funding Folklife Projects
Overview of Louisiana's Traditional Cultures
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Louisiana Division of the Arts | Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism
© 1999-2012 Louisiana Division of the Arts,
PO Box 44247, Baton Rouge, LA 70804, tel 225-342-8180

Questions about this site? Contact Maida Owens, folklife@crt.la.gov.