Folklife Resources for Educators

Materials Related to Asian Americans

There are 7 titles in this list.

Exploring Diversity in Pennsylvania History
by Historical Society of Pennsylvania
http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=74

Resources for teachers related to the diverse ethnic histories of Pennsylvania. Curriculum materials include lesson plans, student handouts, background readings, and links to primary source materials drawn from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and Balch collections related to the topics of settlement, community, work and industrialization, and interethnic relations. Geared to the middle and high school classroom, the units include resources for studying the settlement, history, and culture of Germans, Irish, Italians, Chinese, Latinos, South Asians, Africans, and Koreans in Pennsylvania. Lesson plans are correlated to a variety of Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards.

Sponsoring Organization:
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
1300 Locust Street
Philadelphia PA 19107
(215) 732-6200
http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=1

Folk Artists: New Roots
by Institute for Cultural Partnerships
http://www.culturalpartnerships.org/fan/

Educational web pages designed for use with students in grades 5-8 which provide activities and primary source materials about recent immigrant and refugee communities in Pennsylvania. A 12-page teacher's guide, "Using the Folk Arts of Newcomers in Your Classroom," offers curriculum suggestions and activities for exploring traditional forms of culture found in the Ahikskan Turk, Bosnian, Chinese, East Indian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Sudanese, and Vietnamese communities in Pennsylvania. Accompanying the guide are stories and videos, some in Spanish, of individual Puerto Rican, Chinese, and Mexican individuals, representing dance, foodways, and other cultural and artistic traditions. The guide correlates with Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and the Arts and Humanities.

Sponsoring Organization:
Institute for Cultural Partnerships
3211 North Front Street
Harrisburg PA 17110-1342
(717) 238-1770
http://www.culturalpartnerships.org/

Iowa Folklife -- Volume II
by Iowa Arts Council
http://www.uni.edu/iowaonline/folklife_v2/

Online curriculum resource guide for K-12 students and educators that explores the traditional music, foods, dance, rituals and crafts of Iowa's diverse cultures. A companion resource to "Iowa Folklife: Our People, Communities, and Traditions," it includes content pages, audio samples, suggested readings, lesson plans and other online resources. Lesson plans and accompanying materials focus on the blues, Gospel, Latino music, Old Time music, Polka, First Nations Peoples, Vietnamese Tet, and cultural traditions from Laotians, Danes, Bosnians, and Asian Indians who have settled in Iowa.

Sponsoring Organization:
Folk & Traditional Arts Program
Iowa Arts Council
Des Moines IA 50319-0290
(515) 242-6195
http://www.iowaartscouncil.org/programs/folk-and-traditional-arts/resources.shtml

Other Organizations:
Iowa Arts Council
600 E. Locust Street
Des Moines IA 50319-0290
(515) 281-6412
http://www.iowaartscouncil.org/index.shtml

King County and Western Washington Cultural Geography, Communities, Their History and Traditions
by Northwest Heritage Resources
http://www.northwestheritageresources.org/

Ten-week curriculum unit of forty lesson plans (85 p. PDF), with accompanying essays on cultural background and traditional art forms, plus a searchable database of Washington state traditional artists. Designed for use by 7th and 8th grade Social Studies teachers for the Washington State Culture and History curriculum. Curriculum unit focuses on the traditional art forms of Cantonese Opera, Kathak Dance, Hmong Basketry, and Oud Music of the Arabic World. Cultural background essays describe communities of Puget Salish, Chinese Americans, Asian Indians, Laotian Americans, and Arab Americans living in Washington state.

Sponsoring Organization:
Northwest Heritage Resources
3505 NE 187th Street
Lake Forest Park WA 98155
(206) 306-1181
http://www.northwestheritageresources.org/

Our Arts, Our Land: A Young Reader's Guide to Selected Folk Arts of Hawaii
by Michael Schuster, Carl Hefner, J.W. Junker
http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Ehefner/pages/index.htm

Music, photographs, and interviews of traditional master artists from Hawaii designed as an introduction to folk arts for young people. The audio recordings were originally aired on Hawaii Public Radio as part of the "Pacific Visions" radio series. Hawaiian traditional arts represented include chant, lauhala weaving, fishnet knotting, quilting, slack key and steel guitar music, medicinal herbs, gourd carving, and hula ki'i puppetry. Also included are practitioners of Chinese Opera, Okinawan koten music and dance, Filipino dance, Korean pansori singing, and Japanese Mingei pottery. A folk arts quiz is provided for students.

Sponsoring Organization:
Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts
250 South Hotel Street, 2nd floor
Honolulu HI 96813
(808) 586-0300
http://hawaii.gov/sfca/

Teacher's Guide for Nevada Folk Arts Roster
by Nevada Arts Council
http://nevadaculture.org/nac/dmdocuments/RosterTeacherGuide.pdf

Folk arts education guide created to accompany the Nevada Folk Arts Roster program and to provide an overview of the traditional arts and folklife of ethnic communities in Nevada. Includes lesson plans for the general study of folklife and also lessons on Mexican, African, Asian, Western and Eastern European, Hawaiian, and Native American cultures in Nevada, plus information on individual traditional artists working in the state. Accompanying worksheets and activities provide guidance in doing fieldwork. Lessons are designed for 4th and 7th grade students, but may be adapted for other age groups or skill levels. Correlated to Nevada Standards for Education for the areas of History, Social Studies, Geography, Library, Music, Physical Education, Visual Arts, and English Language Arts. (46 p. PDF)

Sponsoring Organization:
Nevada Arts Council - Folklife Program
716 North Carson Street, Suite A
Carson City NV 89701-4079
(775) 687-6680
http://nevadaculture.org/nac/

Walking on Solid Ground: Understanding the Chinese-American Experience in Philadelphia
by Deborah Wei
http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/curriculum/supports/philavoices/chineese-americanGrade7.pdf

Educational module for 7th grade on the traditional arts, culture, and history of the Chinese American community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Includes lesson plans and activities for creating neighborhood maps, studying what makes a community, learning how to read and understand census reports and immigration patterns, and working with the concept of "ghetto," using Philadelphia's Chinatown as a model. (19 p. PDF)

Sponsoring Organization:
Philadelphia Folklore Project
735 South 50th Street
Philadelphia PA 19143
(215) 726-1106
http://www.folkloreproject.org/