PRJ 1009 Folkwriting

This series includes fieldwork, photos, administrative files, workshop materials for educators, and a final workbook titled Folkwriting: Lessons on Place, Heritage, and Tradition for the Georgia Classroom edited by Diane Howard and Laurie Sommers with educators from the Cook County Public Schools. The workbook exists in two versions, one with student writing and photos of students, and second, edited without student writing and photos for web dissemination (www.valdosta.edu/archives/folklife/folkwriting). This project was a collaboration between the South Georgia Writing Project, headed by Diane Howard of the VSU English Department, the South Georgia Folklife Project, and the Cook County Public School System to enhance writing skills across levels using the humanities discipline of folklife as the subject matter. The project created a teacher-tested, self-contained teaching unit, in workbook format with web-based technology links, which was piloted in Cook County during Fall term 2001. The workbook was developed for elementary, middle school, and high school levels and was intended as a model for a multi-genre folklife writing curriculum, especially designed for rural south Georgia educators, which links the school with community folklife and a sense of place. The initial project grant was titled Connecting Homes, Schools, and Communities : A Collaborative Teacher Enrichment Project Using Folklife and Writing, funded by a Georgia Humanities Council Teacher Enrichment grant. The series includes fieldwork done by participating teachers in the summer of 2001, and materials from the 2000 South Georgia Writing Project Summer Institute, at which Sommers presented on folklore and writing.

Browse this series on Archon

Folkwriting: Lessons on Place, Heritage, and Tradition for the Georgia Classroom website, a PDF file of the workbook edited by Diane Howard and Laurie Kay Sommers in collaboration with educators from the Cook County (Georgia) Public Schools, 2002

Folkwriting and the Humanities Program of Gainesville Middle School: teacher Renee Morris shows how she has built a curriculum around the Folkwriting approach in a diverse middle school classroom in North Georgia.

Folklife Lesson Plans, A Guide for Educators, Jennifer A. Trevisol, editor, Valdosta State University, a project of participants in the South Georgia Writing Project 2000 Summer Institute, Diane W. Howard, director, in collaboration with the South Georgia Folklife Project, Laurie Kay Sommers, director.

Writing About Our Community: Classroom Activities Based on the Folklife of Wiregrass Georgia Exhibit

• Prewriting Activities- A Food Tradition, A Homemade Toy, A Work Experience
• Exhibit Treasure Hunt Activity, Classroom Activity Based on the Folklife of Wiregrass Georgia Exhibit

Folkwriting Final Report, 2002.

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