Objective
: Each student will present in written, oral, and visual form his or her family’s folk tradition.
Procedure
: Discuss the elements that make up a tradition. From the discussion elicit such elements as: tales, songs, ethnic restaurants, religion, language, books, records, costumes, proverbs and sayings, and prejudices. Discuss the significance of each of the elements in a folk heritage, and how these elements relate to the oral tradition.
Presentation
: After discussing methods for gathering information about family folk traditions, instruct students to design a format that will include most if not all of the elements listed above. Give the students a reasonable amount of time to gather the information, write their family histories, and bring in any artifacts that they would like to share with the class. Each student will present his or her family folk tradition to the class.
Notes
: Some students will have more than one ethnic heritage. Suggest that they investigate and report on more than one heritage for extra credit, or suggest that they select the dominate heritage or the one which would prove easiest to document.
An excellent resource article for this lesson plan is Richard M. Dorson’s article “Is there A Folk In The City?” in a collection of essays edited by Americo Paredes and Ellen J. Stekert (see bibliography). The book is available at the Yale Cross Campus Library.