Folklore: Democratizing Source Material to Reflect Classroom and Community Culture

Abstract

Students used inquiry to invest folklore in their community. As part of the C3 inquiry arc students defined questions, connected folklore to a discipline, gathered data from their community and communicated information. Students' agency drove each of the projects as the students determined how much they would investigate each topic. Students explored folk art, folk construction, folk crafts, folk games, ghost stories, food, jokelore, folk medicine, and folk music. Students created projects based on their research for authentic audiences.

Keywords:

• Elementary
• folklore
• inquiry
• social studies