Welcome to Our American Folklore Homeschool Language Arts Course

Where would a nation be without its stories? Through American Folklore, your middle and high school students can explore the stories of our nation. This twenty-six-week language arts course can be used as downloadable or interactive lessons and offers students the chance to study more deeply the stories, poems, and songs that make up our national treasury of folklore, using readings, research and writing assignments, and additional activities to help students enjoy and connect with America’s folktales.

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American Folklore

Length: 26 weeks
Content type: Text based
Grades: 7–12

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Getting Started with Our American Folklore Homeschool Language Arts Course

This American Folklore homeschool language arts course is a semi-formal introduction to both folklore as a general subject and the national treasury of folklore. Middle school and high school homeschool students focus primarily on stories, poems, and songs, but enjoy various aspects of national folklife, as well. Because most students have already experienced some American folklore during the natural course of their lives, this class goes a little deeper than surface enjoyment. The main purpose of this homeschool language arts course is to enjoy learning about an often undervalued subject that not only is relevant to every American but that also connects with future studies of American literature and arts.

Overview

  • 26 weeks, 3 days a week
  • Includes readings, links to additional information, research and writing assignments, and suggested additional activities
  • Grades: 7–12

Supplies Needed

Corresponding lessons on SchoolhouseTeachers.com; journal for writing assignments, note-taking, and research; suggested further reading materials as noted in each lesson, including general resource materials for younger and older students

What to Do

Go to Class Lessons and download the lesson plan and the first lesson. Start with the Day 1 reading assignment. Follow the instructions each day on the lesson plan and check them off when completed.

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Course Sample for Our American Folklore Homeschool Language Arts Course

To view a full sample of this course, click here.

 

American Folklore Week 2: Introduction, Part 2

Focus Concepts: How Folklore Develops

Familiar to All

Anyone who has grown up in a particular country can hardly avoid learning at least some of its folklore. Chances are, in fact, you have already enjoyed quite a bit of American folklore. How many of the items in the following list do you recognize?

  1. Lucky rabbit’s foot
  2. “Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around” jump rope rhyme
  3. Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox
  4. “O, give me a home where the buffalo roam . . .”
  5. Johnny-cake
  6. “Blind-man’s Bluff”
  7. “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
  8. Jaw-harp
  9. The fat old elf who wears a red suit with a white beard and pipe as he drops gifts down your chimney on Christmas, shouting a jolly “ho, ho, ho!”
  10. “Bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?”
  11. Lone Ranger and Tonto
  12. “I know, right?”
  13. Licking a finger to tell the direction of the wind
  14. “Step on a crack, and you’ll break your mother’s back.”
  15. Bigfoot (a.k.a. Yeti, Sasquatch)
  16. “Why did the chicken cross the road?” and its variants

This is only a small smattering of American folklore, but chances are you recognize them. While it is true that the richest and purest collections of folklore are found within rural communities, Americans have moved so much between city and country and to such a wide variety of places that folklore can be found everywhere.

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Transcript Information for Our American Folklore Homeschool Language Arts Course

If a student completes all of the American Folklore homeschool language arts course “core” readings and assignments, as well as at least half of the optional assignments over approximately 90 hours, the course may count as a .5 credit humanities elective (language arts/social studies/arts). Homeschool high school students should choose the more challenging activities or go in depth with the easier activities in order to achieve this half credit. As always, please check your own state’s academic requirements.

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Course Outline for Our American Folklore Homeschool Language Arts Course

Nine American Folklore homeschool language arts units lead middle school and high school homeschool students through an in-depth exploration of national folklore.

  • Unit One: What Is Folklore?
  • Unit Two: Native Americans
  • Unit Three: The Northeast
  • Unit Four: Appalachia
  • Unit Five: The Deep South
  • Unit Six: The Midwest
  • Unit Seven: The Mountain West
  • Unit Eight: The Pacific West
  • Unit Nine: Final Project

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More About Our American Folklore Homeschool Language Arts Course

Where would a nation be without its stories? To have a sense of identity and progress, to understand how it has become what it is today, every nation must know its past. History is composed of many elements—events, memorable dates, important people, and political upheavals, for example. Together, these elements make up a nation’s story.

Beneath that history, however, is a fascinating picture. Think of it as a kind of tapestry woven by the nation’s people with brilliant threads and intricate details. Sadly, though, this tapestry is often under-appreciated. Without taking the time to examine and enjoy it, people miss a delightful, informative window into the lives of the people who helped to shape a nation’s history. This tapestry is called “folklore.”

This American Folklore homeschool language arts course divides the country into six regions which are covered systematically after an opening study of American Indian folklore. Within each region homeschool middle school and high school students focus on one or two kinds of folklore, in order to better understand the nature of folklore, and highlight “folk music of the week” (instruments, songs, and dances). At the beginning of each region, students discuss one aspect of American folklife, such as holidays and ethnic traditions. It’s important to remember, though, that the different types of folklore don’t belong just to America. They have been around much longer than America has. Because the America recognized today was settled by immigrants, the roots of national folklore are not only in the New World, but also far, far away in the Old. Thus, folklore connects people to a heritage as Americans, to be sure, but also to a heritage in other nations across the oceans and the ages.

American Folklore homeschool language arts lessons include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

  • American Indians—mythology*, fables
  • Northeast—legends, spooky stories*, and epitaphs
  • Appalachia/mid-Atlantic—nursery rhymes, oral history, sea chanties
  • Southeast—spirituals, animal tales, trickster tales
  • Midwest—fairy tales, weird place lore, folktales
  • West—cowboy lore and ballads, Spanish spiritual stories, fabled creature sightings

In addition, at the end of the homeschool language arts course, students have the opportunity to choose a final project to complete that will pull their studies together. For example, the student might create a scrapbook of their family’s oral history—perhaps recipes handed down from grandmothers, stories of their parents’ childhoods, games made up in the backyard with siblings, and so on.

Ready? Get started exploring heritage through American folklore!

*Some parents may be understandably concerned about the inclusion of mythology and spooky stories in this course.  Because a study of folklore would not be complete without attention to these sub-genres, they are included. Parents are encouraged to use the course in whatever way they see fit, even if that means skipping a lesson or two; however, it is important to note that these types of folklore are taught only from a neutral, academic perspective.

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Getting Started with Our American Folklore Interactive Course

The interactive.SchoolhouseTeachers.com platform allows students to learn engaging content at a comfortable pace. Homeschool online with the flexible, self-paced approach of interactive.SchoolhouseTeachers.com. This easy-to-navigate option is available to SchoolhouseTeachers.com members.

  • Members may sign up for your free interactive.SchoolhouseTeachers.com account here. (This is free for members, but it does require a separate username and password.)
  • Within 48 hours, you should receive your username and password, as well as a welcome email with directions for next steps, including video and text tutorials to help you get started.
  • If you are already signed up, you may use this link to go directly to the course.

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Quick Start

1.  Bookmark the course for easy access during instruction.

2. Click “View Lesson Plan” and organize as desired (on computer desktop or in a printed format). 

3.  Gather necessary resources as listed in the lesson plan.

4.  Click “Go to Class Lessons” and get started.

5.  Enjoy the course!

6.  Utilize Applecore or your own record keeping system throughout the course.

7.  Print a certificate of completion.

Need help? Check out our tutorials or click the live chat box in the corner of your screen.

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