STUDY GUIDES TO APPALACHIAN CULTURE

There are many reasons for teachers at all levels of the educational system to develop units on Appalachian culture.

Children from Appalachia need to understand their family and community as a point of departure for understanding their state, nation, and global world.

Another reason is to encourage a positive sense of self-worth in Appalachian children. To counter many stereotypes that are perpetuated in the media, teachers, parents, and concerned citizens must provide children with positive images of our region in order to enhance their self esteem and community pride.

With those goals in mind, Forward in the Fifth, a grassroots educational organization headquartered in Berea, Kentucky, organized a series of professional development seminars for teachers that included many workshops on Appalachian heritage. Teachers responded enthusiastically to these workshops, but their evaluations often noted the need for more information on the topic and asked for resource materials on using Appalachian literature in the classroom.

In response to this request, Forward in the Fifth partnered with writer-in-residence Judy Sizemore to create two reference guides: one in 1999 for kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers and another in 2000 for middle and high school classrooms.

These books/study guides were designed so that teachers could involve living authors and illustrators. Both of these books include biographies of authors and their activity suggestions for teachers and students and their thoughts on the creative process.

Many of the authors are available for school presentations. Having an author or illustrator visit your school can be an inspiration to your staff as well as your students.

All of the authors and illustrators whose work is featured in these guides have an ongoing involvement with education. Some are or have been teachers themselves. Some teach teachers at universities. Many have been artists or writers-in-residence in schools and most do school presentations. They all appreciate teachers and have a tremendous respect for their responsibilities.

Both of these very thorough books/reference guides would be especially valuable to teachers, librarians, and parents who home-school their children.

I also recommend Winners, an excellent study guide for Jesse Stuart’s eight illustrated junior books. Winners is designed to encourage reading and to enhance self-image among children in grades 3-7.

These three study guides are available at the JSF Bookstore, 1645 Winchester Avenue in downtown Ashland. For more information, call (606) 326-1667 or visit our website: JSFBOOKS.COM.