Smithsonian Folkways has announced the launch of the Smithsonian Folkways Music Pathways, an innovative new teaching tool designed to illuminate lesser-known corners of music history using the sounds and resources available in the label’s iconic catalog. The Music Pathways offer step-by-step guides through both the music and the history of the people who made it, offering moments for listening, reflection, hands-on activities, and storytelling for teachers and learners in all subjects.
As a leader in resources for music educators for over 30 years, Smithsonian Folkways now charts a new direction for educational projects at the label. In 2024, Folkways received an internal grant through the Smithsonian’s Together We Thrive initiative to support an in-house curriculum specialist overseeing educational offerings like the Music Pathways.
“We are thrilled that Dr. Jennifer Mellizo, a music educator and respected researcher with over 22 years of teaching experience in K-12 classrooms, joins us as our first full-time educator at the label,” says Folkways director and curator Maureen Loughran. “The Smithsonian’s commitment to education at Folkways encourages us to further develop deep contextual resources, like Music Pathways, and explore new projects dedicated to teachers and students from all parts of the world.”
The Music Pathways are free resources available to educators, parents, and the general public, contiguous with Folkways’ mission of making the sounds of the world broadly accessible and increasing understanding among people and cultures. Each Music Pathway contains between twelve to eighteen hours of rich, thematic, multidisciplinary content that is fully customizable in a variety of learning contexts. Lesson plans are situated like nesting dolls inside larger inquiries of study, allowing students, educators, and parents to easily move between different topics within each Music Pathway.
Extensive resources from across the Smithsonian are utilized throughout the Music Pathways. Audio, liner notes, and artwork that comprise many releases on Smithsonian Folkways (and other collections, such as Arhoolie Records) are positioned adjacent to photographs, video, scholarship, and other media from nearly every Smithsonian museum and unit. Learners can see, hear, and directly engage with primary resources that illustrate the vibrancy of the cultures and relevance of the histories being explored. These comprehensive, ready-made resources can be immediately implemented in classroom and hybrid learning environments, providing educators with vetted, engaging deep dives that cover multiple perspectives on the histories being uncovered.
Two Music Pathways are available now with plans to release more soon. Under Mellizo’s supervision, a third Music Pathway on women and the blues will be released later in 2025.
- Estoy Aquí: Music of the Chicano Movement (6-8)
- Cajun and Zydeco Music: Flavors of Southwest Louisiana (6-8)
The Music Pathways are a first-of-their-kind lesson-plan resource that meets national academic standards in a variety of subjects, such as Common Core, National Standards for Music Education, and more. But while the Music Pathways were designed with national education standards in mind, they are also perfect for independent and lifelong learners, and anyone interested in learning more about the histories behind their favorite LPs released by Smithsonian Folkways.
