Artifacts

Gather an object or series of objects that connect to the inquiry. Objects can be real or images projected for the class. Invite students to sit in a position where they can easily view the object. Provide context or backstory—real or imagined—about where the object came from that ties it to a larger inquiry or story within the lesson content. This newspaper article was in the New York Times last week. OR Let’s imagine this mysterious object was found at the bottom of trunk in an old house about to be torn down. Next, ask the group: What do you notice about this article/object/etc.? Describe what you see… Invite each student to make an observation about the object. Next, ask students to make interpretations or analyses about the artifact based on their observations. Demonstrate and encourage ways to make connections between observations and their potential meaning as needed. We noticed as a group that this artifact is a book, that it is torn in a few places, and there appears to be writing faded by water and wear on the cover. What might that tell us about the history of the book? Avoid suggesting that an answer is “right;” work to honor all interpretations as potentially valid. So, one interpretation is that the person who owned this book lived in a place with a lot of rain. What else could ‘writing faded by water and wear on the cover’ suggest? Once students have made some predictions about the object's origin, meaning and purpose, relate the sense-making back to the content to transition into the next task. You made some excellent predictions/inferences about this book. Let’s explore, now, what happens when a group who was very interested in its contents found this book and decided to hold a press conference about their discovery…