Teacher Commentary

The reason I have students generate their own definition of artifact is because it gets students into an inquiry stance -to get them in the mode of “we figure things out.” At the beginning of the lesson, I put up the Sources Historians Use poster and have one source listed, “artifacts.” I tell students, “Historians use different types of sources. We’re going to keep a list of different types of sources they use. Artifacts are one type. I’m deliberately not defining artifact for you. You will be analyzing artifacts today. While you’re doing so, think about what an artifact is so you can define it on your own at the end of class.” After students have had plenty of time to investigate each of the artifacts, they usually have a pretty good idea of how to define what an artifact is.