Inspiring Young Historians Through Artifact Bags

For students to be motivated to actively learn about history you must first inspire them to do so.  Being able to touch and see history will help activate their thinking and immerse them into history.  I think artifact bags are just the right way to activate Cambourne's engagement theory as it is stated in the article we read for class.  (If you do not remember what Cambourne's engagement theory is, check it out here.  This concept is critical in creating a successful classroom. For those of you who are not in our Social Studies Methods class with Dr. Smirnova...an artifact bag is when you select a collection of artifacts that relate to a historical topic you may be introducing or it could be used as a get to know you project.  The artifacts are then wrapped up, so that the student may discover each one separately.  This really does add to the experience for the children I believe.  Then, just place them in a little bag and you have got yourself an artifact bag!  A teacher could use this at the beginning of a unit to introduce a new historical period.  Artifact bags could also be used to introduce primary sources.  Students could also use artifact bags in creative writing.  After discovering the items, they would then be responsible for creating the character and writing a story about this new character's journey.  Artifact bags could also be used as a really nice way to get to know your students and to show them your history.  Some tips to remember when creating your collection of artifacts and presenting the lesson are:

• The teacher must first model how to discover an artifact bag.  One must actually walk through the process, "telling" is not sufficient enough.  
• Talk aloud about what you are thinking about as you walk through the process.  
• Ask the students' plenty of quality questions that help guide them in their discoveries.  
• Help them summarize what they have learned and highlight the important facts.  
• Incorporate reading and writing into the lesson.
• Make sure the groups that the students are separated into are diverse.  Each student will have a different strength, it is important to identify these.

Our professor, Dr. Smirnova, had us discover an artifact bag in our class on Wednesday.  Below are the artifacts we found in our bags.  After investigation of the artifacts we discovered the person was her!  It was a very interactive and fun way to get to know our professor!