Teachers: Is History a Mystery?: Overview

Is history a mystery? Answers to this seemingly simple question unfold in surprising ways when students are engaged in a study of archaeology and mystery stories. The combination of these two themes forms the basis for my sixth grade social studies and language arts class. The curriculum for the social studies portion of the course is the study of geography and world cultures. The field of archaeology provides a rich foundation for studying a variety of world cultures, both past and present. The work of archaeologist, detectives of the past, shares many features characteristic of mystery stories. In this article, I will give a brief overview of this integrated unit of study designed for grades 5-7.

Text Box: Teaching Tip: The language of the Cultural Universals should be student friendly. For example, you may want to use the term Government instead of Social Organization depending on your grade level.

Teaching Tip: Student artifacts also make great writing prompts. Often, they can be springboards to terrific personal narratives about favorite activities or special moments.

To establish a common framework needed to study world cultures, students begin by examining, investigating and evaluating features common to all cultures. Participating in the activity “Shoebox Artifacts” helps to establish categories of common features, personalize the concept of an artifact and gives students experience with artifacts of modern culture. In the activity, students collect six artifacts that they feel represent as many aspects of themselves as possible in a shoebox. In class, students share the contents of their boxes in a small group. When sharing is complete, the group must decide on five or six categories for grouping the all the objects. In a general class discussion, groups share their groupings and analyze how these categories might exist in other cultures. Summarizing the discussion by asking for other categories that might be shared by all cultures helps to arrive at a conclusive list of features, called Cultural Universals.

	* Essentials for Life
	* Social Organization
	* Communication
	* Recreation
	* Artistic Expression
	* Customs and Beliefs

The next step in the process is for students to transfer this understanding to archaeology and to examine archaeologists’ use of artifacts to interpret other cultures. I accomplish this task by asking students to read about a well-known site and to classify each hypothesis with supporting evidence. Essentially, what we know about the site and how we know it. This provides a convenient link to mystery stories. In my class, students read Who Stole the‘Wizard of Oz’ by Avi and students connect the idea of clues to solving the mystery to the information revealed about a culture through artifacts. Background reading on the field of archaeology, dating methods, types of artifacts, locating sites and excavation. For this information, I assign sections of The Young Oxford Book of Archaeology by Norah Moloney.

When students have a working knowledge of cultural universals, artifacts and archaeology, the fun begins! In the handout “Archaeology Adventure” students learn that they will be creating a hypothetical culture complete with artifacts to represent various aspects of the culture. Using the “Create-A-Culture” worksheet, groups brainstorm ideas for a theme for the culture to be created as a class. My students have suggested themes such a candy, space nomads and fire.

Text Box: Teaching Tip: After each group shares their theme ideas, a class vote be secret ballot may be used to make the final determination.

Teaching Tip: Creating a culture may be used as a basis for a fantasy short story or science fiction piece. With a general theme in mind, students can begin work brainstorming in specific groups devoted to one of the Cultural Universals. The “Cultural Universal” worksheets guide students in this process and offer suggestions for consideration. Small groups report ideas for their universal to the class and compromises are reached on areas of confusion or overlap. When all aspects of the culture have been reviewed, each student begins to brainstorm ideas for an artifact that would represent an aspect of the universal that their group has created. For example, one member of the Artistic Expression group might want to create a dance, another member might create a poem. Whatever choices students make must reflect the theme agreed upon by the class.

If you are interested in more information about these activities, contact:

Leslie Coleman
Lake Ridge Academy
37501 Center Ridge Rd.
North Ridgeville, OH 44039
<colemanl@lakeridgeacademy.org>

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