Lesson Plan

Can You Dig It?

Subject Area

English Language Arts
Social Studies

Grade(s)

3

Overview

In this lesson, students will define archaeology. Students will make inferences from observations by sorting through garbage to analyze clues about the people who left the garbage. Students will compare and contrast two artifacts looking for clues from the past. Students will write a narrative story of an artifact.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 3

SS10.3.13

Describe prehistoric and historic American Indian cultures, governments, and economics in Alabama. (Alabama)

Unpacked Content

UP:SS10.3.13

Vocabulary

  • primary sources
  • calendars
  • timelines
  • reconstructing
  • past

Knowledge

Students know:
  • How to use a calendar.
  • How to interpret a timeline.
  • Vocabulary: primary sources, calendar, timeline, past, historical letter, artifacts

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Read a calendar.
  • Create and use a timeline.
  • Analyze a historical document.
  • Utilize maps, photographs, and other visual historic resources.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Primary sources play an important role in reconstructing the past.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 3

ELA21.3.33

Write personal or fictional narratives with a logical plot (sequence of events), characters, transitions, and a sense of closure.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.3.33

Vocabulary

  • Personal narrative
  • Fictional narrative
  • Logical plot
  • Sequence of events
  • Characters
  • Transitions
  • Closure

Knowledge

Students know:
  • A narrative is a piece of writing that tells a story.
  • A personal narrative tells about an event that was personally experienced by the author, while a fictional narrative tells a made up story.
  • A narrative story describes a sequence of events in a logical order (beginning, middle, end) and provides a sense of closure as an ending.
  • A narrative story describes the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the characters.
  • Narrative transitions indicate when and where the story is occurring.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Write a personal narrative that recalls a personal experience or a fictional narrative with a made-up story.
  • Write a narrative with a logical sequence of events and details that describe how the characters feels, acts, and thinks.
  • Use appropriate transitions in narrative writing.
  • Write a narrative that ends with a sense of closure.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Narrative writing includes predictable elements, like a logical sequence of events and an ending that provides the reader with a sense of closure.
  • Because narrative writing describes a chronological sequence of events, it includes transitions that indicate the time and place in which the story is occurring.
  • Narrative writing can be used to tell about something that happened to them personally or it can tell a story they made up.

Primary Learning Objectives

The students will be able to:

1) define the role of an archaeologist.

2) make inferences based on observations by sorting through garbage.

3) compare and contrast 2 artifacts looking for clues from the past.

4) write a narrative story about one of the pottery artifacts compared during the lesson.

Procedures/Activities

Before: Ask students, "If someone sorted through your trash, what clues could they find about you?" Have students brainstorm a list of items that could be found in someone's trash that could give "clues" about the people who left the trash.  Then lead a discussion about how archaeologists use the "evidence or trash" they find to piece together information about human cultures.  Show the following video: Archeologists: Career Spotlight by Kids.gov 

During:  Explain to the students that archaeologists are able to learn about the lives of prehistoric peoples by studying the remains of the things they left behind. (Before the lesson, the teacher should collect several plastic bags of clean, safe trash: no food, cans, or glass.  Each bag ideally, will come from a different location.  Examples:  office, family home, or movie theater.) Group students into groups with 3 students per group.  Give each group a bag of trash and the Garbage Can Archaeology worksheet.  Explain that each group will assume the role of archaeologists and analyze the contents of each trash bag to determine the location the garbage came from.  They will also make inferences about the people who left the garbage. Give groups 15 minutes to sort through the garbage and make their inferences.  Then discuss their findings. 

 After:  Explain to students that pottery is generally the most common type of artifact found at prehistoric sites because pottery and stone do not deteriorate as easily as other remains. The types of clay people used to make their pottery and the different patterns and methods they used to decorate their pottery indicate the age of the pottery and the culture from which it came. These are all clues archaeologists use to gain information about prehistoric people.  Show students the picture of the 2 artifacts: Woodland Duck Pot - Artifact B and Creek Water Jar - Artifact A.  Ask the students, "Are there similarities between the two?  Are there differences?  What can these two pictures tell us about the people who used them?  Are these objects similar to anything we have or use today?"  Complete a Venn Diagram together on the board to compare similarities and differences.

Have students choose one of the two objects (Woodland Duck Pot or Creek Water Jar) and write a narrative story from the picture about the artifact.  Students will write a scene explaining its origin, how it ended up buried in the dirt, or what happened once it was excavated by an archaeologist (the student).  They can write the scene from the point of view of an archaeologist, a character, or the item itself. 

Assessment Strategies

Formative assessment strategy for this lesson is the Garbage Can Archaeology worksheet used in the Garbage Can Archaeology Activity (during part of the lesson). 

Summative assessment strategy for this lesson is the Rubric for the Archaeology Narrative Writing used in Archaeology Narrative Writing (used in the after part of the lesson).

Acceleration

Students can choose one of the sites from the ancient archaeology site from the list under the attachments, research the site via the internet, and design a travel brochure for that site using a template from Microsoft Word.

Suggested Reading List:                     

  • Currier, Richard L., and Michael Avi-Yonah. Search for the past. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1974. Print.                                                 
  • Duke, Kate. Archaeologists Dig for Clues. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. Print.                                                 
  • Freed, Stanley A., and Ruth S. Freed. Man from the Beginning. Mankato, MN: Creative Educational Society, 1967. Print.                                                
  • Jackson, Donna M., and Charlie Fellenbaum. The Bone Detectives: How Forensic Anthropologists Solve Crimes and Uncover Mysteries of the Dead. Boston: Little, Brown, 1996. Print.                                                 
  • Lewin, Roger. In the Age of Mankind: A Smithsonian Book of Human Evolution. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1988. Print.                                                 
  • Logan, Claudia, and Melissa Sweet. The 5,000-year-old Puzzle: Solving a Mystery of Ancient Egypt. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2002. Print.  

Intervention

Students who need extra support should be placed in groups with teammates sensitive to the needs of that student. The teacher may need to more closely supervise groups that contain students who are struggling with the concepts of this lesson. Students may also need additional time to complete their Narrative Writing Activity. 

Approximate Duration

Total Duration

31 to 60 Minutes

Background and Preparation

Background/Preparation

For the Students:  This is an introductory lesson.  No prior knowledge needed.

For the Teacher:  Before the lesson, the teacher should collect several plastic bags of clean, safe trash:  no food, cans, or glass.  Each bag ideally, will come from a different location.  Examples: office, family home, or movie theater.

Teachers need to be familiar with the Woodland Period in Alabama and with archaeology. 

  • Teachers may want to read pages 36, 39, 40, 41, and 239 in The Alabama Guide:  Our People, Resources, and Government for detailed information about archaeology and the Woodland Period.

 Williams, Randall, and Christine Garrett. The Alabama Guide: Our People, Resources, and Government 2009. Montgomery: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History, 2009. 36, 39, 40, 41, and 239. Print.       

  •  Teachers may also wish to read pages 10-13, and 26 & 28,  in Alabama: The Making of An American State.

 Bridges, Edwin C. Alabama: The Making of an American State. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: U of Alabama, 2016. 10-13, and 26 & 28. Print.   

  • The following links may also be helpful:   
  • Creeks in Alabama article from the Encyclopedia of Alabama http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1088
  • Woodland Period article from the Encyclopedia of Alabama http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1166

The teacher can review the texts listed in the Bibliography for additional background information. 

Materials and Resources

Materials and Resources

 

Technology Resources Needed

Video:

Approved Date

2017-05-18
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