Artifact Bag Project/Fieldwork Begins (Week 6 Blog)

Artifact Bag Project/Fieldwork Begins
(Week 6 Blog)

(SEPTEMBER 29-OCTOBER 3)

• On Monday, my Social Studies Methods class presented and explained the history behind the items in their artifact bags. I liked how we each presented to our individual groups before presenting to the entire class. My group, Group #3, was assigned the task of researching items from the factory to home. My group consists of myself, Nick Marano, and Gina Debenedetto.

MY ARTIFACT BAG

Artifact #1: The Ford Motor Company (Factory)/Rouge Plant-1956

Artifact #2: The '50 Ford By: John Greenya (Published in 1971)

Artifact #3: San Francisco Cable Car Bell-Invented by Andrew Hallidie in 1869 (Owner of a wire-rope factory)

Artifact #4: The Cotton Gin Machine-Invented by Eli Whitney (1825 Painting)

NICK'S ARTIFACT BAG

Artifact #1: Plant Leaves/Twig

Artifact #2: Rock

Artifact #3: Elmer's Glue

Artifact #4: Dollar Bill

GINA'S ARTIFACT BAG

Artifact #1: Compass Rose

Artifact #2: Barrettes (Made in China)

Artifact #3: Picture of people making items.

In my opinion, the Artifact Bag Project is a wonderful way to get students interested in the subject of historical research. This project also stimulates class discussion and social development. Below is a video that I find to be interesting and pertains to the Artifact Bag Project. The child is a pre-kindergartner who is given minimal support during her presentation. The child shares cues to help us guess what items are in her bag. These type of mental cues help develop a child's critical thinking skills, which then benefit research and discovery.

• On our first day of fieldwork (10-1-14), my classmates and I got acquainted with the 2nd grade students by introducing ourselves to them and sharing one fun fact about ourselves. My fun fact is that I love spending time with my family. :) Many of the children in various groups agreed with me, which warmed my heart. Once we got to know a little bit about our students and vice versa, we assessed our students' prior knowledge on the subject of factories. To my surprise, a number of the students knew a great deal of information about factories. To stimulate group discussion, my partners and I asked the students a few questions like: "What is made in a factory? and Are all factories good?" We asked the second question to help the students relate to and  understand our mentor text, The Lorax. Most of the students knew the background information to this story, which helped them think critically and answer our questions. In the book, there is a factory that cut down trees. We asked the students why this is bad and their answers varied. Some answered, "We need air/oxygen," "The factory is polluting the environment," etc…  I learned a lot about teaching and interacting with my students today. In the future, I will always bring mentor texts and other artifacts to help aid my students' overall success in the classroom.

This is an example of the Artifact Bag Project on the subject of Walt Disney.