Curriculum Level: 9-12
Students will consider the many ways stories are communicated, not just through words, but also through material culture, to consider how identity is created based on the objects and architecture that surround us today and in the past. Archaeologists call these objects “artifacts” when referring to material culture recovered from an archaeological site where people once lived. This lesson will connect the past to the present by asking students to research ancient artifacts and then read a contemporary American Indian story. Students will then apply what they have learned to write their own stories based on an object/artifact or resource from their own lives. This lesson is placed at the end of a short story unit.