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Phase 1 · Find

What story are we usually told — and who is missing?

Examine a short historical story, notice whose perspective is missing or barely visible, and turn that gap into a question you can investigate with evidence.

Core time · About 15 minutesOptional activity · Up to 10 extra minutesKeep · Starting story + question

Lesson resources

Video

FIND walkthrough

Your starting point

Use the event, situation or object agreed with your teacher. Read the completed starting sentence and open the short text, image or video provided. If you begin with an object, use its documented place, time and historical setting. Keep this material for COMPARE.

1. START · History tells stories

2 minutes. Brief class discussion.

When we learn about the past, who decides which people and events become part of the story?

History is not everything that happened in the past. What survives, and what gets included in textbooks, museums, films and websites, is only part of the story. You will investigate a perspective that the story you are given leaves out.

2. LOOK · What’s the story we’re given?

4 minutes. Read, look or watch carefully. Think individually, then compare answers in pairs.

  • What is this story mainly about?
  • Who appears in the story?
  • Who seems important? Why?

As a class, make a quick list headed IN THE STORY. Include visible names, groups, events and perspectives. Look for missing perspectives in NOTICE.

3. NOTICE · Who isn’t here?

4 minutes. Begin with a moment of quiet thinking.

Who might have experienced this history but does not appear in this account?

Here, “this account” means the text, image or video you just examined.

Complete WHO’S MISSING?

  • A person or group that might be missing or barely visible: [your answer].
  • Why might their perspective matter?
  • Why might their perspective be difficult to find?

Discuss the difference between someone being left out of this particular story and a lack of surviving evidence about them.

4. ASK · Turn the gap into a question

4 minutes. Write one question.

What do we want to find out?

Question frames

  • What can surviving evidence tell us about the experiences of women working in [place/time]?
  • How might [group] have experienced [event], and what evidence allows us to say that?

The first frame can be adapted to the person or group chosen in NOTICE.

Avoid questions that are too broad, such as “What was life like in the past?”, or require invention, such as “What did Maria secretly dream about?”

CHECKCould evidence help us answer this question?

Yes / Not yet — we need to change it.

5. OPTIONAL AI ACTIVITY · The machine’s guess

Up to 10 additional minutes. Do this before researching if you choose to use it.

Generate one image using only this prompt:

Generate once · do not improve the prompt
Create an image of [person/group] in [place and period].

Generate it once. Do not research clothing or correct the image. Ask: How does the AI know any of this? Label it THE MACHINE’S GUESS. Save it and do not fix it. You may revisit it after investigating the evidence.

LOW-AI ROUTENo image tool? Save your assumptions instead.

Without researching, quickly sketch or write three things you imagine about this person’s appearance or life. Save those assumptions to challenge later.

End of FIND

1 minute. Close the core activity here, or after the optional activity.

  • What do we know about our missing perspective right now?
  • What are we tempted to imagine?

You want to tell more of the story without pretending you know things the evidence cannot tell you. Next, you start checking.