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Phase 6 · Reflect

What changed — and what can we still not know?

How did evidence change the story you were able to tell? Put the story you started with and your final work beside each other. Keep your sources and earlier sheets available.

Suggested time · 35 min · about 45 with Two PortraitsFocus · Historical reasoning, not visual polishFinish with · What the evidence taught you

Lesson resources

Video

REFLECT walkthrough

1. RETURN TO THE BEGINNING

Look at the story from FIND, your first ideas about the missing perspective and your final story. Do not ask only which looks better. Ask: What can we defend now that we could not defend in FIND?

  • AT THE BEGINNING… I thought…
  • NOW… The evidence shows…
  • I CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT…
  • WE STILL DON’T KNOW…

Complete the last box too.

2. TWO PORTRAITS · Only if you made an initial image or assumption sketch

Place your machine’s guess or assumption sketch from FIND beside your final representation. If you did not make one, move to step 3. Do not generate one now.

  • What did you assume about age, clothing, wealth, health, skin colour, expression, surroundings, work, gender roles or possessions?
  • Which assumptions did the evidence correct?
  • Which parts could you support?
  • Which things do you still not know?
  • What did the machine, or you, fill in simply because something had to appear?
3. EXCHANGE · Challenge another story

Exchange final stories with another pair or group. Ask:

  1. What is the main idea of this story?
  2. Show us one part strongly supported by evidence.
  3. Show us one place where you want to ask: How do you know?

The creators respond: WE KNOW — because… / WE THINK — because… / WE DON’T KNOW — so we changed, marked or removed it.

This is not a competition for the best-looking story. Can the interpretation be traced to evidence?

4. CAN TWO DIFFERENT STORIES BOTH BE DEFENSIBLE?

Compare two stories about the same or related history. Did they tell exactly the same story? Does a difference automatically mean one is wrong?

Evidence-based stories may differ because they use different perspectives, sources, questions, emphasis or interpretations. Different does not mean anything goes. Both must answer: What evidence supports this?

5. WHAT DID AI OR YOUR OTHER TOOLS ACTUALLY DO?

If you used AI · complete OUR AI CHECK

  • AI helped us…
  • AI got wrong / made up / oversimplified…
  • We checked it by…
  • One thing we decided not to use from AI was…
  • Something we could have done without AI was…

If one of these does not apply, say so. Do not invent a mistake to fill the box.

Was AI the source of your historical knowledge? No. The evidence was.

LOW-AI ROUTEIf you worked without AI, answer this instead
  • Which tools helped you investigate and create the story?
  • What could those tools do?
  • What could they not decide for you?

Tools support inquiry. You remain responsible for historical judgement.

6. THE FINAL QUESTION

Put the original story beside the final work. Did you recover the untold story? Discuss: yes, partly or no, and explain why.

You did not recover everything this person thought, felt or experienced. You investigated a perspective the starting story left out and reconstructed what the surviving evidence allows you to say. Some things became clearer. Some remain uncertain. Some may never be known.

CHECKComplete the curriculum

The most important thing I learned from the evidence was…