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Teacher guide · Phase 1

FIND · Preparation and lesson at a glance

Students examine the story they are given, identify a missing or underrepresented perspective, and write one historical question that evidence could help answer. They do not tell the missing person’s story yet.

Core timing · 15 min proposedOptional activity · Up to 10 min extraStudent page · Open FIND →

Lesson resources

Video

FIND walkthrough

FIND in short

With topic, starting point and short material prepared, use START 2 + LOOK 4 + NOTICE 4 + ASK 4 + close 1. This compressed timing is not classroom-tested. Allow longer when students choose or research the setting during class. The optional AI/no-AI assumptions activity is outside the core.

Collect the question, worksheet and exact starting story for CHECK and later COMPARE.

Before class · Teacher preparation

1Choose a topic and one starting point

Use history already being taught. For the 15-minute route, settle this before START.

  • Event/situation: We are studying [topic]. Today we focus on [event/situation] in [place] around [time].
  • Object: We are studying [topic]. Our object is [object] from [place/time]. We explore it within [event/situation].

Use documented context. A photograph is enough; no museum visit is required. Keep an object’s manufacture date separate from an earlier event it represents.

2Select the story students will examine

Provide one short extract, image with explanatory text, label or clip. Identify the exact page, paragraph, image or time segment. Aim for material students can absorb in about a minute, then save that exact version for COMPARE.

3Check that the perspective is investigable

Have at least one plausible perspective in mind, but let students inspect the material before suggesting it. Prepare an accessible CHECK source pack. Do not promise first-person testimony if none survives. Absence from one account is not proof of absence from all surviving evidence.

4Prepare materials and access

Provide one worksheet per pair, digitally or on paper. An A3 enlargement can help groups use the A4 landscape sheet. If using the optional activity, prepare a school-approved image tool, a teacher-led generation or the no-AI alternative. Omit it when setup would consume the lesson.

Lesson at a glance
  1. START · 2 min. Ask who decides which people and events become part of history. Explain briefly that what survives and is selected is only part of the past.
  2. LOOK · 4 min. Students think alone, then in pairs: what is the story about, who appears, who seems important and why? Collect IN THE STORY without introducing missing people yet.
  3. NOTICE · 4 min. Ask who might have experienced this history but does not appear. Students choose one person/group and explain why the perspective matters and may be difficult to find.
  4. ASK · 4 min. Students form one question. Test only: Could evidence help answer it? Narrow broad questions and remove requests for invented thoughts.
  5. OPTIONAL · up to 10 min. Generate the machine’s guess once before research, or save three no-AI assumptions. The purpose is diagnosis, not evidence.
  6. CLOSE · 1 min. Ask what is known now and what students are tempted to imagine. Carry the question into CHECK.

When students are stuck in NOTICE

Ask: Who did the work? Who was affected? Who had less power? Whose words were less likely to be recorded? Who may have experienced the same event differently? These are prompts, not a checklist of groups that must be missing.

Optional homework

If students collect evidence between sessions, ask for one possible source or a precise reference: what is it, who made it, where was it found and why might it help? Keep a teacher-prepared alternative so research access does not determine participation.

Worked starting points · Choose one relevant context

Greece · Greek Revolution

Focus on the siege and attempted breakout at Missolonghi in 1826. The object route can use Vryzakis’s The Exodus from Missolonghi, painted in 1853. Make the date gap explicit: it is a later interpretation, not an eyewitness photograph. Women and children are visible but do not speak in their own words. A possible inquiry concerns civilian experiences; selected Kasomoulis passages can support CHECK.

Netherlands · Industrialisation and child labour

Focus on the Kinderwetje van Van Houten in 1874. The Rijksmuseum print De fabriekskinderen: “Leve mijnheer van Houten” celebrates the law. It does not explain the experiences of children working in agriculture, which the law did not prohibit. Prepare evidence about agricultural work as well as the law.

Flanders · Early-modern printing

Focus on producing choir books in Plantin’s Antwerp business. The Grande musicque punches and matrices connect the object to production and named makers. A workers’ perspective needs further workshop evidence. The museum entry does not provide an exact manufacture year; do not invent one.

These are contextual examples, not prescribed syllabuses or complete source packs. Confirm the class’s programme and select age-appropriate evidence.