Keeping Us in Stitches Activity: Be a Quilt Detective
Purpose:
to help the students understand that history is recorded in a handmade object.
This is a
quilt-based
activity similar to the historical research activity in the Behind the Scenes
unit.
Detective
work similar to this could be carried out on other historical objects.
Illinois
State Museum Web site used: http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/art/htmls/ks.html
Objective:
students will be able to find information about quilt identity
from
written sources, online sources, and people, condense and rewrite this
information
in the form of a report or exhibit label, and tell about newly
discovered
family history uncovered during their research.
Grade
Level: 6-10
Time
Required: one class period (with quilter help), or two class periods
(online
and with library loans), homewrok assignment to interview owner.
Materials:
*
one
antique or family quilt per student or group (if there aren't enough, perhaps
a
quilt
guild or quilting group could help)
*
list
of online sources and written quilt resources to be acquired from interlibrary
loan
*
list
of people to contact, like experts, family members, quilters
Motivation:
Information about family objects gets lost because we do not ask questions of
the
owners
soon enough. The older family members get too ill to answer the questions, documents
are
lost,
or the object and the family member with the information become separated. A
little piece
of
history is lost when this happens.
There
are interesting stories to be heard from the people who made or used the quilts.
These stories
are
often associated with events or people in family members' lives. Class members
can learn about
their
families and friends while researching a quilt. The information can be published
as an exhibit
label
for a class quilt show or in some other form of writing determined by the teacher.
Information
gleaned
from the research can add to a written history of the owners of the quilts.
Procedure:
Students view ISM online quilt unit, visit other quilting web sites, read books
about
quilting,
brainstorm about aspects of a quilt that might tell them when it was made, by
whom, of
what
materials, in what design, for whom, etc.
interview
the owner of the quilt to determine origin, maker, date, family stories.
take
notes along the way.
resolve
conflicts in information.
come
to conclusions based on information.
write
up conclusions as a report for all members, go through the editing process
Keeping Us in Stitches Activity: Be a Quilt Detective,
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