Sherry LAE4335

AAA – Artifact Analysis Assignment

Purpose
To learn how to complete core tasks of ELA teaching by analyzing examples from classrooms
Big Questions: What makes good ELA practice
Rationale
Like many professions, teaching English Language Arts includes some common tasks teachers
complete regularly: planning a lesson, organizing writing instruction, facilitating a discussion,
guiding peer review, responding to student writing, etc. By looking at
artifacts related to these tasks, you will begin to understand not only how they work, but
how to do them in a way that suits your own style.
Assignment
1. Every few weeks, you will be responsible for analyzing an “artifact” (an object from a particular
cultural/historical context) of classroom practice within a particular category. For example:
o A curriculum of readings/assignments for a grade-level year
o A get-to-know you questionnaire used by a teacher to learn about her students
o A guided peer-review handout
o A rubric
2. Three groups will rotate responsibility for the following roles: 1. Find and analyze an artifact by
answering some standard questions and then post to CANVAS; 2. Respond to the class set of artifacts
(e.g., all the posted peer-review sheets) and then post to CANVAS; 3. Relax and do nothing for that week.
For example, a two-week period might look like this:
Week 1 Week 2
Group 1 – 12 people find and analyze an Group 1 – 12 people relax and do nothing
artifact (a peer review sheet); post to CANVAS
Group 2 – 12 people read all of Group 1’s posts Group 2 – 12 people find and analyze an
and respond; post to CANVAS artifact (a rubric); post to CANVAS
Group 3 – 12 people relax and do nothing. Group 2 – 12 people read all of Group 2’s posts
and respond; post to CANVAS

3. The artifact-posting group will find and analyze one artifact using the following set of standard
questions (based on the 5Ws + H) to and post to CANVAS:
1) What is this artifact?
 Sherry LAE4335
2) Who made it, and for whom?
3) When was it made?
4) Where did it come from?
5) Why was it created (for what purpose)?
6) How well does it accomplish that purpose? (is it a “good one”? Why or why not?)
7) As a student/teacher, what do you like/not like about this artifact as an example of its kind?
8) What, if anything, would you change or add when you used it as a teacher, and why?
9) What does this artifact suggest about
i. What we should teach in high-school ELA?
ii. How we should teach in high-school ELA?
iii. What ELA students are capable of (at this level)?
10) What else, if anything, do we need to know to understand this artifact?

4. The responding group will respond to all the posted artifacts using the following set of standard
questions:
1) What common characteristics do they share? What significant differences stand out?
2) Why might these similarities/differences be important?
3) What criteria might one use to evaluate this type of artifact? (What makes a “good one”?)
4) Together, what do these artifacts suggest about
i) What we should teach in high-school ELA?
ii) How we should teach in high-school ELA?
iii) What ELA students are capable of (at this level)?

Assessment

Criteria (Artifact Analysis & Responses) 5 4 3 2 1
Complete: Includes an artifact that fits the requirement

Thorough: Thoroughly answers all the questions

Specific: Attends to specific details of the artifact(s); goes beyond generalizations

Personal: Makes connections to one’s own perspectives and practices as student/teacher