Investigating Evidence

Overview

In this fifth lesson of Stories That Sustain Knowledge, students investigate how knowledge is preserved through oral, written, and visual sources. Building on earlier learning about knowledge systems and source types, they work collaboratively to identify evidence, record details accurately, and consider reliability, purpose, and perspective.

Learning intentions

• WALT use sources to investigate how knowledge has been preserved.
• WALT identify a source’s type, purpose, and perspective.
• WALT record evidence accurately and explain its significance.
• WALT evaluate one strength and one limitation of a source.

Success criteria

• I can identify whether a source is oral, written, or visual and explain its purpose.
• I can record relevant evidence and source details accurately.
• I can explain one strength and one limitation of a source.
• I can listen to others and contribute evidence-based ideas.

Curriculum links

• Social Sciences — Years 7–8: using sources to examine perspectives, analyse responses, engage in dialogue, and communicate understanding.
• History / Global History: examining how technological advances in navigation, military power, and communication affected the preservation and sharing of knowledge.
• Social Sciences — Years 7–8: exploring historical challenges and concepts such as identity, power, and change.
• Key competencies: thinking; relating to others; participating and contributing; managing self.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–6 min · Hook and retrieval. Open with the hook and retrieval slides showing three ways knowledge might be passed on: a person speaking, a written record, and an image or map. Students silently answer: “Which source would you trust most, and why?” then share with a partner. Connect responses to previous learning about how knowledge is sustained.

2. 6–15 min · Explicit teaching. Use the source-analysis teaching slides to model analysis of one short source about navigation. Think aloud while identifying its type, creator or knowledge holder, audience, purpose, key evidence, perspective, strength, and limitation. Clarify that reliability is not the same as “true or false”: students should ask what the source can show, what it cannot show, and whose viewpoint may be missing.

3. 15–20 min · Group set-up. Organise 30 students into six groups of five and assign defined roles: facilitator, reader or listener, evidence recorder, source checker, and reporter. Distribute the source investigation pack and analysis organiser. Explain that each group will examine a set of oral, written, and visual sources on one shared theme: navigation, food gathering, weather knowledge, or environmental care.

4. 20–42 min · Collaborative investigation. Display the investigation instructions and question prompts while groups analyse their sources. Students sort each source as oral, written, or visual; record title or description, creator or knowledge holder, date or context where available, and the evidence it provides. They then discuss purpose, intended audience, perspective, reliability, one strength, and one limitation. The teacher circulates, asks “What in the source makes you think that?” and checks that students distinguish observation from inference.

5. 42–53 min · Evidence meeting. Show the discussion and reporting prompts. Each group prepares a two-minute report identifying which source best preserves knowledge about its theme and justifying the decision with at least two pieces of evidence. Groups report while classmates record one idea they agree with and one question or alternative perspective.

6. 53–60 min · Plenary and exit check. Return to the opening question using the plenary slides. Students complete the final section of the individual reflection and exit response: “One source strength is… One limitation is… The source is useful for investigating… because…” Collect responses to identify who can evaluate evidence independently.

Resources

• the complete investigation slide deck
• the source investigation pack and analysis organiser
• Six mixed source sets: oral transcript or audio excerpt, written account, and visual source
• Theme labels: navigation, food gathering, weather, environmental care
• Projector or interactive display
• Highlighters or coloured pencils
• Timer
• Group role labels or board display

Assessment

• During modelling, check whether students can distinguish source type, purpose, evidence, and inference.
• During group work, listen for evidence-based reasoning and use the analysis organiser to identify gaps in recording or evaluation.
• Use the exit response to assess whether each student can explain a source’s strength, limitation, and usefulness.

Differentiation

• Provide the scaffolded source-analysis organiser with labelled prompts, a worked example, sentence starters, and a word bank for students who need support.
• Offer differentiated source texts: shorter extracts, clearer layouts, transcripts alongside audio, and visual sources with brief contextual captions. Provide read-aloud support and allow students to listen more than once.
• Use defined group roles, mixed-confidence grouping, paired reading, and oral rehearsal before writing. Accept spoken responses or scribed ideas where appropriate for students with writing, processing, or motor needs.
• Prompt deeper thinking with questions such as “Whose voice is present?”, “Whose voice is absent?”, and “What would we need to check this source against?” EAL learners may discuss ideas first and use sentence frames such as “This source is useful because…” and “Its limitation is…”.

Extension

• Students triangulate three sources and explain how they confirm, extend, or challenge one another.
• Students write a short recommendation identifying which source or combination of sources should be used to preserve knowledge about the group’s theme, with evidence-based reasons.