Source Type 4 - Reading a Plaque or Monument

Project a plaque close-up. 30-second silent noticing. Mark the bronze plate, the inscription, the date.

• Affirm silent noticing
• Highlight the date

Today we meet Source Type 4: the PLAQUE or MONUMENT. A plaque is a small bronze or stone marker with engraved words. A monument is a larger structure. Both are primary sources. They commemorate - that means they honor a person, place, or event with words made to last. Today's question: WHO authored this plaque? WHEN? WHAT names are on it? AND - what does it NOT say? Sometimes what's missing tells us as much as what's there.

• Omission is itself evidence.

  model 'In honor of Captain James Bowditch, who founded this town in 1798.' Named: Bowditch. Not named: the local Indigenous people who were here before, the enslaved people who worked the land, the women in his household.

  prompt Read this plaque text. Who is named? Who is NOT?

• What does commemorate mean?
• What might a plaque NOT say?

M-3-F-HIS-10-A Photograph

Set of 4 close-up photographs 8x10 of real local plaques (teacher-localized). Each photo shows the full bronze or stone plaque with all text legible. Source lines on each: location address + sponsoring body. The 4-plaque set deliberately includes: (1) a founder/explorer commemoration; (2) a civic-rights commemoration; (3) a building/landmark commemoration; (4) one that names a marginalized voice (e.g., Underground Railroad station, Indigenous community marker, suffragist marker, labor-union marker).

• In pairs, close-read 1 plaque transcription. Mark the named individuals + dates + sponsoring body.
• List 2-3 things the plaque does NOT say.

M-3-F-HIS-10-B Diagram

8.5x11 portrait worksheet. Top half: photo of plaque + transcribed inscription in larger 16pt for read-aloud accessibility. Bottom half: 5 boxes - WHO IS NAMED, WHEN, WHO AUTHORED, WHAT IT SAYS, WHAT IT DOES NOT SAY. Sentence frames in each box. Companion MG-3 Source Detective Card.

MG-3 Chart

One physical card per child + a wall-sized version of the same card. Used in lessons 6-12 on every source type. Children fill in the card on a printed worksheet OR write directly on a laminated card with dry-erase. The four-box layout is INTENTIONAL - it makes the historian's discipline visible and routine.

• Name 1 thing this plaque SAYS. Name 1 thing this plaque does NOT say.

• Add 'commemorate', 'plaque' to Word Wall
• Preview: tomorrow we observe a building

• Walk past one plaque in your area (statue, building, park, marker). Note the date and one named person.