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Classroom Practice/Program

A lesson approach to genealogy
makes it easier to integrate the concept
and the linked notion of respect
throughout the curriculum. Also, a
lesson approach allows for greater
individualization so that activities
are age- and grade-appropriate.
Specific content-area
applications could include but are
not limited to the following:
• Writing: taking notes; keeping
records; recording family stories;
journaling research progress.
• Social Studies: exploring countries
and cultures represented by family
origins; mapping countries of
origin; tracing lines of immigration;
understanding government records.
• Math: determining cousin
relationships and generations.
• Reading: selecting books about
different family types; reading resource
materials and records; adding words to
vocabulary.
• Technology: developing Internet
search abilities; learning to validate
source materials.
• Art: diagramming family trees and
immigration lines.
Family ©
Watercolor painting • Music: listening to music that is representative of the family background and/or
by Betty Oliver, VA; era in which ancestors lived.
Fall 2021 Art Gallery • History: adding notes on events current at the time ancestors lived; creating a
timeline.
• Science: studying the genetics of DNA (for example, for eye and hair color);
in the broader sense, tracing the origins of plant and animal development from
generation to generation.
In the lesson approach, students can be encouraged to make notes appropriate to
their family genealogy as they find information throughout all curricular activities.
As individual lessons conclude, asking students if anything they studied added to
their information on personal genealogy will encourage sharing with the group and
enhance the further development of respect for others who are sharing their findings.
Vocabulary can be developed as investigation proceeds. Again, specific
age-, grade-, and subject-appropriate implementation is at the discretion
of the teacher. Suggested grade level genealogy vocabulary includes
• elementary school level: parent/grandparent, brother/sister, cousin, aunt/uncle,
family, family tree, history, research, certificate, biological, identical/fraternal,
characteristic.

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