The BackStory Project
Our philosophy is as Gandhi said “Each one, teach one!”; our goal is to spread knowledge and build connections between people and their stories.
Through turnkey training modules, teachers guide students to use the arts to chronicle the stories of their ancestors, families, and communities — expressing personal events, memories, legacies.
What's Your BackStory?
StoryBoardsnw has produced “Lost Underground” – the personal memories of family and friends affected by Mao’s Cultural Revolution. These stories might well have been lost but instead give us firsthand accounts of dramatic upheaval in China. History records the big events, families and individuals record the human experience and toll.
The Backstory project encourages all of us to explore the past through our own families, so that we all might learn more about not only who we are but why. Where did family journeys begin, what was learned along the way, and who were the ancestors or influential people who contributed or hindered the journey?
Over the next few months, a series of questions will be posted bi-weekly to encourage individuals, families, groups to seek answers about their elders. Record the findings –on paper, voice recordings, photos – any way that will help preserve the stories. There is also a curriculum on the website for groups or classes to follow – free for anyone to use all or parts. Should you have a special story to tell or a comment about your process, you may send it via storyboardsnwsocialmedia@gmail.com. Appropriate content will be posted on the website.
- What is your BackStory?
- Where do your ancestors come from and how far back is their history known?
- What cultural traditions are part of your family or community circle events/celebrations? Are the traditions from cultures of your ancestry or were they adopted from other cultures/friends or communities?
- Is there a family recipe that has been passed down by older generations? Do you know the history of that recipe? Who in the family is the keeper of that recipe? Who is the best maker of the recipe?
- What is a family story that is retold often? Who knows the origin of that story? Is it humorous or is it a serious story? Is there a lesson in the story?
- What do you know about your grandparents? What is the earliest memory you have of your grandparents? What are the stories told about them if you did not know them?
- Where did your grandparents grow up? What was their childhood home and neighborhood like?
- Where did they go to school? Who were their best friends? Were they good students? Who was their favorite teacher?
- What did your grandparents do for a living? What special skills are they known for?
- Where have your grandparents traveled?
- What is their favorite holiday memory growing up?
- What historical events happened during their lifetime? And how did it affect them?
- What was a political event that impacted your grandparents?
- What is the coolest invention they experienced?
- What questions do you have for your parents? Or someone who was important in your life growing up?
- Where did they grow up? How many siblings were in the family?
- What was high school like for your parents? Did they play sports? Did they belong to any social groups? Who were their best friends?
- What games, toys, or radio/TV shows did they love as a child?
- Did they have a nickname growing up, and how did they get it?
- What was their favorite subject or teacher in school? And why?
- What chores or responsibilities did they have? What was their favorite job?
- How did they meet?
- What dreams did they have growing up and did they follow them?
- What is the best piece of advice they have ever received?
- What is their proudest moment or achievement?
- What are the family values they have passed along?
- What were the biggest challenges early in life, and who offered support?
- What was a political event that impacted either your mom or dad?
- Do you have a relative you wish you knew better?
- Are there other people in your neighborhood or community who you looked up to?
- What values did your family teach you and where do you think those values came from?
- What was your neighborhood like, and does it resemble any of those in your family?
- What do you know about your family health history?
- What communication methods have influenced your family and their relationships?
- Children who know even something about their history have a higher self-esteem / self-identity.
- Promotes positive relationships
- A way to learn social values
- Pride
- Compassion
- Helps put world/local history in perspective – how events affected individuals/family. History books only record the wide, overall view. Recording the affects on individuals or specific groups makes history personal.
We are using an adaptation of the Vanier Institute's definition: a family consists of any combination of two or more people, bound together over time, by ties of mutual consent and/or birth, adoption or placement, and who take responsibility for various activities of daily living, including love.
THANK YOU FOR
JOINING OUR
ONLINE TEACHER WORKSHOP
In support of our oral history curriculum.
The one-hour BackStory curriculum workshop was held on:
Saturday, March 29, 2025,
at 9:00am Pacific /12:00pm Eastern.
The BackStory Project has been created as part of StoryBoardsnw and is supported in part by:
and Jack Straw Cultural Center, Strom Jewish Community Center and private contributions.
🎉 Missed it or want to review the materials?
You can now view the presentation slides here:
👉 Click to view slides
Educators of all kinds, Parents, Librarians, Artists,
Organizations, Volunteers, Grandparents
– Thank You!
We appreciate your participation in our
BackStory Oral History Curriculum Workshop.
During the workshop, participants explored their own family histories while learning how to adapt BackStory’s oral history curriculum for their students.
💡 Want to learn more about the project?
Check out the full project overview here:
👉 Project Overview the BackStory Curriculum.
All participants received access to the full curriculum and continued online implementation support.
Let’s keep the stories going!
For more information, contact us at:
education.storyboard@gmail.com
BackStory in the Classroom
Using an Oral History approach, our Common Core-aligned instructional materials support teachers as they guide students to learn and implement the skills and art of oral history.
Our curriculum has been piloted to three groups of students in New York City with roots and family stories all over the world, and your students will find themselves deeply engaged as they identify the people most important to them, sharpen research and interview techniques, reflect, and present their interviews with the pride and appreciation that meaningful work produces.
Click here to access the BackStory Curriculum. All documents are Google-based, and can be copied and modified for your own classroom needs.
Our outreach program is supported by grants and the contributions of supporters here online, StoryBoardsnw.org intends to nurture and grow this practice for years to come.
We look forward to extending our scope to a wider range of schools and other institutions of learning, such as museums, salons, and groups with religious, tribal, gender, and military affiliations.
