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8.04 Family Tree Assignment

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In the Classroom: Family Tree Assignments

Genealogists have long defined familial relations along bloodlines or marriage. But as the composition of families changes, so too has the notion of who gets a branch on the family tree. Some families now organize their family tree into two separate histories: genetic and emotional. Some schools, where charting family history has traditionally been a classroom project, are now skipping the exercise altogether.

Yes!  The above is from “ Who’s on the Family Tree?  Now It’s Complicated ” in today’s New York Times.  And may I say that the ditching of family history assignments in schools is long overdue.  I’ve always railed against them because they assume an awful lot and marginalize students who may not have traditional family backgrounds, may not know their family history, etc etc etc.  I believe that the family tree assignment came about for a good reason — to bring personal history into the classroom rather than it always being about great men and such. However, it also came about with assumptions about the children in the classroom.  I remember arguing with colleagues who would tell me how children and families were so honored and happy after such an assignment.  All very well, I’d reply, but what about those children who were unable to do it for one reason or another?  They’d be given something else, I was told.  Making them, I’d say, all the more marginalized.

I’ve long been wondering if the changing notions of family are also causing more care with this assignment and was gratified to get the sense from this article that it is being reconsidered.  Good, good, good.

Bottom line: we teachers need to always be very, very, very sensitive to how we invite our students to bring their personal lives into the classroom.  Our reality may be very far from theirs.

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10 responses to “ In the Classroom: Family Tree Assignments ”

100% agree on sensitivity when inviting students’ lives into the classroom. I think a lot of times we can find ways to serve this purpose by inviting more options in rather than by leaving projects out. Just as a small example — the “family tree” assignment can be widened into a choice of visual representations of family history — or a family timeline with a lesson on selecting scale to show five years, or fifty years, or five hundred, as desired.

We can honor children’s different experiences by letting them choose what and how to share, without any sense of stigma or shame or exclusion — we don’t necessarily have to eliminate sharing altogether.

Great to see you here and thanks for weighing in on this. But I’ve got to wonder — I think any sort of family history activity can be difficult for some families. Not all are comfortable bringing their past to school be it five years or fifty. Mine wouldn’t have been, I know that (which is why I’m so sensitive to this issue, no doubt).

I prefer something broader where family history is simply one of many options. Our immigrant oral history project is for the kids to interview any one, sometimes it is a family member and sometimes not.

3 loud cheers for your “bottom line,” Monica.

TOTALLY agree. Families with adopted kids who are still figuring out relationships with birth parents, kids with same-sex parents (every kid-version of a family tree chart I’ve ever seen has had a space for “mother’s side” and “father’s side”), kids being raised by grandparents…for all of them, family history can be FRAUGHT. And if even one kid feels marginalized, why do the assignment when there are so many other options? (I like the interview idea!)

Oh yes, yes, yes. I grew up with a single mother, and while I could fill in a lot of family tree stuff, I remember that once I was given an assignment to interview everyone in my family about their dental habits. I came back with two interviews–myself and my mother–and proceeded to get yelled at by all the kids on my team because I hadn’t provided enough data points for our assignment. “Why didn’t you just ask your dad ?” I can still hear one girl saying, 25 years later.

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I agree! As an ESL teacher, I learned the hard way that my immigrant students rarely even knew their grandparents’ names! These kids had been apart from their extended family for most of their lives and had little connection to them or to their family history. It’s really sad to witness, but unfortunately, that’s how life is for them. I had better luck looking at familial relationships in stories we read! Thanks for this post.

Family tree assignments (esp those that go any deeper than grandparents) priviliges those families that have that information — so you’re good if you have a family member into this, or if you come from a family where there was both literacy (written records) and preservation of records (which implies ability to keep and preserve same, as well as being the member of that generation who got to keep those records.)

And yes, I’ve seen the “I can trace my family back x generations and you can’t,” played out, so it’s not just hypothetical that it impacts what is happening in the classroom/group.

So, yeah — not a fan.

I am torn , my daughter has been givenn a family tree assignment. For us to complete it it leaves us deeply emotional in regard to our loss on both sides of the family. We are more than prepared to talk about the lived ones we have lost, but it also so raw and something I don’t feel should be shared in the classroom at the age of 10 x

Michelle, I’m so sorry. Any chance you could send this link to her teacher?

These trees haunt me years on. At the time, I knew I had grandparents. Other students “proudly” traced lineages to the 1500s and 1200s, and teachers insinuated I hadn’t “tried.” It was awful & if they’ve finally done away with it it’s none too soon.

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Build and edit your family tree; completely free!

Genea is a privacy by design and open source tool anyone can use to author or edit their family tree. Your data is formatted following the GEDCOM specifications so it can be exchanged with other genealogy services. All processing is done in the browser, leaving you in control on where to save your data, avoiding any type of vendor lock-in.

You can use Genea both on your mobile devices as well as on your desktop. The changes you make are persistently stored on your device. To work on your family tree from multiple devices, you can either save the GEDCOM file when you are done and exchange it for example via e-mail or a cloud service like Dropbox, or you can use the built in Git integration which lets you store your work in any private or public repository.

Build and edit your family tree

Create a new family tree from scratch, or start from a GEDCOM file previously exported from other services like MyHeritage, FamilySearch, or Ancestry.

Explore Genea with these sample trees.

Features the Kings and Queens of Europe, including Great Britain. Published back in 1992 by Denis R. Reid it is perhaps a little out of date, but it is a classic.

An excellent collection of the presidents of the US, with their ancestors and descendants updated to 2020 by Paul Stobbe.

Fictional family tree for the Harry Potter series, created by famousfamilytrees.blogspot.com.

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• person Personal Details
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Git Repository

Connect to a Git Repository to load or save your GEDCOM family tree. You can use a hosted service like GitHub or GitLab , or connect to a self hosted repository like Gitea , Gogs , or GitBucket .

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Tackling Family Tree Assignments with an Adopted Child

School is back in full swing, which also means that the dreaded homework assignments are also now a part of parents’ evening routines. But, on top of helping with math and reading assignments, parents are also instrumental in one homework assignment in particular: creating a family tree. These assignments can be difficult enough for any family (tracing lineage isn’t always the easiest task), but when it comes to families who have added to their family through adoption , the assignment is even trickier. After all, how do you create an adoption family tree when the assignment is so focused on the biological aspect of a family relationship? What does a family tree for an adopted child look like? With a little creativity, you can learn how to show adoption on a family tree in a way that’s respectful and makes your child happy. Remember, adoption is always something to be proud of — and there are several ways you can incorporate your child’s unique adoption story into his family tree assignment. Here are some tips if you’re wondering how to show adoption on a family tree:

1. Explore alternative designs for your adoption family tree.

While we’re all familiar with what a typical family tree looks like, you will likely need to be creative with the design when you’re incorporating birth and adoptive families into this assignment. Instead of a traditional tree design, you may wish to look to other adoption family tree templates . For example, some people create a family “forest,” incorporating multiple trees for an adoptee’s birth and adoptive family. Others place an adopted child in the roots of the tree, with different branches representing parents (and smaller branches diverging off of those main ones).

2. Find an alternative activity to complete.

Perhaps an adoption family tree isn’t the most positive experience for your child, especially if they don’t know much about their birth family history . With the permission of your child’s teacher, you may wish to complete a less-literal family tree. You could create a “family meadow,” where you include not only family members but also your neighbors, your community and anyone else who is present in your child’s upbringing. To stay with the family tree theme, your child may instead choose to complete a family tree for a famous person in history, like a president. You can view some other ideas for family tree and history assignments here .

3. Talk to your child’s teacher early on and often.

When you have an adopted child, it’s important that your child’s teacher understands their family situation from the first day of school. This way, they can be inclusive of your child in activities like family trees or genetics lessons that typically emphasize biological connections over any other familial relationship. When your child is assigned a family tree lesson, make sure you express your concerns to their teacher, so they know to expect a slightly different assignment from your child. They may even have suggestions for how to show adoption on a family tree or alternative assignments your child can complete. For the most part, an adopted child’s schooling should not be any different from a child with any other kind of family structure — but it is important to recognize how these structures can affect a child’s ability to complete a certain assignment. There’s not just a different family tree for an adopted child but for any other child who has divorced parents, or a single-parent or other nontraditional household. So, if you do find yourself struggling to complete an adoption family tree, we encourage you to reach out to not only your child’s teacher but also fellow adoptive parents and adoptive parent resources to find out what options are available to you.

Five Reasons to Take Advantage of Adoption Counseling Services

Five ways to support a pregnant friend considering adoption, do orphanages still exist, five signs you are ready to start the adoption process, six ways to educate others about adoption, coping with an adoption disruption, four ways to handle the holidays after placement, four new year’s resolutions for adoptive parents.

Creating a Family

Supporting Adoptive, Foster, & Kinship Families

It Is Time to Uproot the Old Family Tree Assignment!

Occasionally, we offer guest posts by experts in foster care, adoption, and kinship care. Katie Biron has been a caregiver (licensed foster parent) and adoptive parent for the past 17 years. She is also the co-creator and Program Manager of the Family Connections Program™ at Amara , which seeks to reduce the trauma experienced by these children by supporting and facilitating a positive relationship between the child’s parents and caregivers.

We are grateful to offer this guest article from Katie about the family tree assignments that many adoptive, foster, and kinship families face when they send their kids back to school .

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You may still be enjoying long, leisurely summer days, but before you know it, the back-to-school frenzy will be here again. After you successfully ease into the routine of making lunches, convincing kids to do homework, and all the other fun stuff that comes with a new school year, you can kick back, grab a cup of coffee, and take a few minutes to yourself, right?

Not so fast! Foster, kinship, and adoptive families have one more thing to add to their lists: get ahead of the school projects that strike fear into the hearts of “nontraditional” families everywhere – those dreaded family tree assignments ! These school projects frequently get assigned during the elementary school years. They come in varied formats and often look so innocent on paper: fill the boxes with your family members. Easy, right?

There’s No Right Way to Do The Family Tree Assignment

As a parent caring for children touched by family separation, I know this assignment is difficult. I remember when this project first came home, my child bounced through the door — excited to tell me all about it. But the excitement lighting up my child’s face quickly turned to frustration when they realized there was no way to represent their first and adoptive family on the tree as it was assigned.

With a family formed through open adoption , my child felt there was no way to do this assignment “right.” To fill out the tree worksheet the way it was designed, they had to choose certain family members and leave out others. I did my best to help my child navigate the assignment, reassuring them it was absolutely okay to pick their first mama over me. I clarified that being left off their tree would not hurt my feelings. But this solution didn’t feel right to my child. Instead of the intended purpose of the lesson, which was to learn about their family, my child became increasingly discouraged. I muddled through the aftermath alone and allowed my child to put aside the assignment. At the same time, I scheduled a conversation with their teacher.

Since then, I have found that our experience was anything but unique. I have seen this topic in countless foster and adoption social media groups. Parents grapple with the best way to help their child cope with the feelings of grief and loss that surface with this assignment. There are added layers of complexity for children experiencing foster or kinship care. The projects often make our children feel like they must choose between revealing to classmates that they do not live with their parents or lying about their family’s makeup. Neither is a good or acceptable solution.

Advocating for Your Foster or Kinship Child at School

Educating the Educators About Family Tree Assignments

The good news is that there is hope! As a parent, you can help your child’s teacher and other school staff learn that many families look different from traditional families. This is true for children experiencing foster care, kinship care, adoption, and many other families. We must help teachers understand why these assignments can be so complex for some children. We can direct our kids’ teachers to more inclusive resources representing all families.

Fortunately, there are several great resources to support you in this effort. As an adoptive mom and professional working in the field, I frequently recommend tools to give families a way to talk to educators about the concerns with this assignment. You will find alternative, more inclusive family-based school projects within these resources. 

1. The Love Tree * – a children’s book

After witnessing so many foster and adoptive parents searching unsuccessfully for a children’s book about this topic, I authored The Love Tree * to make it easy for both parents and teachers to help children learn that not all families look the same. (You can find a link and book review in the CreatingaFamily.org Suggested Books lists.)

The Love Tree * uses beautiful watercolor illustrations to introduce readers to Little Mouse, a young adoptee struggling to incorporate his first family and adoptive family into the family tree worksheet his teacher sent home. When he breaks down in tears, Mama Fox helps him create a new tree – a Love Tree -which is big enough to include everyone he considers part of his family!

The book also includes an inclusive Love Tree template for readers and teachers to use instead of the traditional family tree model. This would be an excellent gift for your child’s teachers to start the school year!

Download your free guide, Parenting a Child Exposed to Trauma, when you subscribe to our newsletter .

2. Family Connections Program Tidbit Training

For many teachers, having a student impacted by foster care or adoption in their classroom can be a new experience. Others may be somewhat familiar with these topics but lack the knowledge needed to support students who have experienced trauma related to family separation. All teachers – including art and PE specialists, special education staff, school counselors, and more – must understand how foster care and adoption can impact students. It is not usually possible for parents to carve out enough time to have the in-depth conversations necessary to share this information with teachers.

Recognizing this need, the Family Connections Program at Amara created a training designed specifically for academic staff. Supporting Students with Foster Care or Adoption Experience in the Classroom is a fun, self-paced, and interactive training they can access by mobile and desktop devices. Each module provides teachers and staff with a solid knowledge base about some of the emotions and behaviors they may encounter from students who have experienced trauma related to family separation.

The training also offers several tips and tricks for creating a classroom environment that includes all types of families. Instead of writing lengthy emails or scheduling several meetings, parents can provide the link for teachers so they can take this training at their convenience. You might even offer a sweet treat or coffee as thanks for giving their time to support your child better!

Thank you, Katie, for your insight and the practical tools to help families navigate these assignments. We’re grateful to find new ways to help kids process, share their family stories, and feel comfortable with their choices.

Below is one more type of resource that we’d like to add to Katie’s suggestions!

3. Connection and Community

Finally, another vital tool to help you navigate these assignments is to seek and build connections with other families like yours. Surrounding yourself with the support and lived experience of other parents, caregivers, adoptees, or former foster youth can help you guide your child through the projects that might feel sticky. CreatingaFamily.org has an active online community where members, including adult adoptees, share their experiences and lessons learned. You can be assured this topic comes up often , and many creative solutions have been offered for families like yours. You can find additional resources to help you learn from adoptees and foster alum at our new resource page, Adoptee Voices .

CreatingaFamily.org also offers online support groups for parents and caregivers. They meet once a month by video call for interactive training and support, including content from experts in the adoption, foster, and kinship spaces. If you are interested in one of those groups, reach out to CreatingaFamily.org at [email protected].

Hopefully, these resources will help you feel more prepared to navigate these conversations with your child’s school team. Now that you have added this to your Back-to-School To-Do list, it is time to finish that cup of coffee.

*As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases but only recommend books we value. Thanks for your support.

Categories: Adoption Adoption Blog Blog Fostering Fostering Blog Kinship Kinship Blog

Tag: Adoptive Parenting , Foster Care Adoption , Fostering , Infant Adoption , International Adoption , Learning Differences , Open Adoption

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