Student curriculum

Bring an untold story from history to life

Begin with the story you are given. Investigate a perspective it leaves out, work from evidence and create a story you can defend.

Sequence · 6 phasesTools · Paper and pens to optional AIOutput · Simple story to polished production

Introduction

Video

Untold Stories curriculum overview

Start here for a short introduction to the curriculum and its learning journey.

One investigation, flexible route

Keep the same historical setting, question, evidence and claim as you move through the six phases. Your teacher may run a shorter route or give the project more time. After COMPARE, an optional UNDERSTAND extension helps you examine the world people could know and act within before you start DRAFT.

AI is optional. It can support parts of the work, but it is never the source of your historical knowledge. Evidence decides what you may claim.

The six phases

The phases are not fixed lesson periods. Preparation, optional work and your CREATE format determine how long the full project takes.

Phase 1

FIND

Examine the story you are given, notice whose perspective is missing and turn the gap into a question evidence can help answer.

~15 min + optional activityNotice the missing perspective

Phase 2

CHECK

Identify the actual sources, ask what each can and cannot establish, and separate what you know, think and do not know.

~50 minTest what the evidence can tell you

Phase 3

COMPARE

Compare the starting story with the perspective you investigated, build a claim and explain why the difference matters.

45–50 min + optional extensionPut two perspectives side by side

Phase 4

DRAFT

Turn your claim into a five-part plan, connect every important moment to evidence and keep uncertainty visible.

45–50 minPlan the story and evidence together

Phase 5

CREATE

Create a reel, comic, game or unplugged story from the checked draft. The tools may change; the evidence standard does not.

Depends on formatMake the story in a fitting format

Phase 6

REFLECT

Return to the starting story, challenge another interpretation and account for what your evidence and tools could not decide.

35–45 minExplain what changed and what remains unknown

Choose one CREATE format

The format serves the historical idea. Everyone follows the same evidence standard, whether the final story is digital, recorded, performed or made on paper.

🎬

A Reel

A 5-8 second video sequence with a character voice. Vlog or documentary framing.

~4 hours · 4 steps

📓

A Comic Book

Panel-by-panel comic with a chosen art style and lettered speech bubbles.

~2h 15min · 4 steps

🎮

A Game / Simulation

A small interactive web game where the audience faces your character's decision.

~2h 30min · 4 steps

✏️

An Unplugged / Low-AI Story

A written or illustrated narrative, poster, live reading or recorded audio made with ordinary classroom tools.

Flexible time · AI optional

Already using the previous curriculum?

The complete previous student curriculum is preserved at student curriculum v2. The earlier v1 materials are also available in the archive. Finish the version your class started with.