I’ve been studying the work of Dr. Gholdy Muhammad for several years by watching webinars, reading and re-reading her Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally Responsive and Historically Responsive Literacy, and this year by working alongside her in a year long in-depth study of her work and how to use the Historically Responsive Literacy framework. In the past I’ve integrated the framework into lessons and last week I started my first unit plan using the tool. I’m excited to share some of my thoughts in this post.

I selected a writing unit for my plan because writing is my strength and easiest for me to think of writing units thematically and responsively. It’s true what is said, that for our youngest achievers and adult learners, it is important to start with assets and strengths; this is motivating and supports persistence through new challenges. Fortunately Dr. Muhammad is generous in sharing examples of her unit plans, both at https://hillpedagogies.com/resources/ and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/GholdyM); these offer a useful scaffold for unit and lesson planning.

In my unit, on writing about reading, I started with the learners (who I also refer to as achievers and dreamers). By considering the racial, linguistic, interest, goal, and asset diversity that dreamers bring to the community, I was able to think of a Spark to open the unit. This provided authenticity and relevance to the unit ahead. Note that Zaretta Hammond (Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students) also talks about the importance of a Provocation or Spark to open a lesson or unit. I also examined my own identity and how my identity impacts my teaching; what biases do I need to examine, and how do I want to show up for my students?

Next I looked through the curricular resource provided for the unit and studied the teaching points and the Wisconsin ELA Standards; however I didn’t select priority standards yet. First I wanted to think about the other aspects of Muhammad’s framework and write goals around these. The framework includes:

• Joy: How will the learning spark and nurture joy? How does the instruction help students see joy in themselves and others?
• Criticality: How will the instruction help students think about power, equity, and disruption of  oppression?
• Intellectualism: How will students build knowledge and mental powers?
• Identity: How will students learn more about themselves and others (both in the content and the processes used)? Whose identities, voices, histories, and experiences are centered in the unit?
• Skills: How will students learn more about the content area/s? (This comes last for my planning, and is based on standards and how I see the unit priorities for this group of students.)

In my unit plan, I wrote a goal or two for each of the pursuits above. This enabled me to select mentor texts. As I chose the texts, I refined the goals to be more specific based on the texts. Dr. Muhammad writes about using multimodal layered texts. This is an extremely important point. Texts include art, music, images, timelines, short and long pieces, fiction and non-fiction. By using multimodal texts both as a way to access and critique information AND as a way to share learning, we are honoring all of the ways that literacy can empower, inform, and bring joy. This is where the intersection of culture, justice, and Universal Design occurs.The texts selected provide windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors (Rudine Sims Bishop) and a variety of perspectives. I had to have a strong “Why” to use a text in the unit.

Next, I considered the lessons in the unit and the vocabulary focus. Vocabulary can include content words, words found in the texts, and words around the five components of the framework. How would I support understanding of the concepts/words, in a way that will support a learner identity and empowerment? In a way that is authentic and will lead to transfer of understanding over time?

Lastly, I thought about closing and assessment. How will each lesson and the unit close in a way that highlights and celebrates the learning and the students? How will I intentionally choose a variety of ways to share that equalize the voices and ideas of all the students? What varied assessments will I use in order to inform my next steps as an educator, around the specific goals of the unit? This can include multimodal representations where students choose the best way to showcase their work. Learning and assessment will be deepest if I provide clear criteria for success through a rubric, checklist, and/or by revisiting the unit or lesson goals.

Using this framework is energizing and exciting. I look forward to providing the instruction to students and gathering their feedback on what is most effective and what can be revised for improvement. I urge others to learn more about Dr. Muhammad’s framework and to collaborate to start to infuse Historically Responsive Literacy into their culturally responsive teaching.

We want to cultivate young people who,
across the course of their lifetimes,
will disrupt, disquiet, and unhinge oppression.”
~Dr. Gholdy Muhammad

 

Resources:
Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally Responsive and Historically Responsive Literacy, Gholdy Muhammad
Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students, Zaretta Hammond
Universal Design for Learning Guidelines
Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors, Rudine Sims Bishop