After speaking with my students about the lack of African-American female voices in the curriculum, my students let me know that they are tired of reading about Black women who endured slavery and abuse. “When do the Black girls get to win”? Using the philosophies and guidance offered by the course “Diverse Children’s Literature: Literary Art, Cultural Artifact, and Contested Terrain,” this unit was designed to create alternative “terrain” to the existing literary tropes available to 11th-grade girls at the Girls High School of Philadelphia. Students will read children’s literature that features multidimensional and culturally diverse girls and frame these stories as literary art. They will then read some of the works we covered in class to discover why and how stories about girls who are not victims, famous, or saviors were not readily available to their younger sisters or their former selves. In analyzing their own multifaceted identities, they will look for themselves in stories and, if they do not find visions of themselves, will create their cultural artifacts in which girls like them exist in literary art and are made available to future generations. This course will provide girls with a space to explore models of children’s literature and literary theory and then publish their own multi-genre and intersectional hero narratives for Philadelphia School District elementary students.

Context

The Girls High School of Philadelphia is a historically significant institution, was founded in 1848 as the Girls’ Normal School, the second all-girls high school established in the United States. Its purpose was to “prepare teachers for the common schools of Philadelphia” (About Us). As the sister school to Central High School, it took forty-five years for the school to transition to a college preparatory school called Girls High School of Philadelphia. Throughout the past 100 years, the school’s reputation and rankings have fluctuated, ranging from being the #3 ranked school in the School District of Philadelphia to its current rank of #7 (according to US News and World Report).

Girls High’s ethnic makeup shifted dramatically over the years, just as the City of Philadelphia itself has. A newspaper article from 1968 reported that “The Philadelphia High School for Girls has made no progress,” along with a photograph of the white students who attended Girls High in a picture with one African-American girl. The African-American girl was wearing kitchen attire while the rest were in Chemistry coats, at a piano, and in an art studio. The author mused that this is because, at Girls High, African-American girls “should” work in kitchens (Gay). According to recent alums speaking at Girls High, in the 1990s, the school was diverse in terms of culture, religion, nationality, and ethnicity and at its height in terms of academic prowess. According to US News and World Report, the school has a 95.2% minority enrollment. Students and their families identify as follows, as chosen on their intake forms: 69.1% Black, 12.0% Asian, 10.4% Latinx, 4.8% White, and 3.7% two or more races.

While the statistics from the US News and World Report might be current, in my classes, at least 30% of my students identify with multiple racial categories. Religiously, a significant number of students in my classes identify as Buddhist, Christian, Catholic, and Muslim. While there is no published data identifying the percentage of students at Girls High who are identified as using special education services, according to the statistics from my classes, 35% of my students identify as having an Individualized Education Program (IEP). For privacy and protection reasons, data concerning students who need psychological services or identify as non-binary have not been reported in any formal setting. Due to what students write about in their college essays, I could estimate that 25-40% of my students receive help for PTSD, anxiety, depression, or other psychological needs. Of these, most were acquired by students’ research on social media: Students learn how to use their insurance to find help for themselves without speaking to any other adult. My students recently reported informally that they believe the number of students needing and receiving mental health services to be much higher. Lastly, approximately 20% of my students identify as non-binary, while 10% use names that more closely align with their self-chosen identity.

The US News and World Report states that Girls High School has just under 900 students in attendance, in contrast to 1980, when enrollment reached 2,000 students. Recently, the numbers have created a situation in which teachers fear being cut, and students report feeling disheartened. The alumnae association is active and supportive: Jill Scott and Erika Alexander spoke at events during the 2024-2025 school year; successful alumni in a range of professions spoke to classes about their professions, and the association developed a program to mentor individual students. Within the school, the administration and faculty support students by utilizing resources dedicated to mental health support, trauma-informed teaching, and a team of support and push-in teachers who focus on supporting students with special needs.

Current students whose parents attended the high school were required to write entrance essays, take multiple standardized tests, and submit teacher recommendations in order to apply for the Magnet School. Currently, the School District of Philadelphia has revised its process for populating special admissions schools to create more equitable access to the city’s most prestigious schools. Such an attempt has been critiqued and supported in news reports, blogs, and Instagram posts. Rather than speaking to these attempts, it is sufficient to say that the current girls who attend Girls High are incredibly resourceful and bright. Their stories are varied and complex, revealing extreme resilience. At least 75 percent of my students’ STAR test scores place them at a higher level than 12^th grade. Seventy-five of these students also fail to submit their essays on time or attend the first period. According to my observations, they are like most girls of this generation who are addicted to social media, are very bright, suffer mentally from anxiety and depression, and walk with an air of apathy and boredom (Social Media). This research essay is dedicated to the girls in my classroom, who deserve to be seen and heard and, more than anything, deserve to win.

Rationale for Philosophical Line of Reasoning: Girls Who Win

I woke up today, March 19th, 2025, to an NPR podcast letting me know that “In order to comply with Donald Trump’s executive orders to eradicate signs of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the military has removed at least 10 web pages dedicated to the famed Native American “Code Talker” units that used indigenous languages to transmit secret messages during WWI and WWII” (Marcus). Later, NPR explained that while some resources were reinstated, “[t]wo Defense Department officials not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that these and others were taken down through a review of thousands of stories, photos and videos meant to remove diversity, equity and inclusion material in line with Trump administration policy guidance” (Bowman). To counter that erasure, the reimagined unit will weave Gholdy Muhammad’s six pursuits—Multimodal, Identity-Based, Informed by History/Collaborative, Intellectual, Critical, and Joy—inviting girls to author hero narratives that imagine the world they believe their community deserves.

Theoretical Framework

Without Mirrors, Single Stories

The potential impact of erasing stories about Black girl heroes cannot be overstated. Academic articles inspired by Bishop’s work on “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” iterate how literature can help individuals better see and define themselves, learn about other identities, and envision possibilities for their own future identities (Quashie).

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye illustrates the detrimental effects of lacking representation, as the protagonist, Pecola Breedlove, internalizes societal beauty standards, leading to her tragic desire for blue eyes. In analyzing Pecola’s response to the Dick and Jane novels, we see how Pecola internalizes the beauty ideals lauded in the children’s book series, “Dick and Jane,” and commits a self-harming ritual to give herself blue eyes. As the panoptic reader, Pecola believes the “other” is the “self,” and, in trying to walk through that sliding glass door, she self-destructs.

Students who consistently encounter literature that does not reflect their identities and lived experiences can internalize negative academic and social messages. Adichie’s “Danger of a Single Story” and Grace Lin’s “The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf: Extended TEDx Talk” underscore how reading narratives about people unlike herself influenced her to write narratives about others rather than people like her, perpetuating the focus on literary children’s heroes. They also underscore the importance of creating and reading diverse representations for authentic identity narratives in explaining this phenomenon. She, like Picola, internalized the children’s stories she read–but instead of self-destructing, she created. Moreover, a curriculum that includes literature with diverse and authentic representation can affirm students’ value, positively impacting their academic engagement and achievement. For African American girls, engaging with literature that reflects their experiences is crucial to the learning process and the formation of a positive identity. Children need stories that reveal their own real and potential lives, yet much of the literature surrounding my 11th-grade students does not serve as mirrors or sliding glass doors.

Narrative Psychology

Three years ago, my son experienced intense school-based anxiety, which caused him to refuse to leave the car when we arrived at elementary school. This pattern continued for weeks, leading us to consult multiple psychologists. One therapist asked my son about his favorite hero, who at the time was Captain Underpants. The psychologist encouraged him to imagine himself as Captain Underpants bravely attending school. Inspired by this suggestion, my son wrote himself into a narrative as a heroic boy who enjoyed school, learned new things, and confidently engaged with classmates. Remarkably, after crafting this empowering narrative, his anxiety drastically diminished, and he eagerly attended school the very next day.

Witnessing this transformation underscored for me the psychological power of narrative reframing—a concept supported by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Beck’s CBT narrative research demonstrates how altering cognitive patterns through storytelling can significantly improve self-perception and reduce anxiety, ultimately leading to positive behavioral changes. Grounded in narrative psychology and intersectional theory, the unit treats storytelling as both a cognitive tool for self-reframing and a lens for analyzing how overlapping identities shape experience, enabling resilience and a growth mindset, which leads to heroic yet potentially understated achievements.

2Black Girl Literacies

Philadelphia High School for Girls’ majority population, as stated earlier, is that of Black women as chosen by parents during student intake. Detra Price-Dennis asks,

(b)However, what if there was a framework that centered on Black girlhood and the intersectionality of their identities and literacies from a capacity-oriented perspective? How can this framework disrupt the deficit narrative about Black girls’ literacy development and inform strategies for engaging, cultivating, and centering the multiple literacies that Black girls engage in to make sense of their world (2018)?

Whitney’s study examines Muhammad and Haddix’s Black Girls’ Literacy movement, separating it into six distinct elements that she used to craft her case study. By using this framework to organize my unit, I will center Muhammad and Haddox’s work as a reference to ensure my unit maintains all elements necessary to create a BGL unit.

BGL maintains that writing and creating are always “(t)ied to identities” (Whitney 645). Such a philosophy drives this unit, as students, while crafting their children’s stories, position themselves as everyday heroes within their narratives, embracing intersectional identities that also encompass neurological and psychological differences. By combining Narrative Psychology with BGL, students will craft themselves as heroes, allowing them to create and imagine their identities while writing (Muhammad 326). In addition, as part of a larger collective, students’ identities, according to BGL, involve “co-construction of knowledge with the world and other Black girls (Muhammad 356).

The Black Girls Literacy movement is also both “political and critical, tied to power, misrepresentations, falsehood, and the need for social transformation” (Muhammad 326). This unit was created because my students were tired of reading about masculine toxicity and women who suffer. They recognized the misrepresentation of Black women’s (and many women’s) usual tropes: 1) Victim turned survivor, 2) American isolationist–if one works hard enough, can achieve fame and greatness, or 3) Savior heroes, responsible for providing every need to their homes and communities.

 Disability Critical Race Studies

Girls, in general, have recently pervaded psychology newsletters with mental health struggles since the popularization of social media and, at the same time, experiencing the isolation of COVID-19. While girls are increasingly occupying the space of the neurologically or cognitively complex, the stories they read often do not feature heroes who share such identities. As an English Language Arts teacher, I noticed that there is not one piece of literature in the 11th-grade curriculum that centers on a character with ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, or any other learning/cognitive difference. However, as multidimensional intersectional individuals, my students have been diagnosed with all of these differences and more. In her case study analysis, Whitney uses Muhammad’s framework within the field of Disability Critical Race Studies to call for special education teachers to celebrate the intersectionality of Black girls with differences, as well as critique why they were diagnosed in the first place. In addition, she explains that “special and general education teachers must honor students’ multiple identities and provide authentic literacy experiences that connect students and to the larger social world” (Whitney 9). The unit I am creating will help English Language Arts teachers provide a space where students can write about their intersectional identities, including cognitive and neurological differences that are usually silenced. When students write stories that confront anxiety, grief, or depression while still claiming agency, they will pay homage to their own community’s heroes while acting as role models for the next generation.

To provide Philadelphia School District students with models of “Girls (with differences) Who Win,” my students will need to craft examples and publish their stories for their community. My unit operates under the assumption that since girls’ mental health is a critical issue in Education spaces, mental health issues and struggles are one type of identity within Black girls’ multiple identities and one that has not only been ignored in scholarship but also in children’s writings. By asking my students to write themselves as heroes with intersectional identities that include neurological and mental struggles or differences, my work aims to broaden the scope of who is considered a normative hero.

Curricular Context

Like many large districts across the country, the School District of Philadelphia recently adopted a new, mandated Language Arts Curriculum, in which teachers are provided with daily objectives, required texts (or excerpts from texts), and writing activities. Each day’s lesson plan typically consists of a conversation about the relevance of the upcoming material, a 5- to 15-page first or second read of a complex text, reading questions, annotation guides, and writing prompts. Teachers have 250 minutes of classroom instruction time per week to teach the five separate objectives and lessons, assuming the week is not interrupted by mandated testing, drills, or other extracurricular necessities. For example, a “First Read” activity might indicate that students should, within one 50-minute class period: 1) learn how to write Cornell Notes style annotations based on a brief vocabulary-based practice, 2) independently read five pages of a legal court document while keeping “Cornell Notes” annotations on main ideas and questions 3) engage in a talk and turn 4) participate in an extensive group discussion, and then 5) complete a writing activity. If an administrator was observing this lesson during a 10-minute walk-through, they should be able to observe all parts of this lesson being taught. As administrators and teachers alike recognized the absurdity of this requirement, teachers were given more leeway to select and focus on specific parts of the day’s activities while still achieving the given objective.

In determining how to maintain the integrity of “The Wars We Win” unit’s literature and the School District of Philadelphia’s English Language Arts curricular framework, I framed the unit first around “The Science of Reading” philosophy that guides teachers on how to teach students to read with fluency, confidence, and comprehension (Curriculum). The Science of Reading philosophy requires that students achieve a “standard of coherence:” reading that challenges students to create tasks, questions, and discussions that model comprehension, enables feedback on reading comprehension/analysis, and does this by asking students to engage in texts worth “all this effort” (McMonagle). In determining which texts are worth “all this effort,” I relied on Muhammad’s five-pronged (now six) framework on equity-informed reading and teaching: the explicit curriculum should be Multimodal, Identity-Based, Informed by history and collaboration, Intellectual, and Critical (Cultivating Genius). She adds “Joy” to the latest iteration of her equity framework, but this is not included in the SDP objectives (Unearthing Joy).

The 11th-grade English course begins with a unit entitled “The Wars We Wage” and is introduced with a 10-day unit designed to inform students about American Modernism. Each short reading features affluent  individuals who rebel by writing in a different form (“These Wild Young People”). To begin the year by defining rebellion as something wealthy individuals do to create new literary movements and, therefore, “win” sets an exclusionary tone for students who are well aware of the ramifications of rebellion. In terms of encouraging the science of reading by helping students access literature through historical contexts, the previous year, the 10th-grade students took a course in African American History only to arrive in an 11th-grade English classroom and be presented with a unit that presents rebellion as a form of writing that excludes the African American experience without any context or justification.

In terms of analyzing the unit’s ability to teach based on “The Science of Reading,” the SDO unit includes “multimodal” learning opportunities, allowing students to complete vocabulary exercises on the computer and watch “Blasts” that introduce more complex concepts. However, the vocabulary words they learn are limited and do not prepare students to comprehend texts like The Marshall Doctrine (MD). While this reading task is challenging, it does not encourage confidence because even if students do work hard to understand the ten words taught, they still cannot define a majority of the words in the document. Next, even if students read aloud together, sound out words, and hear the teacher reading, they will still not achieve reading comprehension of the entire MD within the 50 minutes allocated to understand both its context and complete a “first read” activity. Because the unit does not introduce any historical context to students, it becomes impossible to forge a discussion that encourages intellectual or critical engagement or encourage “standards of coherence.” Moreover, because students are unfamiliar with the context of MD, they cannot possibly appreciate its value.

At the beginning of the year, students are not positioned to learn how to read or write critically because they do not encounter any texts that serve as “mirrors,” readings in which they can see themselves or immediately identify worth. As the first unit of the year, during the first weeks of class, my students are introduced to a curriculum in which “texts, reader, and contexts are inseparable from the other” (Osorio 20). By fostering disengagement and  feelings of inadequacy, the curriculum sends the implicit message that students’ own stories and identities are neither relevant nor “academic.” What is more, these first unit’s limited perspectives do little to counteract a larger systemic pattern in which girls—particularly those who identify as Black—struggle to see themselves reflected in heroic or central roles –and rightly so because those narratives are not readily available. ​

My intention here is not to undermine the SDP curriculum but instead to explain why I chose to create an alternative to this particular unit and build my curriculum on the core principles exhibited by the science of reading and equity-informed reading and teaching. This past year, the students could not fathom that I had no power over what I teach and how I teach it. I constantly tell them that this is the School District of Philadelphia’s curriculum. It does not matter. As a new white teacher in their school, because I teach the required curriculum, I am seen as a purveyor and supporter of the legend that the literary canon, one that does not include their stories, is of the most importance in an English classroom. I am immediately identified as someone who not only does not look like them, comes from their neighborhood, or sees academic value in their experiences. I created a unit to introduce myself and other 11th-grade11th-grade teachers to their students by first recognizing the narratives that already exist in the students’ lives.

My unit serves to introduce students to the value of reading, writing, and critically engaging with literary tropes, values, and complexities. It also serves to help a teacher, especially a white teacher, present themselves as someone who does believe their stories, experiences, and histories belong in our classrooms. The unit’s teaching strategies employ a framework that balances skill, intellect, identity, and criticality to ensure academic rigor while honoring lived experience. Unit Specificities

Rationale for Revised Unit Sequence

This curriculum intentionally reorders the School District of Philadelphia’s (SDP) recommended sequence of writing assignments—Argumentative → Narrative → Literary Analysis → Research—to more effectively scaffold skill development, culminating in a rigorous research project. The revised sequence supports students in a clear, logical progression:

Quarter 1: Argumentative Essay

Teaches students foundational skills in using textual evidence to support clear, persuasive claims.

Why First? Argumentative writing equips students to understand and appreciate the need for purposeful storytelling grounded in evidence.

Quarter 2: Narrative Essay

Empowers students to explore personal expression and artistic style through narrative voice.

Why Next? Engaging students as authors deepens their appreciation of intentional stylistic choices, laying the groundwork for analyzing such choices in literature.

Quarter 3: Literary Analysis Essay

Develops students’ analytical skills, focusing on how authors use literary devices to convey visions of societal change.

Why Third? Having first become narrative writers, students now approach literature with heightened sensitivity to authors’ stylistic decisions and thematic intentions.

Quarter 4: Research Essay

Integrates previously developed skills—using evidence (argumentative), stylistic and narrative understanding, and literary analysis—to critically examine societal structures and laws.

Why Last? This final research project synthesizes all previous skills, asking students to critically reflect on the relationship between literature, community impact, and structural influences.

Visual Summary:

1. Argumentative skills (evidence-based claims)
2.  Narrative skills (personal expression, style)
3.  Literary analysis skills (examining authors’ devices and intentions)
4.  Research skills (synthesis of analysis, argumentation, and style to address societal issues)

Outcome:

This sequence ensures students master each writing type in a meaningful order, culminating in a powerful research project that applies their critical and creative insights to broader societal contexts.

“When Do the Black Girls Win?”  11th grade ELA Curricular Framework

The units are designed to augment the current curricula by maintaining current objectives and standards while supplementing with alternative materials aligned with the TIP unit creation within the course, “Diverse Children’s Literature: Literary Art, Cultural Artifact, and Contested Terrain.”

Duration: Quarter one includes twenty-eight distinct and developed lessons. Fourteen lessons focus on reading, annotating, analyzing, and practicing writing argumentative paragraphs. The last twelve lessons use the first fourteen to develop students’ ideas into the culminating argumentative writing assignment. Each lesson is aligned with a quarter one specific SDP objective. Quarter two includes thirty-one distinct lessons. All standards and objectives remain the same as used in the current Quarter three narrative writing unit.

Overview: This unit guides students through the process of reading, analyzing, and ultimately writing an argumentative essay as well as personal narratives in which they serve as both narrator and hero. It draws on Gholdy Muhammad’s five-pursuit framework from Unearthing Joy—Identity, Skills, Intellect, Criticality, and Joy—while aligning with the School District of Philadelphia’s (SDP) instructional priorities, the Common Core State Standards, and Pennsylvania Academic Standards for English Language Arts. The Office of Curriculum and Instruction supports the use of Muhammad’s philosophy in creating curricula, as stated on their website: “Our curriculum elevates the 5 Pursuits named in Dr. Muhammad’s text, Cultivating Genius. Educators teach in ways that create spaces for celebrating our differences and building self-confidence” (Curriculum).

IDENTITY: Exploring the Self through Mirror Texts

At the unit’s core is the pursuit of identity, which invites students to examine who they are and how they would like to be perceived. As Muhammad notes, “[i]dentity is a starting point for joy and purpose in education” (Unearthing Joy 10). Using mentor texts such as Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams, Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson, and Saturday by Oge Mora, students will engage in reader-response journaling and guided annotation to recognize literary characterization techniques used to construct identity. Students complete graphic organizers based on Rudine Sims Bishop’s “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” to analyze students’ relationships to the characters’ identities.

Students will use graphic organizers to organize their evidence to determine how complex identities can inform themes. In support of the science of reading as a key objective for 11th-grade students, this unit helps students practice identifying main themes in readings and locating evidence to support these themes. In this way, students better learn how to “conclude meaning based on evidence” (STAR).

CRITICALITY: Questioning Singular Identities

Students will read and watch Adichie’s TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” to focus on two specific reading objectives for 11th grade. After identifying how Adichie employs narrative and argumentative structures, students will gain a deeper understanding of her argument: when human beings perceive each other as only one aspect of their complex identity, they engage in false narratives, tropes, and stereotypes that ultimately prevent them from understanding one another and communicating effectively. By analyzing Adichie’s speech, students will be able to identify the different “stories” contained in each narrative they read more effectively. Suppose one narrator has multiple identity markers and does not claim anyone as primary. How does a reader, or the narrator for that matter, understand the “self”? What is the benefit of reading about and living as human beings with multiple stories?

During the 11th grade, adolescents encounter a “maturation of the prefrontal cortex,” which is why they start understanding that experiences and other human beings are not all bad or all good but have nuances. When presented with singular narratives about what it means to be a girl worthy of representation, Black girls can too easily end up, in the pursuit of becoming a savior, hero, or survivor, giving up their intersectional identity in place of a single story that fits roads already paved. As teachers of adolescents, we are in a position to engage teenagers, who are primed and eager to understand ambiguity better, in analyzing how identity (as represented in literature) can be multifaceted. Such work not only strengthens their reading skills but improves students’ ability to make complex cognitive decisions (even while their emotional responses are still somewhat uninhibited) (Griffin 3).

Using mentor YA texts like The Hate U Give, Punching the Air, The Weight of Our Sky, Too Bright to See, Monday’s Not Coming, Dear Haiti, Love Alaine, and American-Born Chinese to introduce systemic neglect, family legacies, cultural assimilation, LGBTQ pride, students will use graphic organizers to examine how characters are treated, what systems shape their experiences, whose stories dominate, and what constitutes authenticity. Muhammad writes, “Criticality is the ability to read, write, and think to understand and disrupt oppression” (73). Students will explore questions like: Who gets to be a hero?

INTELLECT: Building Cultural Knowledge Through “Authentic” Storytelling

After exploring the importance of understanding identity as multifaceted and examining identity in children’s literature, we will evaluate whether each author is creating an “authentic” narrative or story. Students will take five 40-minute class periods to complete a first and second read of Short’s “Cultural Authenticity and Reader Responsibility in Children’s and Young Adult Literature.” As in the Adichie analysis, students will first investigate that article’s thesis, organization, and argumentative framework, reinforcing their development as readers of nonfiction. Muhammad defines intellect as “learning about ourselves and others while gaining new knowledge in a way that affirms humanity” (66). Short’s analysis of authenticity supports such interdisciplinary growth.

Students will then congregate in book circles to complete the first and second readings of texts rooted in various cultural and historical contexts, examining authenticity and broadening their understanding of heroism. Students will take two forty-minute class periods to use Short’s checklist of cultural authenticity and participate in a presentation on the extent to which each book offers authentic representation and/or reinforces single stories (1). By asking students to investigate authenticity by examining both authorship and representation, they will also learn the reading skill of distinguishing between a narrator and an author and applying that understanding to their position.

SKILLS: Narrative Craft and Literacy Proficiency

In order to align this curriculum with the SDP objectives, students will first write an argumentative essay determining what voices they most missed when they were young, and why these voices deserve to be told. As literary critics, the girls’ evaluation of stories that need to be told will position them to investigate their own identities better as they formulate their narratives. Discussions and presentations surrounding intersectionality, identity, and authenticity will inform the second writing assignment within this unit, the narrative essay. Creative writing seminars and independent writing sessions, where every student will develop a multidimensional and authentic hero’s tale that incorporates anxieties, cognitive quirks, or inherited traumas as integral yet nuanced aspects of the hero’s identity, while foregrounding agency, humor, and hope. In this way, students will understand how identity may be informed by, rather than defined by, differences.

Students will take nine class lessons to draft personal narratives—YA stories or children’s stories—that reference their mental health while framing themselves as heroic guides for younger readers. I write this unit as containing lessons rather than daily lesson plans as, depending on the context, length of class, and other limitations, it will serve teachers better to understand the number of minutes each lesson might take rather than dividing lessons equally into a class period (that means different minutes to different individuals). Peer workshops with mentor texts will emphasize narrative choices that uplift rather than pathologize struggle. Students might also explore writing in the third person to distance themselves from their memories enough to imagine their struggles and successes as not framing the foreground of their identity but rather serving as backdrops to the joy they find in everyday living adventures (Adyuk). According to Cognitive Behavioral Psychology, writing in the third person enables writers to better see themselves as agents of change rather than victims of an unjust system (Ayduk). To begin and continue writing their stories, students will also use the previously read texts as mentor texts, such as You Should See Me in a Crown and Saints and Misfits, for examples of writing dialogue, narrative, setting, plot, pacing, and characterization.

This unit privileges Black women’s historical traditions of knowing the creative process. In order to further solidify the value of Black women’s narratives as literarily significant, I will take two class periods to invite members of my students’ families to work with the students to share their stories and ways of knowing and act as models of Black women who have stories to tell and are heroes in their own right. By asking parents to participate in this project, students will also see the women in their lives as having stories that are “intellectual and grounded in critical thought, discussions, and reflection about society and social problems” (Muhammad 326).

Finally, during the last five periods of this section, students will receive scaffolded feedback through peer conferencing and teacher mentoring. Writing workshops will incorporate sentence frames, revision models, and mentor excerpts from texts. As a recursive practice, the girls will meet frequently in writing workshops to read each other’s work and respond to the work in the vein of a traditional, professional writer’s workshop. Peer and teacher conferences—structured around Muhammad’s pursuits—will guide revisions that sharpen the plot and clarify themes without medicalizing differences. In discussing not only their writing but also analyzing each story’s ways of knowing and potential influences on younger students, the girls will create their community of storytellers and knowers.

JOY: Storytelling as Empowerment and Celebration

By relying on Muhammad’s emphasis on literacy skills that are “culturally and historically situated,” writing hero stories allows “students to communicate who they are” to audiences (61). When students create stories about children who do not fit the traditional tropes, they model intersectional identities and allow other African American girls to enjoy and celebrate the multiple identities that they inhabit. In providing “a space for [students’] creativity and self-expression,” the girls in my class might imagine an alternative future for their younger selves, one that paves new roads on which girls can play (Toliver 4).

Therefore, the unit does not end with students turning in their stories to a teacher but publishing their units for an audience. The unit’s culminating project will be the publication of their stories. Finally, the class will take seven class periods to collaborate on illustrating and hosting a public webpage that hosts audio readings, illustrations, and full texts of their finished stories. By publishing for younger Philadelphia readers, Girls High authors will utilize narrative to heal themselves, redefine the concept of the “hero,” and expand the canon to include intersectional identity markers that have been less prevalent in children’s literature, such as LGBTQ+ representation, mental health, and neurological differences.

Students’ ultimate projects will be published for elementary school students to read, allowing children in the district to see heroes who act as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors for their journeys. The final stories will serve as celebratory models of voice, resilience, and identity for the children in their neighborhoods. Muhammad defines joy as “the aesthetic, cultural, emotional, and spiritual expressions that bring students pleasure in learning” (77). Students are empowered to see themselves as capable, creative, and important. Such work is also a form of resistance, reclaiming storytelling as a method of forming and enabling models of identity that differ from the existing tropes.

Rationale for Revised Organization and Unit Sequence

Instructional lessons are organized around topics and objectives, rather than days, in order to support block, modified block, and traditional schedules. Secondly, this curriculum intentionally reorders the School District of Philadelphia’s (SDP) recommended sequence of writing assignments—Argumentative → Narrative → Literary Analysis → Research—to more effectively scaffold skill development, culminating in a rigorous research project.

The revised sequence supports students in a clear, logical progression:

Quarter 1: Argumentative Essay

Teaches students foundational skills in using textual evidence to support clear, persuasive claims.

Why First? Argumentative writing equips students to understand and appreciate the need for purposeful storytelling grounded in evidence.

Quarter 2: Narrative Essay

Empowers students to explore personal expression and artistic style through narrative voice.

Why Next? Engaging students as authors deepens their appreciation of intentional stylistic choices, laying the groundwork for analyzing such choices in literature.

Quarter 3: Literary Analysis Essay

Develops students’ analytical skills, focusing on how authors use literary devices to convey visions of societal change.

Why Third? Having first become narrative writers, students now approach literature with heightened sensitivity to authors’ stylistic decisions and thematic intentions.

Quarter 4: Research Essay

Integrates previously developed skills—using evidence (argumentative), stylistic and narrative understanding, and literary analysis—to critically examine societal structures and laws.

Why Last? This final research project synthesizes all previous skills, asking students to critically reflect on the relationship between literature, community impact, and structural influences.

Visual Summary:

1. Argumentative skills (evidence-based claims)
2. Narrative skills (personal expression, style)
3. Literary analysis skills (examining authors’ devices and intentions)
4. Research skills (synthesis of analysis, argumentation, and style to address societal issues)

Outcome:

This sequence ensures students master each writing type in a meaningful order, culminating in a powerful research project that applies their critical and creative insights to broader societal contexts.