Acknowledgments -- Foreword by Bettina L. Love -- Introduction: Restoring equity and excellence in today's classrooms -- Part one. Drawing from history to reimagine literacy education: How 19th-century black literacy societies can elevate today's literacy learning ; What is historically responsive literacy? -- Part two. Teaching and learning with the four-layered HRL framework: Toward the pursuit of identity ; Toward the pursuit of skills ; Toward the pursuit of intellect ; Toward the pursuit of criticality -- Part three. Implementing historically responsive texts and lesson plans: Selecting historically responsive texts ; Using historically responsive lesson plans -- Afterword by Maisha T. Winn -- References -- Index

This book examines culturally responsive practices, interventions, and supports for educators that can be utilized in school settings. "In Cultivating Genius, Dr. Gholdy E. Muhammad presents a four-layered equity framework--one that is grounded in history and restores excellence in literacy education. This framework, which she names Historically Responsive Literacy, was derived from the study of literacy development within 9th-century Black literacy societies. The framework is essential and universal for all students, especially youth of color, who traditionally have been marginalized in learning standards, school policies, and classroom practices. The equity framework will help educators teach and lead toward the following learning goals or pursuits: Identity Development--Helping youth to make sense of themselves and others, Skill Development-- Developing proficiencies across the academic disciplines, Intellectual Development--Gaining knowledge and becoming smarter, [and] Criticality--Learning and developing the ability to read texts (including print and social contexts) to understand power, equity, and anti-oppression. When these four learning pursuits are taught together--through the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework, all students receive profound opportunities for personal, intellectual, and academic success..."--Amazon.com description