Rationale
This curriculum unit is intended for use in the high school English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. More specifically, this unit is written for Philadelphia School District ELA classes. One must note that this unit is written with the School District of Philadelphia total student population in mind. Of the students the School District of Philadelphia serves, more than 80% are African-American. This unit will assist teachers in providing additional materials when meeting the criterion of adding African-American literature to the canon, as has been prescribed by the Philadelphia School District's Office of Curriculum and Instruction.
This unit will also move students toward proficiency in standardized assessments in the areas of critically analyzing varied authors' works of fiction, showing familiarity with the elements of fiction. Students will become more able to deduce a conclusion based on facts through closely observing clues found in detective fiction. Furthermore, this unit will show students how close the connections are between literature and history. It allows students to read and write about social issues in a way that is accessible and entertaining. Students will become aware of how the African-American detective moves through the story to solve the crime or case while holding to the African-American cultural norms of a given era.
Furthermore, this unit will approach the art of detection in terms of connecting its realism to life. Students in the Philadelphia area today are living in urban war zones and need to feel empowered by what they are exposed to in the classroom. Detection in the course of the detective novel is either intuitive or reason based, and students, after having practiced these skills, will be able to use them in their everyday lives.
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