I wanted to develop a curriculum that used counter-narrative storytelling and Tarro Yosso's theory of community cultural wealth both as a pedagogical tool and to engage students in critical inquiry. The unit was framed around the following essential questions:

• What are different ways people respond to historical and generational trauma?

• How do people in our communities resist oppression and injustice?

• Why is it important that we tell the stories of people in our community?
  

Below is a brainstorm of student thinking at the start of our Counterstorytelling unit. What is reflected is the extent to which students have internalized deficit thinking about their community. Counterstories can work to disrupt this thinking and reframe the community in such as way that students begin to see the assets they possess.