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About Blk CITRUS
Blk CITRUS exists to ensure Black voices, stories, histories, and cultural perspectives are not pushed to the margins of English education.
We create curriculum that honors Black identity, strengthens academic learning, and helps educators teach with greater depth, clarity, and intention.
This is where culture meets curriculum — and learning goes deeper.
Why Blk CITRUS Exists
Black stories deserve more than occasional inclusion.
For too long, Black voices in English classrooms have often been treated as supplemental, seasonal, or optional. A single text during Black History Month. A brief mention in a larger unit. A lesson added for diversity, but not always given the same depth, rigor, or instructional care as the traditional canon.
Blk CITRUS was created to help change that. Our work centers Black voices and narratives as essential parts of English instruction. We believe students deserve to encounter curriculum that reflects the richness, complexity, creativity, and intellectual power of the Black diaspora.
Our Belief
Cultural relevance and academic rigor belong together.
Blk CITRUS believes culturally relevant curriculum should also be academically strong, instructionally thoughtful, and classroom-ready.
Students should be challenged to read deeply, write clearly, think critically, ask better questions, and engage with meaningful stories that connect literature to identity, history, culture, and lived experience.
Educators should not have to choose between rigorous instruction and representative content.
They deserve both.
And students need both.
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Our Approach
We do not water down culture to make it fit the classroom.
Blk CITRUS creates curriculum that is culturally rich, standards-based, and designed for meaningful instruction. Our approach is rooted in the belief that Black literature, Black narratives, and Black cultural traditions are worthy of deep study, strong analysis, creative response, and serious academic attention.
We design resources that help educators:
- Elevate Black voices in English instruction
- Build stronger classroom conversations
- Foster critical thinking and cultural awareness
- Connect academic content to real-world narratives
- Support students in seeing Black stories as powerful, complex, and central to learning
The Classroom Impact
When students see deeper stories, they make deeper connections.
The goal of Blk CITRUS is not just to provide curriculum. The goal is to help transform classroom learning.
When Black narratives are centered with intention, students are invited into richer conversations about literature, identity, power, history, imagination, resistance, creativity, and community.
They are challenged academically.
They are engaged personally.
They are given room to think, question, reflect, and create.
SINITA SCOTT
Blk CITRUS was created by an educator and curriculum writer committed to developing English resources that center Black voices with rigor, relevance, and respect.
Through Blk CITRUS, the goal is to support teachers with curriculum that is thoughtful, culturally grounded, and ready for real classroom use — while creating learning experiences that affirm and challenge students in meaningful ways.
Sinita Scott holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Education in Secondary Education from the University of Dayton and Xavier University, respectively. With nearly two decades of experience as an urban school educator, Sinita has dedicated her career to advocating for Culturally Relevant Teaching. As a former Department Chair and current mentor, she has guided countless educators in integrating diverse literature that resonates with their students.
Determined to provide her students with literature that reflects their experiences in ways that are authentic, empowering, and multifaceted, Sinita began developing her own curriculum. She intentionally selected novels by Black authors who present narratives beyond trauma and stereotypical portrayals, instead highlighting stories that showcase resilience, joy, complexity, and everyday life. By incorporating these texts, Sinita’s curricula not only engage students with relatable content but also challenge them to think critically and connect literature to broader social and cultural contexts. As her work gained recognition, Sinita began writing curriculum for her district, establishing herself as a trusted resource for educators seeking to align diverse texts with state, district, and school standards while maintaining academic rigor.
Today, Sinita specializes in producing custom ELA curriculum for grades 7-12, integrating novels, short stories, and articles authored by members of the Black diaspora. Each resource is designed to align with state, district, and school standards, while easing the burden of planning for teachers. By providing ready-to-use lesson plans, activities, and assessments, Sinita empowers educators to deliver engaging, standards-based instruction with confidence.
Sinita is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a 2023 OCTELA (Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts) Diversity Award recipient.
What They're Saying
"Sinita's Afrofuturism unit is a stand-out in our African American Literature curriculum. My students not only loved the stories included in the unit but also learned so much about different African cultures and belief systems, bolstering their background knowledge. The content was rigorous, had tons of variety in texts, and easily lent i
"Sinita's Afrofuturism unit is a stand-out in our African American Literature curriculum. My students not only loved the stories included in the unit but also learned so much about different African cultures and belief systems, bolstering their background knowledge. The content was rigorous, had tons of variety in texts, and easily lent itself to creative projects that allowed me to tailor instruction to each student. I teach a population of gifted students, and this unit truly targets so many aspects of their learning styles and made it very easy for me to facilitate their learning authentically."
E. Schnell
Upper School English Teacher
"Sinita doesn't waste my time or my students' time. Her assignments and activities are able to get to the heart of the matter quickly. She is able to help kids think about the deeper issues right away. That hooks them into the books and they want to know more and more and more. All of the sudden they were writing more than they usually do
"Sinita doesn't waste my time or my students' time. Her assignments and activities are able to get to the heart of the matter quickly. She is able to help kids think about the deeper issues right away. That hooks them into the books and they want to know more and more and more. All of the sudden they were writing more than they usually do because they had important things to say. I love using her curriculum materials."
G. Kraus
District-wide Mentor
"Ms. Scott's Unit 1 lesson for English 12, Perception, which includes Dick Gregory's short story, "Shame," is great! Scott's selection is culturally relevant, rigorous, and engaging. Its story is surprisingly simple, yet complex. When students believe the story's purpose is about someone else's perception of the narrator, they realize tha
"Ms. Scott's Unit 1 lesson for English 12, Perception, which includes Dick Gregory's short story, "Shame," is great! Scott's selection is culturally relevant, rigorous, and engaging. Its story is surprisingly simple, yet complex. When students believe the story's purpose is about someone else's perception of the narrator, they realize that it's about self-perception; also, the story is easy to read, but complex in its message. Both my students and myself enjoyed reading, dissecting, and discussing this story because they could relate, and this made it easy for me to create engaging activities to complement this piece. Because of Ms. Scott's literature selections, I always look forward to teaching lessons created by her."
C. Williams
English Teacher