English 332
Intro to Literacy
So the question is...
Is Hip-Hop a form of literacy?
Check out all of these articles!
Using hip-hop in the classroom does not only engage the students but also helps them understand topics such as poetry and social issues. Hip-hop can teach students many poetic devices such as alliteration, similes, and oxymorons. Dr. Pedro, a professor at NYU, gave a speech stating that if kids can easily remember rap lyrics then they can easily remember school topics through the same style of rap. Hip-hop can help with understanding and even memorization. Teachers should definitely start using hip-hop in the classroom to make lessons more relevant to students lives and the social world. There’s no doubt that one I’ll use hip-hop to engage students with literature and basic learning.
-Angel Nelson
Over the course of studying Hip-hop’s influence on literacy, I learned that rap can be used to make classroom material more relevant to the life and art that 21st century students experience. I will be sure to incorporate rapping into my future classroom after my research. The video of Kendrick Lamar at High Tech High in San Diego was a great example of how students can be engaged in a way that was not previously imagined. By turning “old dead white dudes” famous works into remediated poetry put to music, students show a depth of understanding and engagement from students that may otherwise have scorned a traditional approach to these works.
-Jake Doyle
