Hip-Hop Pedagogy vs. Average Curriculum in the English Classroom
Hip-Hop Pedagogy vs. Average Curriculum in the English Classroom
First of all, what is Hip-Hop Pedagogy?
- Hip-hop pedagogy incorporates hip-hop and rap into english classrooms. The purpose of this is to improve student empowerment, cultural responsiveness, and critical literacy skills. This causes much more engagement on the students' part because they are genuinely interested in the subject matter, specifically students in the minority. Not only do minority students benefit from this kind of learning, white students do as well. Without hip-hop being incorporated into classrooms, it deprives even the white students from learning about other cultures.
- "We are asking a great deal from our students when we ask them to invest in material that does not reflect, respond to, or engage with their cultural identities," (Kelly).
Average curriculum with average and out-dated texts does not do our students any favors. Incorporating hip-hop into mainstream schooling allows for minority students to be heard.
"By providing students with ways in which to engage their cultural interests in an academic setting, we are giving them the opportunity to embrace their individuality while also pursuing academic success," (Kelly).
Endless Benefits of incorporating hip-hop into classrooms:
- Giving voice to voiceless minorities! Hip-hop allows us as educators to share with our students the importance of using your voice and individuality to express yourself.
- Students will actually invest in the material because it pertains to them and their CULTURE.
- Exploring new, modern, and exciting forms of literature! Hip-hop contains the same literary devices, language exploration, and powerful story telling that most traditional school literature contains.
- Connects students' backgrounds with their instruction in the classroom! Many students can relate to rappers' and their stories. They listen to their music, live through similar struggles. This aspect of incorporation allows for students to be invested in their learning and explore the validation of their experiences.
- Hip-hop and rap music is worthy of academic study! You could teach a whole course strictly around hip-hop and rap (and its culture) and never run out of things to teach and discuss.
Questions, Comments and Concerns....
- What will be the biggest draw backs, from a teacher's perspective, of incorporating hip-hop and rap into their classrooms?
- Do you think that hip-hop pedagogy is appropriate for all age levels? If not, where do we draw the line?
- Would you utilize hip-hop for the purposes discussed above in your classroom? Why or why not? What are your concerns and what are the benefits that you see in this approach?
Your second question, which asks whether hip-hop pedagogy is appropriate for all age levels, is a great debate question that I am interested in seeing how others respond to. In my opinion, I think hip-hop pedagogy is appropriate for all age levels if it is being differentiated for those age levels. What I mean by this is that we need to keep in mind the age of our students and not expose them to things that will traumatize them or be something that they wont understand yet, but we also need to not hide the realities that some students may face which can be found in hip-hop pedagogy. At a young age, it is important that we allow all students to feel recognized in the classroom. Not everyone agrees that hip-hop should be introduced in the classroom though. A common criticism that comes from hip-hop pedagogy is that, “it is violent, misogynistic, and laden with immorality” (as quoted in Kelly, 2013, p.54). What I really liked about this article though was that it went to point out how some of the canonical texts that students read in schools can be crude already, which I know from experience to be true. But the thing with most canonical texts is that the text isn’t always realistic or authentic in the way that hip-hop education can be. With hip-hop education, students can learn to criticize lyrics and situations and can then try to relay those criticisms to society and their life. While I feel that it is important to incorporate hip-hop with young learners, we will need to monitor more of the material presented to young students. I also think that it is important we introduce hip-hop education at a younger age as we need all students to learn about hip-hop culture. The readings and your post both discussed how white students are deprived of learning about others when there is an absence of hip-hop in education. By not incorporating hip-hop in your teaching, you are then depriving ALL students of cultural knowledge.
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Kelly, L. (2013). Hip-Hop Literature: The Politics, Poetics, and Power of Hip-Hop in the English Classroom. The English Journal. 102(5), 51-56.
I agree with you that although the lyrics might need to become monitored, for example, by censoring cuss words for younger children, Hip-Hop is a way we can allow students from the non-dominated group to become recognized. Throughout any readings in my classroom, or any books I saw within my elementary classrooms, I never saw a biracial person as the main character. One of the rappers which I have strongly connected with is Logic, who is biracial like myself, and often details his struggles with being biracial. Although Logic is African American and Caucasian, and I'm Filipino and Caucasian, I often resonated with Logic's story told through hip-hop because both of us often confuse people with our ambiguous appearance. Moreover, Logic often describes my personal experience as in many of his songs, he explains that people will refer to him as "too white" and believes he does not deal with racism. Nevertheless, people of the dominant group have not always accepted Logic and often called him racial slurs. Analogous to myself, for biracial children, who suffer from cultural isolation, they would benefit from relating to the story told by Logic as these stories are often untold in the classroom. If educators took the time to examine Logic's lyrics in the classroom, monoracial students could further comprehend the challenges biracial children face. Therefore, I agree with you that white children can benefit as well from studying hip-hop lyrics as the students could learn to acknowledge the perspectives which differentiate from the commonly presented dominant perspective.
DeleteI completely agree on how although we don't want to expose them to things that they don't yet understand, or that could negatively affect students, we shouldn't avoid using Hip-Hop altogether, as many students’ realities might be portrayed in Hip-Hop. Of course we need to analyze different songs before using them in the classroom and decide how we will use them to benefit students and decide what is appropriate for different students or different grade levels, but using Hip Hop in the classroom can both engage students, and create a learning opportunity for all students. As stated in Promoting Academic Literacy with Urban Youth through Engaging Hip Hop Culture, there is a multitude of benefits for all students from incorporating Hip-Hop. These include increasing students’ involvement to scaffold skills they already have, give students awareness and confidence to transfer canon literacy texts, and to enable students to evaluate and think critically about messages portrayed in cultural media. (Morrell & Andrade, 2002) I think as a future educator, I would incorporate Hip-Hop in the classroom because of the reasons stated above. I would love to see more examples of ways students have incorporated Hip-Hop and which lessons seemed most effective.
DeleteMorrell, E., & Andrade, D. (2002). Promoting Academic Literacy with Urban Youth through Engaging Hip Hop Culture.
Olivia, like Brandon and Ilyssa, I completely agree with your response to question 2. I do believe that we should try to incorporate hip-hop pedagogy at all age levels. Of course we will need to ensure that the lyrics and content of the songs are being monitored. However, I do feel that allowing all grade levels to be exposed to this way of learning will prove to be very beneficial. I know that as a student myself, I always responded better to material being taught to me when it was in the form of music rather than written texts and lectures. It's amazing how fast I could remember information when it was put in the form of lyrics in a song. Incorporating hip-hop pedagogy in classrooms would also be beneficial, because students may be able to relate more to the culture of it and become more engaged in their learning.
DeleteI also agree that this can be beneficial at all grade levels. And yes, while monitoring some lyrics can be necessary for the classroom setting we must also recognize that if our students are listening to these songs outside of school it is likely they already know the true lyrics. So we would potentially need to have a discussion about appropriate school language when introducing this type of assignment.
DeleteI think this could be an interesting moment to analyze words and meanings with students. I think we would be surprised at how students of younger ages interpret lyrics, and how accurate these interpretations would be.
To address the third question you posted, as one who is influenced by and has frequently connected to the stories told through hip-hop, there is no doubt in my mind that I would use hip-hop in the classroom. Hip-hop lyrics are highly effective in studying metaphors, similes, rhymes, alliteration, and storytelling from predominately the perspectives of non-dominant groups. As young children, students often remain engaged with the rhyming content found in Dr. Seuss or Shel Silverstein's books. However, while these children literature book and poems are often engaging, the characters are often not grounded in the real world. Therefore, even if conflicts of the stories and poems resemble the children's lives, the children might not see themselves in these mythical creatures. I think since hip-hop is typically told from the writer's firsthand experience, students can resonate with the characters in these stories, while extended the rhyming patterns, many children find intriguing throughout their early youth. Additionally, Kelly (2013) determines, "It is through this form of storytelling that individuals are able to express themselves honestly and openly, while providing support for those who have endured similar experiences" (p. 54). Although the songs on contemporary radio sometimes portray one side of the story of hip-hop, countless hip-hop songs have connected to various experiences in my life. For instance, there was a Joyner Lucas song released in the last couple of days called ADHD, where he describes himself struggling with the brain disorder. On the bridge of the song he increases the speed of his rap cadence to mimic his rapid flow of thoughts, he mentions having issues of sleeping because of overthinking, and Joyner states that despite having a lot he wants to say, he struggles to find the right words. In my personal experience, Joyner paints a picture which accurately describes how I often feel dealing with ADHD. Furthermore, mental health has often become overlooked in urban environments. However, through using hip-hop lyrics from artists such as Joe Budden, Kid Cudi, Joyner Lucas, Logic, Mac Miller, and various other artists, educators can analyze and critique the lyrics of these artists to examine the social issues surrounding around mental health.
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Kelly, L. (2013). Hip-Hop Literature: The Politics, Poetics, and Power of Hip-Hop in the English Classroom. The English Journal. 102(5), 51-56.
I think that using hip-hop music to talk about things like similes and metaphors is a great use of the music in a classroom! I had to do this for a college lit class and I found it super intriguing to see what music my classmates had brought in. I think that from a teachers standpoint it would also be intriguing to see what the students are listening to at home, or what their style of music is and how it reflects themselves. Our professor did tell us to pick appropriate songs though, and I am interested to know more about ideas on how we are supposed to handle cuss words and other inappropriate talk that can be found in this music. Because it is obvious that they will be exposed to it eventually if they haven't already, but do we allow it in a school setting?
DeleteI also want to point out that I totally agree that this music can be a great way to bring storytelling into the classroom, and be an opener for things that can be more difficult to talk about like mental health.
I understand how incorporating hip-hop into classrooms can be beneficial to many of our students, one of my main concerns is what it would do for students who don't like that style of music. I've always had my preferences of music, but when I was younger, I hated music that I didn't listen to. If I had a lesson involving hip-hop or rap in school, I would have been immediately put off by it and it would have made it difficult to learn. Like you quoted in your blog post, "We are asking a great deal from our students when we ask them to invest in material that does not reflect, respond to, or engage with their cultural identities," (Kelly). I think incorporating various forms of literacy; music, songs, movies, pictures, etc. is important, but it is also important to remember that all of our students are individuals first. Many of them may love rap music and that will help them learn and feel included in the classroom. At the same time, many of them may hate it and completely ignore the lesson as a result. Furthermore, it may serve to alienate those children from their peers if the style of music you choose aligns with what is "normal" in that space, but not what appeals to them.
ReplyDeleteI plan to incorporate multi-media forms of literacy such as music in my classroom, but I think it is important to remember to diversify our instruction. Perhaps giving students multiple songs from different genres to choose from that will deliver the same main ideas would be beneficial.
Brandt, I can see where you are coming from! I listened to Hip-Hop with my dad, but I was by no means a Hip-Hip listener. So it can alienate students who don't listen to that type of music and those who strongly dislike Hip-Hop. However, I still think it is beneficial to introduce students to Hip-Hop pedagogy for students who feel a powerful connection to that type of music as well as give those who don't feel strongly about Hip-Hop a different perspective. There are all types of music and in your point, all types of students. We could create our lessons and activities around music for one unit, where each day is a different genre. I think it's important for all students to have a voice and feel included in the classroom. There are enough music genres and enough lessons to be taught to have several options in order to integrate both individuality and diversity. Embracing musical platforms will lead to creative learning.
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DeleteBrandt, I can totally see where you are coming from. When I was younger, and still to this day rock and roll and screamo put me off. So if it were that kind of music trying to be Incorporated into the classroom it would be very difficult for me to pay attention, and i can imagine that hip-hop does that exact thing for some students.
DeleteBrandt, I feel the exact same way. I grew up listening to the music I liked and didn't really listen to anything else. For students like me, who are used to one thing and not interested in rap or hip-hop, this would have probably freaked me out. I think that trying out hip-hop pedagogy would be worth the shot but I also would be cautious so I don't make other students who don't connect to it, feel awkward or uncomfortable. Using lots of different forms of teaching is most important and making sure it is balanced is as well.
DeleteBrant I can see where you are coming from with this point. When I was growing up my parents didn't let me listen to hip hop/rap music. I basically only listened to Radio Disney or the country station, therefore if I were to have been a student in a classroom that was playing rap music I know I would have been uninterested. For example in my art class in elementary school the teacher always played very classical music that I was never a big fan of, and I often would get annoyed or be ready for the class to be over because I didn't like the music. On another note, I also might have felt like I was doing something wrong by listening to rap at school because of the fact that my parents didn't let me listen to it at home.
DeleteBrandt, I had the same thoughts while reading this article! I think incorporating music (in general) could be an extremely beneficial strategy for student engagement, but just as you stated, it could also be difficult to engage students who aren't interested in rap music in specific. I think a few ways to combat a disinterest would be to use various types of music, and maybe even some that exposes our students to new music they might not hear often, for instance jazz. Also, if incorporating music into the classroom activities is something done continuously, it would be important to keep in mind genres that have previously been explored so as not to consistently only incorporate the same genres in order to reach all students interests.
DeleteI agree with your comment on being dis-interested and finding difficulty in learning with rap music. However, I think one way we as teachers can help students who may feel the same way would be to be very intentional about helping these students in finding something meaningful or relatable, and with that being intentional about which songs and activities we put together.
Hip-hop pedagogy is very new concept to me. I have never thought of that being a method of leading unit or discussion in the classroom. I found it very interesting that using this style can allow students to develop skills in critical analysis (Kelly, p. 51). I think hip-hop and rap are absent from classrooms because they are seen as educationally suffice. Especially coming from a different culture, I really only think of the negative connotations of hip-hop and rap. I actually witnessed a teacher last semester incorporate hip-hop into their lesson. It was Kindergarten class, and it was a hip-hop song about counting. Even though it wasn’t like one of the songs presented in the article such as “Homecoming”, but the beat and lyrics sounded was hip-hop. I think this example shows that a teacher can incorporate hip-hop in the classroom even when their students are very young. I am not sure if I would incorporate hip-hop in my classroom that often. I would have to do more research and examine it more and discover my own understanding of it. It would really depend on my classroom environment and me getting to understand my students’ cultures more. However, I do appreciate the fact hip-hop can provide the student to ownership over the materials and their own education (Kelly, p.54).
ReplyDeleteBilly, I agree with you about needing to do additional research to develop a deeper understanding. I think that is one thing that is important for hip-hop being used as a method of teaching. It would be very important to choose a song wisely, if you ever decide to use hip-hop in your classroom. Since "...Hip-hop music is the representative voice of urban youth, since the genre was created by and for them," I think it is important to incorporate some aspect of this pedagogy in the classroom (Morrell & Duncan-Andrade). Of course it would be most beneficial to learn more about your students to see how you can use their cultures as a tool for learning. If they have grown up listening to hip-hop and rap, maybe that would be a good vehicle to teach with so the students are directly engaging with the texts. Since students learn best when they are able to relate to their lesson, it would be most beneficial to find texts for students to actively engage with.
DeleteAs a future teacher would you include any other music genre into your classroom, or would you use the standard texts to teach in an urban environment?
I believe that incorporating almost any type of music into the classroom is beneficial for most students. Music is, at times, universal. At least, it is universally enjoyed. I think Hip-Hop pedagogy can be appropriate for all age levels, where students can even create their own hip-hop songs. Music, specifically hip-hop, can be the anchor educators use to reach students, especially inner-city African Americans and Latino Americans students. Moreover, international students can also benefit from Hip-Hop pedagogy. When I was in the Philippines, my dad would always play Eminem songs such as "The Real Slim Shady" and "My Name Is". These two particular songs are not appropriate for the classroom, however, if Hip-Hop pedagogy was introduced in my elementary classroom, I would not have felt so foreign and excluded. Moreover, it could have been a way to bridge cultures together. In addition, there are also Hip-Hop songs such as Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince to pave the way for appropriate Hip-Hop music, classroom interaction, and creative learning. Music is a fun way students could learn literacy, content, critical thinking, creativity, diversity, self-expression, etc. To accommodate students who are deaf, writing meaningful lyrics and participating in discussion related to these lyrics will still lead to a substantial amount of growth. Additionally, students can integrate their life experiences such as their struggles and hardships, which may be controversial topics that need to be addressed, thoughts and ideas, and personality in order to create their own voice. Hip-Hip is meant to be noticed, from their lyrics, to their dance moves. With this in mind, I would definitely incorporate Hip-Hip into my classroom to give my students a voice while learning several important objectives.
ReplyDeleteLynne, I agree with you how music can benefit students. Music is a reminder of our culture and memories connected to the music. I do feel that it is important for us as the teachers to bring in music that our students know. I appreciate how you brought in your own connection.
DeleteMusic is a gateway for us to connect our students to the classroom!
I remember my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Wilcox would play "ABC" by the Jackson 5 every Friday for when we did specials for music class. It was a fun way to get us excited because not everyone in my class was excited for music class like I was.
I believe adding hip-hop literature into the classroom is such a great and beneficial thing tool. It differentiates the classroom environment. This keeps the students interested for a couple reasons: for one, they aren't just pulling out a book to read or listening to a book, and for two, its a song as students when a teacher adds a song to the lesson plan, that is something pretty cool for them. It is also something that if you are aware of the words and the concept behind the song, can be appropriate at all age levels. However, this is a new style of literature to me. I never had teachers incorporate hip-hop into the classroom. Going off your first question "What will be the biggest draw backs, from a teacher's perspective, of incorporating hip-hop and rap into their classrooms?" I feel that incorporating anything new in the classroom there could be drawbacks. As a teachers perspective, I feel that the biggest drawback of incorporating hip-hop and rap into the classroom would be what if the students in my class don't like that kind of music? I know for a lot of people,if a song comes on and it isn't in their genre of music they like they will zone out and not listen to it. So if i had students do this exact thing, a lot of the lesson based around that song wouldn't make sense to them because they didn't listen.
ReplyDeleteI think that if you are incorporating hip-hop you have to do other genres of music also, just for the reason that not all students like certain types of music. So in regards to your first question I’d say that the draw back would be that not every student is going to be excited to hear hip hop. For question two, I think it would all need to be catered to the grade level that you’re teaching just as everyone else is saying.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that you should incorporate all types of music! I think that hip-hop is the main focus of the article as it is part of the culture for so many students who live in an urban area. For me personally, I am not the biggest fan of hip hop so teaching a lesson like this would definitely put me outside of my comfort zone. I think it would be cool to do a lesson incorporating all genres of music so that all of your students are able to make a cultural connection.
DeleteCultural identities make each student who they are so if they aren't seeing that in the classroom they won't show interest in learning. It is a lot to ask for, like many of the quotes says. I think that music overall can be used in lots of ways in the classroom for lots of different benefits. In response to your second question, I think that hip-hop pedagogy is appropriate for all age levels with some modifications if they are younger. There are so many positive aspects to using it in the classroom so I honestly don't see why any teacher would be fully against it. There are endless ways to incorporate this into the classroom. In my opinion the biggest and most important reason is because it connects students' backgrounds with the instruction they are receiving in school. If that alone doesn't make a teacher so excited, I don't know what could. I have always heard about how music in general is a great way to get students learning but after reading more about it I am even more excited to use it in my classroom someday. I like the idea of using rap music in the classroom because it allows students to share something personal if they connect to the music and also gives them a different way to learn. I know that I struggled a lot with just sitting still and using the "typical" outlooks for learning, so giving students a break from that to use music or rap to instruct is a great idea. I don't think it would be something I do all of the time but I would definitely try it out and see how my students respond. If there are more positive outlooks then I will absolutely do it more often.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Abby and the many quotes there are. That music when incorporated in the classroom can allow for more diversity. Some of the students may never think to even listen to the genres you may be introducing to the class. It is important to see that type of diversity in the classroom. It definitely makes students who they are no matter the grade level.
DeleteThe concept of hip-hop pedagogy is actually not new to me. I had two distinct experiences with this type of lesson in high school.
ReplyDeleteOne was in an English class. My 11th grade English teacher actually would print lyrics to popular songs, play them in class (edited of course) and ask us to analyze the lyrics. Being that the majority of my school listened to rap music this became an increasingly engaging assignment. I believe at one point she even asked for song suggestions.
the second was a music theory class I took as a sophomore. For the class we were required to bring in a song that was meaningful to us, of any genre. We had to play it for the class then give a report on what we felt the lyrics meant. From their, we had to lead a discussion where our peers could analyze and discuss their interpretations of the lyrics as well.
This concept of hip-hop pedagogy is one of engagement and student leadership. At any age, this is a moment where you can turn the teaching over to students and allow them to communicate constructively and intelligently about something they are actively interested in. This type of assignment is something you could later spiral into major reflective writing as well.
I think incorporating Hip-Hop and Rap into the classroom will help with the monotonous feel of the classroom that students might feel and will disrupt the repetitive nature of learning. I agree with everyone's comment when it comes to introducing Hip-Hop pedagogy in the classroom at any age level and it should be modified to fit the grade level. A draw back would be if student's parents don't agree because of the negative connotations Hip-Hop and Rap have. Even if you assure that it is a clean song but still get push back from parents.
ReplyDeleteStudents hear music everywhere. Whether it be at the store and it's on the speakers, if they're in a car and it's on the radio, when they're watching TV and a song a being used on a commercial. So it makes sense that they should hear music in school also.
I agree with Brandt's comment too. Music chosen to give a lesson about can and should be diverse. Choosing songs from different genres and analyzing those can introduce students to music they've never heard of and also different cultures where the music originates from.
I feel that incorporating music has a benefit for the students and for the teachers. Music brings out the creative side of people and helps them think. I do think bringing in rap and hip hop would be a fun way to bring in what the students like. Music is everywhere that we go. we hear it in the grocery store, movies, TV shows and even in gas stations. I think bringing in music into the classroom would be a great way for students to connect their schooling to their community and what they like.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I see as a drawback is that rap is not always appropriate for school. I feel that the teachers should take their time in choosing songs or making them so that all students will benefit from it. Another drawback that I see is that not all students enjoy rap or hip hop. I think bringing in different genres will allow the students who do not like rap or hip hop to listen to something that they enjoy and will benefit from it.
Ensuring to choose appropriate songs when presenting them in the classroom was something that I also immediately thought of Amanda. I think that certain songs are more appropriate for different age groups, and having discussion before playing the song so that your students understand the reason why you're choosing to play that particular song is also important. Music is one way that helps a lot of students to remember things more clearly and would be a great tool to use in the classroom.
DeleteI feel like incorporating music into the classroom definitely has it's benefits. Of course I believe the music should be clean and school appropriate, but it allows for more diversity and allows students to tell their story from a different view. I think one of the things I would have appreciated in school would've been music incorporated only because growing up I only listened to what my parents listened to. So we didn't listen to Hip Hop or RnB. We listened to the oldies station and country. Where I am coming from is that if music would've been incorporated than I may have had a more diverse music selection as I got older. It really wasn't until college that I started listening to Hip Hop, RnB or pop music. My brother as I got older would always tell me you need to listen to other genres and broaden you horizons and that is what I have done. I have kind of already answer question two, but I do think all grade levels need to hear different music genres because it adds more diversity to the classroom setting.
ReplyDeleteOne draw back of incorporating hip-hop in the classroom will be having the music remain appropriate. Sometimes these songs can be quite outlandish and not be suited for children. Another draw back will be making sure that it is okay with parents and that they approve it for the class. If they start to complain or feel it is not suiting their children it could become an issue for you as a teacher.
ReplyDeleteResponding to question 2. I am excited to use hip-hop in my classroom! However, I can see how some teachers may be hesitant to incorporate it in theirs. A lot of hip-hop, especially newer songs, have inappropriate lyrics or themes that wouldn’t be suitable for elementary or even middle school students. Even though some students may listen to these songs outside of school, there are a few songs that have positive messages and minimal profanities (that can be redacted) that would be better for instruction. If there are students anything like me, they’ll get lost in the music, especially if it’s a song the know and like. This may cause students to miss the purpose of the lesson, which would be concerning to teachers who care about the success of their students. An easy way to combat this would be to have printed lyrics that the students would have to follow along and engage with while the song was playing.
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