Flocabulary is commited to innovating education and reaching every student in America (especially those for whom traditional methods of learning are failing). But we certainly aren't alone. Throughout America, countless teachers and community groups are finding ways to incorporate hip-hop into their lessons and activities as a way of engaging and teaching students, whether they're teaching language arts, dancing, media awareness, or about hip-hop culture itself.
Lesson plans
Jazz, Poetry, Hip-Hop Lesson Plan from PBS
PBS (to promote Ken Burns’ film Jazz) offers this giant lesson plan on exploring African-American musical forms. It can be used in conjunction with the film, or not.
The Poetics of Hip-Hop
A lesson plan that teaches poetic techniques using Shakespeare, Nicki Giovanni (who has listened to Flocabulary!), and positive hip-hop acts Blackalicious and Jurassic Five. Comprehensive, but lengthy (four 45 minute sessions).
Media Literacy, Body Image and More
Flipping the Script offers a few different lesson plans on various topics from media literacy and social studies to hip-hop and body image.
Articles on Hip-Hop in the Classroom
Top Ten Shakeseare/Hip-Hop Analogies
A playful list that links famous Shakesperian characters with their modern-day Hip-Hop equivalents. For example: “Hamlet – Eminem. Done in by the women around them, they respond in kind with pure misogyny.”
Hip-Hop High (Edutopia)
A great article about high-school teachers connecting to students using hip-hop and poetry. The article quotes from teacher and author Alan Sitomer who notes,“I had to fight the students to embrace classic poetry, and had to fight the [school] administration to embrace contemporary poetry. It was uphill on both fronts." That’s a sentiment we’ve heard echoed from teachers all across America.
Should Schools Embrace Pop Culture for Educational Goals?
An intelligent article by teacher Kenneth Smith weighing both sides of the debate over using hip-hop music (and pop culture in general) in the classroom to engage students.
Educators Use Rap Music as Teaching Tool
NPR broadcast on teachers in Los Angeles who use rap music to engage their students.
Promoting Academic Literary with Urban Youth through Engaging Hip-hop Culture
A paper that discusses using hip-hop texts in classrooms to teach critical reading. With a general introduction about the “Hip-hop generation.” By Ernest Morrell and Jeffrey M. R. Duncan-Andrade.
Hip-Hop Poetry and the Classics
Alan Sitomer’s book teaches poetic techniques using Blake, Nas, Shelley, Eminem and other classic poets linked with modern rappers.
Professor Hip-Hop
Article about University of Illinois professor William Patterson who teaches using hip-hop in his classes. He even named on of his course offerings after a Wu-Tang Clan song, “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)”.
Philadelphia’s ‘Hip Hop 101 Curriculum Guide’
This article isn’t about using hip-hop to teach traditional academic subjects, but about teachers in Philadelphia teaching hip-hop itself. Having students explore topics that they’re passionate about is the best way to get them to learn study tools, discussion tactics, and research methods.
Consulting Cool
An article on Emmett Price, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston who teaches fellow faculty members about hip-hop culture so they can better understand why their students might wear that hats backwards.
Hip-Hop Education Innovator
A profile of Martha Diaz, founder of H2Ed, and her use of hip-hop films and Tupac in the classroom.
Bringing ‘Def Poetry’ to Schools
An NPR interview with Russell Simons and his quest to get hip-hop poetry into schools in the United States.
Young B-Boys and B-Girls School the Rules
An article on Hip-Hop education in the Bay Area (and beyond), which notes that “when you consider hip-hop's notorious history of advocating violence, denigrating women, and glorifying gangsta-ism, it's no surprise that many educators have only recently discovered there's more to it than AK-47s and copious bags of weed.”
MEMORY AND MUSIC
Proving Music Has Power
An article that focuses on research on music helping those with memory loss recover memories and heal from strokes. They note that, “clinical evidence has shown that persons with memory deficits can still recall familiar music.” They are currently running an experiment to determine whether someone with short-term memory deficits can retain information embedded in a song.
Music Instruction Aids Verbal Memory
Article outlining a connection between learning an instrument and having a strong verbal memory. “Students with musical training recalled significantly more words than the untrained students.”
