Comments on: Rap for English

By: Paul Davenport

Paul Davenport — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:14:02 +0000

As can be seen on my website, I am very interested in raps. Way over here in Germany, there’s a healthy rap culture with talented rappers like Peter Fox and ‘Die Fantastischen Vier’ to name only a couple.
After writing two readers about rappers (‘King of the Rappers’ and ‘Rapping for Shelly’, I’ve begun writing rap texts for use in EFL (English as a Foreign Language)classes. My raps are about current issues, ‘timeless’ questions (What’s Life Rap), serious and silly, hitting the various target groups (5th to 12th graders.)
I’m in retirement now, but am often invited to come to schools. When I do, I get out my trusty tape recorder, play a good solid rap beat and get the kids to perform a rap or two.
There’s a lot of anxiety and prejudice about rap music over here as there is in the US, but we’re making some inroads -I hope.

By: MarDullah. $$$

MarDullah. $$$ — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:05:08 +0000

ITSz B3TT3R T0 US3 M0R3 INT3LLIG3NT
W0RDSz IN A RAP.! Y0U G3T PPL WIDD THAT.!

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 02:11:07 +0000

Denise,

I like your ideas. I think they’ll serve you well. One thing I’d watch out for is the idea of “proper” English. Granted there’s English that school accepts and we want to teach that but you’ve got to be really careful about calling the language kids come in with as “improper.” Remember it’s very likely their parent(s) speak that way and their friends etc. I tended to portray it more like school English and the rules needed for this situation vs. non-school English for the things you do outside of school.

Whiteout should work. We have enough extreme conservatives in my school district that even that might not have been enough. So just make sure you know your community/admins.

I did the exact same type of thing in terms of teaching English vocab and poetry by comparing more traditional poetry with rap lyrics which had similar themes. I had a lot of success with that and it was fun.

Tom

By: Denise

Denise — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:09:11 +0000

I am in graduate school now to be a 5-12th grade ELA teacher with the goal of working in an urban environment. Working with rap music/lyrics connects what we’re trying to say with their life/reality. As far as swearing, the kids do use it but I think for my classroom, I’ll whiteout the offensive words (kind of a visual “bleep”). I can see it working to help teach what proper English is (so many of these kids speak the language of rappers that I often wonder if they even know it’s wrong!). Plus, I think you can teach symbolism, metaphors, similies, etc… through song lyrics as well as you can through formal pieces written by “dead English guys” (and which do you think the students will be more interested in). It would be great to evaluate a song lyric and then find a poem speaking on the same line to compare (I think 50 Cent “21 Questions” and a poem about questioning a loved one’s devotion woudl be a great comparison!). I can’t wait to get into the classroom to try my ideas! I’d appreciate your comments and thoughts!

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:47:42 +0000

Erinn,

Not sure how much help I’d be with this as I’m now working in college rather than the K12 environment anymore. I’d be happy to talk to you about how I did use it and the results at the time.

If it all works out I’ll be teaching a class at the Univ. of Richmond next year and plan to really work with incorporating not just rap but lots of different aspects of popular culture to get at some difficult material.

Tom

By: Erinn C hioma

Erinn C hioma — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:17:46 +0000

Tom,

I am interested if you are utilizing rap in your classes. I am doing a dissertation and would like to see results from this modality.

By: The Jose Vilson » Step Into a World

The Jose Vilson » Step Into a World — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:02:11 +0000

[...] a recent conversation about rap over at Bionic Teaching, I highlighted the essence of how teachers should approach rap and hip-hop [...]

By: True to his Grammar - Dizzee Rascal at Bionic Teaching

True to his Grammar - Dizzee Rascal at Bionic Teaching — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:43:11 +0000

[...] Remember the whole point is to find interests you and your students share and then leverag them to the hilt. Despite growing up in Alabama, I like rap, always have. If you don’t like rap and you try to fake it things will go very, very badly. This is true of most things in life and in teaching. Faking = bad. (that’s the condensed wisdom of this comment thread) [...]

By: Tracy

Tracy — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:12:22 +0000

I’m liking this conversation and am finding myself nodding as I read jose’s comment – “…do we want to ignore his rhymes because he uses profanities that are part of the world or do we instead discuss why those profanities come into play, especially in this urban art form? Hmmm.”

Why are we worried about bringing profanity into the classroom? So kids won’t swear? so kids won’t know we swear?

Instead, let’s look at why it is there and the effects it has on us as listeners.

A few years ago I developed a unit on poetry for one of my groups. We looked at Sonia Sanchez, Langston Hughes and Tupac Shakur amongst others. One of my students went ahead and made a website defending rap music as poetry, using Tupac as poet/rap artist.

This year, in teaching alliteration and rhyme I looked back at Del, Eric B and Rakim, EPMD, and Blackalicious. My students got a giggle out of the ‘old’ rap I was showing them and scrambled over each other to find examples of alliteration in ‘their’ music.

Now we are moving on to creating their own poems – a la spoken word – to eventually perform. It’s a long process, but some are already starting to watch different spoken word artists (including rap and hip hop) to find out what makes a good spoken word performance.

And these are kids with special needs (she says with a wide smile on her face).

I am discovering how amazing it can be to inspire kids with what is already around them

By: The Jose Vilson » Makes Me Wanna Holla

The Jose Vilson » Makes Me Wanna Holla — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:52:36 +0000

[...] to Dan, who not only made me this great poster, but also linked me to a dope discussion on using rap in English (ELA) class. His comments on the post in particular gives him major props. Tell him Mr. V sent [...]