The Article
Can educators reach urban youth labeled "non-academic" or "semi-literate" using popular music in the classroom? Assistant Professor Ernest Morrell and teacher Jeff Duncan-Andrade hypothesized that hip-hop could be used as a vehicle for students to develop analytical skills for literary texts. In this book chapter, Morrell and Duncan-Andrade describe a unit they taught to urban students using rap texts as a bridge to understanding poetry.

The Discussion
Morrell and Duncan-Andrade taught this experimental unit to a 12th grade class at an urban, multicultural school in northern California. Their goals were to present culturally and socially relevant material, to critically expose students to the literary canon, and to facilitate college-level expository writing. They began with a general overview of poetry, presenting all the literary periods in a historical timeline, with rap music placed in the post-industrial revolution. This was designed to give students a familiar "lens" in which to examine the other literary works. Next the class was divided into small groups that had to analyze the links between a poem and a rap song, such as "O Me! O Life!" by Walt Whitman and "Don't Believe the Hype" by Public Enemy. The last component of the unit involved students completing an anthology of ten poems that contained an elegy, a ballad, a sonnet and various other thematic poems. As an additional assignment completed outside of class, students were allowed to write a critical essay on a song of their choice. Morrell and Duncan-Andrade described excerpts of class discussions and observations in their chapter. They relayed how students were able to generate some excellent interpretation between the canonical poems and the rap text. For instance, one group discussed the role allegory played in their two poems where both John Donne and the "Refugee Camp" used a relationship with a lover to symbolize the love and agony the poet feels for society. They concluded that the unit was consistent with the original goals, and were pleased that the students also were able to have fun learning about a genre of music they were familiar with.

What It Means to You
Do you know students who exhibit high intellectual abilities, but are academically underachieving? Are they able to critically analyze complex elements of pop culture, yet fail to exhibit the same skills in class? Morrell and Duncan-Andrade's article raise the question of whether the problem isn't with the student, but rather with the school's ability to help them reach their academic potential.

For More Information
Morrell, E.& Duncan-Andrade, J. (2002). What do they learn in school: Using hip-hop as a bridge between youth culture and canonical poetry texts. In J. Mahiri (Ed.), What They Don't Learn in School: Literacy in the Lives of Urban Youth. New York: Peter Lang.

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