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4 Effective ways to use Hip Hop in the Classroom
Hip hop is considered the language of global youth culture, and it has become popular over the last few decades. Hinton said, “in the past, that often meant a well-meaning teacher is putting on a gold chain and imitating something you might have seen on You MTV Raps in the late 80’s”
“But today, many educators and more thoughtful about how best to use hip-hop in the classroom”
Applying hip-hop elements in the lesson plan and different teaching methods increases the students’ engagement by encouraging culturally sustaining classrooms. In such a classroom environment, cultural backgrounds and histories of each student from different colors, races, ethnicity, and language are embraced and support improved learning outcomes.
It empowers the minority in the classroom and supports the idea that black youth-created hip hops and changed the world of music.
Use hip hop to set the mood
For every hip hop show or event, it’s the primary duty of DJs to play music to set the music for hip hop. In classrooms, students can create a playlist featuring their favorite hip-hop instrumentals to set the mood for the course. Hip hop instrumentals can be played during any activity independently or during group work. Students should have a chance to create a playlist of their favorite songs.
Choose socially relevant projects
It is a very well-known fact that hip hop mainly focuses on being authentic to self, so students should be given an opportunity to work on projects related to their social life. It will make a difference in their communities. Using hip-hop in the science classroom allows students to have increased engagement in the subject and feel comfortable.
It also helps them to develop a positive science identity. Young people can build their own understanding of science when they get involved and make connections with hip hop. They feel more prepared and knowledgeable regarding the course content.
USE HIP HOP for Physical learning activities
You better know that break dancing is an essential aspect of hip hop; while teaching science, you can provide an opportunity to students to do physical activities. For example, when teaching the states of matter, students can imagine themselves particles and move around the room just like particles when they are in high or low energy states.
When particles are in a low energy state, students can move closer to one another to a fixed position to mimic solid; when energy increases, they can move faster to mimic a gas.
Big and bold text on board
As graffiti is used in hip hop to convey a message and ask for space. Students can similarly treat the chalkboard/whiteboard as their canvas to illustrate the visual representation of scientific concepts.
Apart from all this, hip hop can be integrated into the curriculum as well. It can be used as the culturally responsive foundation for cross-curricular studies like creative writing, reading, math, and even statistics. Hip hop can also be used to teach citizenship, copyright, and intellectual property to students. So, fearlessly use hip-hop in the classroom to create an effective learning environment
References
Adjapong, Edmund. “5 Ways to Use Hip-Hop in the Classroom to Build Better Understanding of Science.”
Lee, Laura. “The Power of Rap and Hip-Hop in the Classroom.”
https://www.edutopia.org/article/power-rap-and-hip-hop-classroom.
Millis. “Hip Hop Pedagogy: Using Music as a Tool for Learning.”
https://online.mills.edu/blog/hip-hop-pedagogy/.
