Quote: "Instead of shutting out this experience [music], you bring it in. You encourage students to look at words in rap songs, and discuss poetry, metaphor and assonance, using words from Eminem. These students begin to engage with literacy, to write poetry and to tell their life stories. You have drawn out their out-of-school literacies to engage them in the classroom" (Literacy and Education, pg9).
Comment: I think this is a huge ah-ha moment when teachers realize this! We have to create community in our classrooms where they feel valued and loved for who they are, and this is a great way to do that. Not only will it create a great sense of community, but it will engage them in something that seems abstract or only available at school. Like, for example, how Dr. Wimmer said that a teacher told her that her students weren't engaged in Romeo and Juliet until she related the story to gang rivalry. We have to connect school to the students' outside lives so that they can make school- to- world connections and realize that they can actually use what they're learning. If they can learn that rap (and all music) is a form of poetry and it tells a story, they will realize that they can do it to, and they'll want to. It's like putting Michael Jordan in a Nike commercial --- that instantly makes Nike cool and kids want a pair of Nike shoes so that they can be like Michael Jordan. Students will react the same way to literacy if we can find a way to relate it to their outside lives.
Question: Do you think this will really work? Is it a good idea? What other types of activities could we as teachers use in the classroom from the students' outside lives that could teach literacy, or any other subject for that matter?
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