"Music is the universal language of mankind." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer

“This is Hip Hop of today 
I give props to Hip Hop so Hip Hop hooray...ho...hey...ho!” 
~ Naughty By Nature


Hip-hop in the classroom? I have to say that I have never used it. Not because I don't like it. I mean, really, who doesn't get in a good mood when "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock plays? "It Takes Two" - Go ahead and play it. It will bring a smile! 


"Ice, Ice Baby"? It's a classic! Although I am not sure that everyone would agree that it is hip-hop.




As a high school teacher, Morrell decided to utilize hip-hop music in his class to help create a critical discourse that was centered around his students, while also promoting academic literacy. Some facts behind hip-hop that Morrell uses as a basis for his decision are (58-60): 

• Hip-hop transcends race, class, and gender.
• Rap is the reflection of the hopes, concerns and aspirations of urban Black youth. The goal is to "educate" listeners.
• It promotes social consciousness, ex. Lauryn Hill, Mos Def, Public Enemy
• Hip-hop texts can be used to scaffold literary terms: imagery, irony, metaphor, diction, tone, point of view, theme, motifs, plot, character development

The three goals of Morrell's senior English unit, along with a colleague, were (60):

1. To utilize hip-hop to scaffold the critical and analytical skills that the students already possess.
2. To provide students with the awareness and confidence they need to transfer these skills into/onto the literary texts from the canon.
3. To enable students to critique the messages sent to them through the popular cultural media that permeate their everyday lives. 

To do this, Morrell and Duncan-Andrade situated hip-hop historically and socially, then discussed its growth as a response to urban post-industrialism. With this, they also needed to incorporate the Elizabethan poetry age, the Puritan revolution, and the Romantics, which were all required by the school district, as well as knowledge for the AP exam and college-level English. The objectives of the unit were for students to develop oral/written debate skills, to facilitate group work, to help students deliver public presentations, to teach students how to critique a poem/song in a critical essay, to help student develop note-taking skills, and to help students become comfortable writing in different poetic forms.

After providing the students with information pertaining to the historical and literary periods, Morrell divided the class into eight groups, assigning each a hip-hop song and poem to present to the class. The students were assigned to analyze the link between the two and to interpret the texts in regards to their historical and literary period. In addition, the students were also tasked to create their own poems of varying styles, some of which were to be about a societal issue that the students felt strongly about. 


Morrell was pleased the responses from his students. The connection between hip-hop and poetry was evident as the students compared the societal issues found in the songs to the real-life examples they witnessed. The familiarity with the music helped to open the doorway for the students so that they could take the analyzing skills they applied to the songs and then apply the same skills to the poetry. 


It is important to remember that just throwing the songs into the curriculum isn't helpful though. The teacher must help the students to create meaning. And, the teacher must also be aware of what "texts" surround the students. I have found that just talking with my students gives me an idea of what they are listening to and watching. Personally, as an 8th grade teacher, many hip-hop songs would be inappropriate for my students, but I can still incorporate many of the mainstream songs that they know. During a unit on teen angst, we spend a few periods listening to and analyzing lyrics of songs that the students have recommended, which they believe reflect the stresses and issues that the students face daily. After discussion as a class, the students then find their own song that they feel a connection to so that they can write a reflection of it it to me. They really seem to enjoy the assignment and I learn the most about them from this lesson; 8th graders are surprisingly open when they feel that they are in a safe environment!     


****

Morrell's Poem and Song Comparisons


“Kubla Khan” - Coleridge and “If I Ruled the World’ - Nas
“Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” - T.S. Eliot and “The Message” - Grandmaster Flash
“O Me! O Life!” - Walt Whitman and “Don’t Believe the Hype” - Public Enemy
“Immigrants in Our Own Land” - Baca and “The World is a Ghetto” - Geto Boys
“Sonnet 29” - Shakespeare and “Affirmative Action” - Nas
“The Canonization” - Donne and “Manifest” - Refugee Camp
“Repulse Bay” - Chin and “Good Day” - Ice Cube
"Still I Rise" - “Still I Rise” - Maya Angelou and “Cell Therapy” - Goodie Mob

Morrell, E. (2004). Linking Literacy and Popular Culture: Finding Connections for Lifelong Learning.    Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers. 

Why "teach" Popular Culture?

The question is “Why teach Popular Culture?”

I thought the answer was simple, because it is important to adolescents. Seems simple enough, right? But, as a teacher, I have some across times when someone will make a comment about reading “the classics” or he/she may imply that by not teaching the accepted canon of literature, I, and others, am doing a disservice to the students. Perhaps I am, but as a literature teacher I am constantly looking for novels, stories, movies, etc., that will engage the interests of my students. As much as I love some of the novels from my youth, my passion will only push the students so far; the stories just aren’t as relevant to them.

I can’t think of one of my 8^th graders this year that never watches TV or movies, plays video games, listens to music, or reads magazines; they are inundated with various forms of culture. And since all these forms of media surround them, why shouldn’t we use it in the classroom? I mean, does it really matter if a student has read To Kill a Mockingbird if they can receive the same thematic message from a song, a poem, a short story, or a movie? (Side note – I do have my enriched students read this in class…I love the book!)

Morrell makes the case for pop culture in the classroom by providing four main reasons for its use (37). They are:

Popular Culture is…

…relevant to the lives of adolescents. Since many adolescents spend their time immersed in magazines, music, movies and TV, we should use these items to help students to be able to critically analyze the information in them so that they may become more conscious consumers of media. Much production of mainstream media is geared directly toward adolescents and young adults, forcing them to grow aware of the messages and material. There is an argument that pop culture can actually have a negative impact on students, due to it being harmful to their self-esteem, especially in ways in which groups are portrayed (stereotypes). To help combat this, teachers should be help their students to be active learners, learning the ways to critically look at something in order to determine its purpose, or effect it may have on others.  

…is embedded with relevant literacy practices. I mentioned earlier that I sometimes have the feeling that some teachers believe that the “classics,” and only the classics, should be used in a classroom. Morrell mentions that this goes back to a long held belief of the differences between popular culture and “elite” culture. He argues that the literacy practices the students are involved with are actually just as rigorous, if not more so, as the classics used in many secondary classrooms. Many students, when interested in a new movie or band, will read the articles found in Rolling Stone or Spin. These articles are mostly non-fiction, informational expository texts, which more and more surround the students (either in standardized tests or just their everyday reading.) Many times these magazines also include articles that impact the everyday social and cultural aspect of the student’s environment, whether it concerns the current economic status of the country, current political debates, or any other issue of significance. The use of the Internet has also helped the students to become better researchers. Although we still have a problem with possible plagiarism and incorrect information, the Internet does allow us to teach students the strategies needed to critique, analyze, and evaluate information.      

…can help students make connections to academic texts and concepts. Morrell draws upon Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in order to support his belief that the use of pop culture in the classroom will help students to use their strengths and background experiences as starting points that will help them to build upon more skills and concepts. As teachers, we need to take steps to celebrate the diversity of all the students in our classes, by allowing them the opportunity to make sense of the texts that are important to them and that permeate their lives. Then, they will become better equipped to engage with more challenging and complex texts later. SIDENOTE - This reminds me of the movie Dangerous Minds with Michelle Pfeiffer (based on the true story of LouAnne Johnson). Do you remember it? If I remember correctly, she becomes a teacher and the majority of her students just do not want to engage in ANY learning experience. So, in order to help them she brings in the music of Bob Dylan, karate, and the poetry of Dylan Thomas.  I am not sure how many of her students really liked, or had even heard of, Bob Dylan, but in the movie some students did do a turnaround.

…fosters greater motivation among students. Morrell cites two theories of achievement motivation that he uses to help support his opinion of pop culture in the classroom: Expectancy-Value Models of Motivation (EVM) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Using the EVM theory, Morrell argues that by including elements of pop culture familiar to students, they will have greater expectation to succeed, as well as having a greater incentive to work as well, both components of the theory. The SCT builds upon Bandura’s belief that people will learn skills when they are motivated to do so, and that self-efficacy is a key in achievement. There is also the social aspect of learning that is important, and the idea that students learn better or more through enactive learning (learning reinforced through reward and punishment), learning by doing, and vicarious learning; all a part of the social element Morrell uses throughout his examples in the book.    

I have to say that right now, I am thoroughly enjoying this book. It makes so much sense to me that I am having a hard time imagining someone arguing against these practices in a classroom. Perhaps it is because I am a newer (11 years) teacher, than some of those with whom I work (one of my teammates began teaching the year after I was born), that I can understand the need to pull the students into the learning. And truth be told, I kinda like some of the same things they do!  


What is next? How to include music in the classroom!  

Morrell, E. (2004). Linking Literacy and Popular Culture: Finding Connections for Lifelong Learning. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers.

What is Popular Culture?

So, the first item addressed by Morrell, is the most important: What is Popular Culture? When I first began thinking about the topic, I had this idea in my head about pop culture; movies, TV, anything mainstream, i.e., Comic-Con. I didn't think it was that difficult to define; however, it seems to be a topic that is vague because many different people have many different opinions about what it is.

Morrell believes that in order to understand pop culture, one must first understand cultural theory. So here is the abbreviated Cliff Notes version, according to Morrell, as interpreted by yours truly.

Two schools of thought emerged in the 20th century, and both had beliefs concerning pop culture. 

The Frankfurt School of Social Research

• began in the late 1920s; was a collaboration of philosophers, sociologists, and literary theorists
• the combination of the school's Marxism and psychoanalysis became known as critical theory
• believed that modern society was a struggle between two economic classes: bourgeoisie (property-owning class) and the proletariat (working class)
• since the bourgeoisie controlled the economic base of society, they also controlled the cultural institutions of that society...basically they controlled what they wanted promoted to society
• Antonio Gramsci - a Marxist theorist - sought to find a way to explain how the majority of people would accept a system that oppressed them, without rebelling or revolting 
• added the term, hegemony - the ideas, strategies, and beliefs that the dominant class uses to gain support/consent from the lower class - I think of this as propaganda techniques that are used to manipulate society (two other theorists Max Horkheimer and Ted Arno termed the media, popular music, film, and TV as cultural industries; the industries that promoted the beliefs)

Onto the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS)

• founded by Richard Hoggart as a place to engage in the study of mass culture
• along with Raymond Williams and Stuart Hall, they sought to create a way to celebrate the everyday mass culture of the working-class (notably absent in the Frankfurt School)

Differences?

• Frankfurt School saw popular culture as a tool for social control, whereas the CCCS saw it as a celebration and as a sire of resistance

Morrell notes that together these two schools reveal a tension in cultural theory and the study of popular culture..."the same culture that represents working-class resistance can also be marketed to reinforce social inequality." (28)

To help explain popular culture further, Morrell relies on the work of John Storey, from his book An Introductions to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture.  Storey created six definitions that Morrell will use throughout his book. They are:

• Popular culture is culture that is well liked by many people
• Popular culture is what remains after we have decided what is high culture
• Popular culture is mass culture
• Popular culture is that culture which originates from the people
• Popular culture is inspired by ne0-Gamscian hegemony theory
• Popular culture can be viewed through the lens of postmodernism that no longer recognizes the distinction between high and popular culture (31-32)

Two others that Morrell references are Henry Giroux, one of the American cultural theorists responsible for bringing the discussion of popular culture in to education, and Jabari Mahiri, who examines the curricular practices of urban teachers and how they might challenge dominant norms and standards that may be detrimental to students and families.

What does it all mean? The study of popular culture and the implications it has on students is necessary for teachers, especially due to fact that our students are inundated, daily, with various cultural aspects of society.  

So, next time, we shall look at reasons why it is imperative that we examine the role of pop culture in the lives of our students, and how we might utilize it in order to help engage and motivate students, while also improving their literacy.

 

Morrell, E. (2004). Linking Literacy and Popular Culture: Finding Connections for Lifelong Learning. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers.

Linking Literacy and Popular Culture: Finding Connections to Lifelong Learning

When choosing a book for my book review, I wanted to read something that I could also apply to my classroom. I teach 8^th grade English, so anything that would help me to engage my students with any sort of reading that would help them to become more literate would be wonderful. I see my job in the classroom as a facilitator who is there to help students to find and make connections so that they may become more invested in their learning. Since I am interested in popular culture (which I will mostly refer to as pop culture), I decided that I should look for something that would help me to bring in all sorts of the media and culture with which my students are surrounded.

And low and behold I found a book, Linking Literacy and Popular Culture: Finding Connections for Lifelong Learning, by Ernest Morrell. The book is broken into three different sections that I will outline through various entries: The Prospect, The Practice, The Possibilities.

Why literacy and pop culture you may ask? The answer is simple. Students are constantly surrounded by the media and the culture of their environment (later I will give the definitions of popular culture, as described by Morrell). In class, I find myself battling with the decline of the students’ writing as they use their text-messaging lingo in their papers, e.g., ur, l8r, lol, as well as their lack of critical thinking skills. Lately, I have begun thinking that perhaps I should not worry so much about whether or not my students read To Kill a Mockingbird or Fahrenheit 451, and rather, I should turn the focus onto items that THEY find interesting, whether it be movies, TV, or music. Perhaps the path to deeper understanding is to find the passion of the students and help them to apply the knowledge to a broader context.

And so, the journey begins…