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Don't Believe the Hype: Hip‐Hop Literacies and English Education
Author(s) -
Belle Crystal
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of adolescent and adult literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1936-2706
pISSN - 1081-3004
DOI - 10.1002/jaal.574
Subject(s) - curriculum , literacy , scholarship , pedagogy , ninth , literacy education , sociology , psychology , mathematics education , political science , physics , acoustics , law
Current scholarship suggests that many youths identify with hip‐hop, especially youths of color. Study of this artistic form has been suggested as a means of helping youths acquire and become fluent in literacy practices. This article explores how the use of a hip‐hop literacies curriculum addressed the literacy skills of urban ninth‐grade English students while helping them contextualize the significance of their in‐school and out‐of‐school literacy experiences. The article explains the connections between literacies and hip‐hop–based education, illustrates how hip‐hop can serve as a culturally responsive and rigorous pedagogical tool in the English classroom, and shares students' views on the use of such curriculum.