Mic Check: One, Two, … One, Teach!

I like salsa and chips, and I like six,
Gimme six!
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey."
Gimme six!
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey."
I said gimme six!
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey." 

Alright class,
It's time to get busy. Follow me.

6 times 1 is no trick,
'Cause 6 times 1 is 6.

6 times 2 does it ring a bell?
'Cause 6 times 2 is 12.

6 times 3 I don't want to, make me,
Ok, 6 times 3 is 18.

6 times 4, uh, never snore,
'Cause 6 times 4 is 24.

6 times 5 you'll chirp like a birdy,
'Cause 6 times 5 is 30.

Rap these words like an emcee, and you would fit right into my classroom. I’m a third-grade teacher in Irvington, N.J. I’m also a “hip-hop head.” For 10 years now, I’ve been using my favorite kind of music to teach science, social studies, language arts, life skills, and math.

It all started when a colleague introduced me to Flocabulary.com, a learning program that uses educational hip-hop music to engage students at all grade levels and increase achievement.

I was captivated.

The next day, during my math block, I closed my classroom door and played a math hip-hop song from the website. The students didn’t miss a beat. They started rapping and giving division and multiplication answers with joy.

Over time, I saw how students picked up concepts faster than when I taught from textbooks alone. I realized that I had a tool to motivate students and liven up my classroom.

The students are so enthralled with the videos that I even use them as a classroom management technique. If I say I won’t play the videos that day because of behavior problems, the students correct their behavior immediately.

Teaching with hip-hop has been so successful that I created a workshop for educators, called “Racial Literacy Circles: Hip-Hop Edition,” where I talk about cultivating genius in Black and Brown children. And through NEA, I’ve had the opportunity to teach the workshop to colleagues around the country.

These are some of the fellow hip-hop heads that I’ve met along the way, and how they bring their love of the art into their classrooms:

Allow me to introduce myself

Hi, I’m your teacher Mr. Jackson,
I’m here to teach you how to add and how to do subtraction, multiply, divide, and fractions,
But the main attraction is the rapping.

We accept everybody here,
No matter what you’re looking like,
No matter your race, religion, or hobbies,
No matter what books you like.

That’s how fourth-grade teacher Toney Jackson introduces himself to his class at the beginning of the year. His students at Nellie K. Parker Elementary School, in Hackensack, N.J., rap along with him to learn English language arts, math, and other subjects. The students learn his lyrics, repeat them quietly when recalling facts, write their own lyrics, and sometimes freestyle original lyrics on the spot.

Jackson began using rap in his classrooms more than 20 years ago. He recalls, “When I used to substitute teach in a middle school, I would freestyle with students to connect with them. In high schools, I would talk to the kids about artists they listened to.”

When Jackson landed his first full-time teaching job, he started writing rhymes to go with the lessons.

Jackson says his school community supports his use of hip-hop as a teaching technique, but that’s not the case in all schools. He shares: “I do see resistance in the education space to ideas that are non-traditional, or that center narratives of groups that have been historically oppressed and marginalized, or that depart from the standard practices.”  

As for his students, their response is exuberant most of the time. But what happens if a student isn’t a fan of rap? “That’s OK,” Jackson says. “They come to see that this is how their teacher shares his authentic self with them, and in the best cases, they feel more free to share their authentic selves as well.”

Sing about me

Promise that you will sing about me
Promise that you will sing about me
I said when the lights shut off
And it’s my turn to settle down
My main concern
Promise that you will sing about me
Promise that you will sing about me

—Kendrick Lamar

Gabriel “Asheru” Benn, a high school English teacher in Washington, D.C., pairs these Kendrick Lamar lyrics from “Sing About Me” as an opening to Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.” He relates how Lamar’s description of growing up in a neighborhood that lacks resources can lead to destructive choices. He then cross-references that song with the iambic pentameter of a Robert Frost poem, which is also about choices.

Benn is not only an educator, he’s also the Peabody award-winning hip-hop writer and performer of the theme song to The Boondocks, a show formerly on the Cartoon Network. Today, he is also the creator of H.E.L.P, The Hip Hop Educational Literacy Program.

“[When I started teaching], all of us were trying to figure out how do we teach kids that can’t read the content that we’re supposed to teach them? My instinct was to go straight to hip-hop,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll take one lyric, and I’ll put it up on the board and have them write a brief constructive response, and then ask, ‘What do you think about that verse?’”

This often opens up discussions about social issues and what’s going on in the world, he adds.

Peace, unity, and having fun

My students got plans of traveling like performers,
The world will absorb ya if let it in your mental, 
Just do ya very best, to impress what you get into,
Don’t stop, just continue on your journey, 
This for those thinking the gift wasn’t worthy.

—Dwayne L. Sheppard

Dwayne L. Sheppard wrote these lyrics for his sixth- and seventh-grade students at Martin Luther King Jr. SCHOOL 6, in Passaic, N.J. By day, Sheppard is a social studies teacher; by night, he’s a professional hip-hop artist who goes by the stage name Venomous2000. But his passion for hip-hop shows up in his classroom, too, where he incorporates Nintendo orchestra music, Wu-Tang instrumentals, Afrobeat drums, Brazilian funk, and other musical genres into his lessons.

“I’m mindful of parents who might think I’m trying to push my musical influence on their kids. Instead, I create random, fun songs about things like missing assignments, student achievements, or even the cafeteria food,” Sheppard shares.

“Hip-hop has the power to unite or divide depending on how it’s presented. Its core principles—love, peace, unity, and having fun—are timeless,” he says. “Hip-hop connects the past, present, and future, and embraces all things and people. … Hip-hop is life—just listen to the rhythm around you. That’s hip-hop!”