Review 3- Hip Hop Speaks to Children

As my partner has said:  "this book should be a staple in any classroom from grades 3-5 because it really welcomes and engages those who cannot relate to the traditional type of literature provided in the classroom",  I completely agree with this statement.

Edited by Nikki Giovanni, Hip Hop Speaks to Children is a vibrant, powerful, collection of jazz, blues, and hip hop music that can be summed up into one word: poetry. Nikki Giovanni masterfully has taken poems and music that was not originally intended for children but has preserved the soul of the content and made it palatable for young learners.  Here is a short explanation of the book by Nikki Giovanni. A teacher may want to cut this down to about a minute and half as not to lose her students interest.

Nikki Giovanni explains Hip Hop Speaks to Children

The month of April is National Poetry Month. I think this book would be a great tool to use to get children excited about poetry during this month. The beauty of this book is that just in case the CD gets scratched or is not with the book when it is borrowed from the library, a teacher can download the instrumental version of many of these song “poems”.  I posted several of the instrumental or full version of the music below.
 Ham and Eggs
Funky Snowman
Everything is Everything 

I loved that the book has Rapper’s Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang. My family probably believed I wasn’t really doing work while I was listening to it. But like me, students will most likely dance and get into the music. The instrumental version can be used for a writing assignment. Students can write their own Rapper’s Delight and perform it using the music. Students will most likely enjoy  as well and it is worth listening to in the classroom.

My partner brought up a very good question concerning grammar since most of the poetry here is written in African American vernacular. She wonders “How do you introduce these poems to the students? Would you tell them that this is not the ‘proper’ way to speak? If so, wouldn’t that alienate the students who do speak that way, basically going against what you are trying to accomplish by welcoming them into the classroom community? How do you approach a topic such as this”?

It is the teacher’s job to correct students’ grammar, in my opinion. I’m sure there is a way to do so without alienating students. I would explain that families and communities communicate in a certain but the way that I am teaching you is the correct way to say it or write it. To further illustrate my point I will use the poem: why some people be mad at me sometimes. I probably would make this poem title and a few more sentences part of the morning meeting message and have the students tell me how could this be said and written the right way. I think that sometimes we shrink back from telling students that there is a right and wrong way to do, write, and say things. When we do this, we are ultimately hurting our students.