Yo Yo, It's Hip Hop History So Ya Know!!

I teach U.S. history to eleventh graders in a low income school in South Carolina. Our students are absolutely fabulous, but unfortunately lack many of the materials necessary to obtain a more "modern" approach to their education.

Several of my students have IEPs and the majority of them are on a substantially lower reading level than they are "supposed" to be; that in itself can make reading directly from the textbook a difficult task. In addition to the difficulty, most of the students find the textbook to be a bit monotonous and difficult to relate to. Because of this, many of them become bored when it comes to learning about Columbus, settlers, George Washington, and so forth. They complain that this is "old white men" stuff and has nothing to do with them or their lives.

Having a classroom set of "Hip Hop U.S. History" will be an excellent way of hooking students on the content. Nearly every day I have to ask students to remove their headphones, turn off their mp3 players, and participate in class. With "Hip Hop U.S. History," I can turn up the music, jam through the lyrics, and analyze what it's all about. I just know my students are going to truly love it!! Furthermore, while the need for students to understand the creation of our nation and its journey to the present is obvious to adults, it can be very difficult for students to grasp when history may seem to lack an immediate correlation to their lives. Once we employ "Hip Hop U.S. History" in the classroom, I just know they are going to latch on to the material and really get involved. Doing so will inherently allow them to learn the material, not just memorize it. This knowledge base will be extremely useful when entering college courses. Because college level classes move at such a quick pace, and are often extremely large, having prior knowledge and a developed schema of the content will be imperative to their initial success in higher education.

By helping to provide my students with a class set of "Hip Hop U.S. History," you will make it possible for my juniors to feel the excitement of history through music. I'm so thrilled to be able to show my students that learning is fun and can be done in a multitude of ways. I know it will make such a difference in the lives of my students who want very much to understand the world in which we live but need this basis in history to begin!