And Ya Don't Stop...

That Tupac post had me thinking about poetry in the classroom.

Diggin in the shelves for this title because its #kidslitflashback! I've used this book in the classroom for fluency, comprehension, and inferencing.

But learning from Dr. Muhammad @gholdy.m and Dr. Tatum @gooseman50, pairing this book with some of the topics and themed of these poems, incorporating vocabulary with other interdisciplinary texts can add to the background knowledge, contexts, and intellectualism for our kids.

The CD, included with the book, has the reading of the poems so young people can understand the cadence of poetry and rhyme flow.

For example, the poem "Allow Me to Introduce Myself" read by Charles R. Smith would get my class hyped and they understood how to think about inflection, pause, tone, and rhythm.

This book compiled by Nikki GIovanni is such a good way to introduce a hard genre to teach. I would love to see another volume of this book with some @realjcoleworlld, @kendricklamar , @nas, @chancetherapper, or @rapsody would bring a whole new generation to bridge poetry and hip hop.

This can be extended in the classroom by having students find other lyrics to match the interdisciplinary themes, etc.

Google the following titles to incorporate literacy into interdisciplinary instruction:

-5 ways to use hip-hop in the classroom to build a better understanding of science by @kingadjapong

-Hip Hop in the Classroom/Youtube @iamcbritton