- Teaching the Drake/Kendrick Beef – First Person Shooter – Rap Beef as Socratic Dialogue - [This post is part 5 of a series on teaching the Kendrick/Drake Beef – click here for part 4 –“Poetic Justice” – Even When They Were Friends There Were Issues]] For about the first two weeks of the unit, the class had now listened to and analyzed several songs – “Ab-Soul’s Outro” (Ab-Soul featuring Kendrick … Continue reading Teaching the Drake/Kendrick Beef – First Person Shooter – Rap Beef as Socratic Dialogue
- Teaching the Drake/Kendrick Beef – Last Prequel – “Poetic Justice” – Even When They Were Friends There Were Issues - [This post is part 4 of a series on teaching the Kendrick/Drake Beef – click here for part 3 – “Hiiipower” and “So Appalled” – How Kendrick Signifies on Kanye] A final lesson I did leading up to my students studying the beef itself was about Kendrick Lamar and Drake co-performing on the 2012 song … Continue reading Teaching the Drake/Kendrick Beef – Last Prequel – “Poetic Justice” – Even When They Were Friends There Were Issues
- Teaching the Kendrick/Drake Beef – Prequel 2 – “Hiiipower” and “So Appalled” – How Kendrick Signifies on Kanye - [This post is part 3 of a series on teaching the Kendrick/Drake Beef – click here for part 2 – “Ab Soul’s Outro” – Purpose in a Larger Context] Here’s a question – a literal AP Lang question – that Kendrick Lamar’s 2012 song “Hiiipower” could have been answering, from the 2010 exam: In his … Continue reading Teaching the Kendrick/Drake Beef – Prequel 2 – “Hiiipower” and “So Appalled” – How Kendrick Signifies on Kanye
- Teaching the Kendrick/Drake Beef – Prequel #1 – “Ab Soul’s Outro” – Purpose in a Larger Context - [This post is part 2 of a series – click here for part 1 – Why the Kendrick/Drake Beef is Great for AP Lang – One Line as Proof of Concept] I don’t know if Drake intended to set off the firestorm that eventually happened when he called himself the GOAT on “First Person Shooter” … Continue reading Teaching the Kendrick/Drake Beef – Prequel #1 – “Ab Soul’s Outro” – Purpose in a Larger Context
- Part 2 – If We Shouldn’t Teach Students to “Read Literature Like a Professor,” Then Where Should We Start? - “You come from a long line of great poets, some of the greatest poets since Homer.” –James Baldwin, “A Letter to My Nephew” “Literacy is a process of moments. It isn’t a set of skills to be acquired or un-acquired. When students sit down to read or write a text, they are involved in a … Continue reading Part 2 – If We Shouldn’t Teach Students to “Read Literature Like a Professor,” Then Where Should We Start?
- Why We Shouldn’t Teach Students How to Read Literature Like a Professor - Kendrick you do know my language, you just forgot ‘cuz of what public schools had painted” —Kendrick Lamar, “Momma” (2015) A year before COVID, I had a student named D. He was enrolled in my school’s on-level junior English class, which was generally a decently racially diverse class – D was one of like 7-8 … Continue reading Why We Shouldn’t Teach Students How to Read Literature Like a Professor
- Why the Kendrick/Drake Beef is Great for AP Lang – One Line as Proof of Concept - [This post is part 1 of a series – click here for part 2 – Teaching the Kendrick/Drake Beef – Prequel #1 – “Ab Soul’s Outro” – Purpose in a Larger Context] This last year I developed a unit that presented students with one of the most genuinely difficult challenges I’ve ever presented in 17 years of … Continue reading Why the Kendrick/Drake Beef is Great for AP Lang – One Line as Proof of Concept
- Playing Video Games in AP English Literature and Composition – Part 2 – How? - The “is a video game literature?” argument is interesting and I do appreciate reasoning about it – but also, I think we can gain some interesting perspective on real academics at real college institutions – and reputable ones too – who have already settled the argument in their own heads and explored what it would … Continue reading Playing Video Games in AP English Literature and Composition – Part 2 – How?
- Playing Video Games in AP English Literature and Composition – Why? - [This post is part of a broader project I’m calling “Pop Culture Pedagogy” where I write about ways pop culture finds its way into my classroom] Recently, I mentioned attempting to integrate video games in my AP class (along with hip-hop, and movies) in an online forum. Someone sarcastically compared this to having students read … Continue reading Playing Video Games in AP English Literature and Composition – Why?
- The Second Krabappel – or – What is Composition? - [This post is part of a broader project I’m calling “Pop Culture Pedagogy” where I write about ways pop culture finds its way into my classroom] [after class the next day] Bartocrates: You emailed my parents without telling me? Ms. Krabappel: Yes? B: I feel violated. K: I’m supporting you, it’s part of my job. … Continue reading The Second Krabappel – or – What is Composition?
- The Krabappel – or – What Is “AP Literature and Composition” – A Socratic Dialogue in Two Parts - [This post is part of a broader project I’m calling “Pop Culture Pedagogy” where I write about ways pop culture finds its way into my classroom] Part 1 – What is Literature? Edna Krabappel: Okay class, please turn to page 357 of Tedious Times, where we left off yesterday, analyzing Dryprose’s prophetic critique of education … Continue reading The Krabappel – or – What Is “AP Literature and Composition” – A Socratic Dialogue in Two Parts
- Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit Part 4 – Assessment - [This post is part of a broader project I’m calling “Pop Culture Pedagogy” where I write about ways pop culture finds its way into my classroom] This was tricky for me because they were being asked both to create the texts they would eventually analyze, and then in later analyze them. Here’s what I did: … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit Part 4 – Assessment
- Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 3 – Day to Day Lessons - [This post is part of a broader project I’m calling “Pop Culture Pedagogy” where I write about ways pop culture finds its way into my classroom] The Adventure – ~3 weeks of class time (5 85-minute blocks) This post and the next will be more nuts and bolts – I’ve previously written about the why, … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 3 – Day to Day Lessons
- Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 2 – How I Set Up the Unit - [This post is part of a broader project I’m calling “Pop Culture Pedagogy” where I write about ways pop culture finds its way into my classroom] How I Tried to Make This Work in the Classroom [I will write more later about how the individual class days went as things got moving, and also how … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 2 – How I Set Up the Unit
- Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Addendum to Part 1 – White Supremacy – What Counts as “Literature” - [This post is part of a broader project I’m calling “Pop Culture Pedagogy” where I write about ways pop culture finds its way into my classroom] “What do D&D, the Odyssey and Hip-Hop Have in Common?” This question may feel strange because your vision of D&D may conjure up some very specific images of a … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Addendum to Part 1 – White Supremacy – What Counts as “Literature”
- Dungeons and Dragons in my AP Lit Classroom – Part 1 – Why Did I Want to Try This? - [This post is part of a broader project I’m calling “Pop Culture Pedagogy” where I write about ways pop culture finds its way into my classroom] Part 1 – Where Did I Get this Idea? – Or – What do D&D, the Odyssey and Hip-Hop Have in Common? Ever since I first read The Singer … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in my AP Lit Classroom – Part 1 – Why Did I Want to Try This?
- Twice Inna Lifetime (Track 13) and Conclusions about Teaching - [This is the final part of a longer series – previous track – “Thieves in the Night”] Reaching the end of these posts I’m brought back to the beginning, the first time I listened to Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star. I got to “Twice Inna Lifetime”, about 4.5 miles into the 5 mile early … Continue reading Twice Inna Lifetime (Track 13) and Conclusions about Teaching
- Thieves in the Night (Track 12) - [This is part 12 of a longer series – previous track – “Respiration” – next track – “Twice Inna Lifetime”] In his memoir, Talib Kweli reports that Mos Def was not a fan of this one at first – he thought it was too slow and too many words. But for me, this was, on the first … Continue reading Thieves in the Night (Track 12)
- Respiration (Track 11) - [This is part 11 of a longer series – previous track – “Yo Yeah” – next track – “Thieves in the Night”] This song is massive and complex – there’s no way around that – but it’s also catchy and engaging. I fear my analysis of it below doesn’t live up to that, but really good music … Continue reading Respiration (Track 11)
- Yo Yeah (track 10) - [This is part 10 of a longer series – previous track – “Player Haters” – next track – “Respiration”] This is a mysteriously beautiful interlude – a look into that “synaptic space” from last time – that in some way is the hinge that holds the album together through an ambient night-time streetscape. As the last strains … Continue reading Yo Yeah (track 10)
- Hater Players (Track 9) - [This is part 9 of a longer series – previous track – “KOS (Determination)” – next track – “Yo Yeah”] This song seems to come pretty hard at the same folks that “Re-Definition” was going after but a little more in the vernacular of a more straightforward diss track. About halfway through, though, we get this an … Continue reading Hater Players (Track 9)
- K.O.S. (Determination) (track 8) - [This is part 8 of a longer series – previous track – “B Boys Will Be Boys” – next track – “Hater Players”] One of the great programmatic statements of the album begins this track, after a side conversation – So many MC’s focus in on Black people exterminationwe keep it balanced with that knowledge of self-determination … Continue reading K.O.S. (Determination) (track 8)
- “B Boys Will Be Boys” (Track 7) - [This is part 7 of a longer series – previous track – “Brown-Skinned Lady” – next track – “KOS (Determination”)] As one catalog ends – from the end of “Brown-Skinned Lady,” calling in the great circle of “indigenous women of the planet earth,” another more local (and masculine) one begins, as Mos Def and Talib Kweli keep … Continue reading “B Boys Will Be Boys” (Track 7)
- “Brown-Skinned Lady” (Track 6) - [This is part 6 of a longer series – previous track – “Children’s Story” – next track – “B Boys will Be Boys”] “Brown-Skinned Lady” is both an ordinary love song and also a deeply intellectual engagement with intersectional feminism. And just like with “Re:Definition,” I’m approaching these contexts with humility, as they get to some of the … Continue reading “Brown-Skinned Lady” (Track 6)
- “Children’s Story” (Track 5) - [This is part 5 of a longer series – previous track – “Re:Definition” – next track – “Brown-Skinned Lady”] The opening four tracks of Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star feel like they form a kind of opening act. The fifth song on the album, “Children’s Story,” a cover (sort of) of Slick Rick’s song of … Continue reading “Children’s Story” (Track 5)
- Re:Definition (Track 4) - [This is part 4 of a longer series – previous track – “Definition” – next track – “Children’s Story”] “Definition” (youtube/spotify) and “Re:Definition” (youtube/spotify) roll together like one continuous track, but also like 2 mirror images: “Definition” is joyful and celebratory; “Re:Definition” is “turnin’ your play into a tragedy.” The key change (and subtle downshift in rhythm) work … Continue reading Re:Definition (Track 4)
- Definition (Track 3) - [This is part 3 of a longer series – previous track – “Astronomy (8th Light)” – next track – “Re:Definition”] I think this is the album’s the catchiest track. The lyricism here is joyfully overwhelming- I’ll try my best to exemplify what it feels like to listen to it. It has a ridiculously infectious beat and the … Continue reading Definition (Track 3)
- Astronomy (8th Light) (track 2) - [This is part 2 of a longer series – previous post “Interlude” – previous track – “Introduction” – next track – “Definition”] That’s what hip-hop is: It’s sociology and English put to a beat, you know. Talib Kweli Now fast forward to post-post-pandemic 2023, and Malachi, a student (all the names are changed) exasperated, looks at me after … Continue reading Astronomy (8th Light) (track 2)
- Interlude – Some Light in the Darkness – Student Adventures in Pandemic Podcasting - [This is part of a longer series – previous track “Intro” – next track – “Astronomy (8th Light)”] I’ve asked students to analyze Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star for the last three years – the first time came that winter was just a couple months after that first listening (right after the 1/6 insurrection, as a … Continue reading Interlude – Some Light in the Darkness – Student Adventures in Pandemic Podcasting
- Track 1 of Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star – “Intro” - [This is part 1 of a longer series – next post “Interlude” – next track – “Astronomy (8th Light)”] “I found my only chance for life was in flight.” Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass The first time I listened to Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star (youtube, spotify) was somewhere near 5:30am in the … Continue reading Track 1 of Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star – “Intro”
To Pimp a Butterfly #5: These Walls - [This is part 5 of a longer series – previous track “Institutionalized”– next track “u” coming soon] I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influenceSometimes, I did the same As Kendrick Lamar adds lines to his poem through the course of To Pimp a Butterfly, he explores different aspects of his journey away from the … Continue reading To Pimp a Butterfly #5: These Walls - To Pimp a Butterfly #4: Institutionalized - [This is part 4 of a longer series – previous track “King Kunta”– next track “These Walls”] I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence A technical term to describe what happens over tracks 4-10 is a “cumulative tale,” like the nursery rhymes “this is the house that Jack built” or “I know an old … Continue reading To Pimp a Butterfly #4: Institutionalized
- To Pimp a Butterfly #3: King Kunta - [This is part 3 of a longer series – previous track “For Free?”– next track “Institutionalized”] If To Pimp a Butterfly were a movie, “King Kunta” would be the close of Act I. Sound-wise, the first three songs share a common up-beat energy: they’re all relatively rhythmic, brash in terms of their use of samples … Continue reading To Pimp a Butterfly #3: King Kunta
- To Pimp A Butterfly #2: “For Free? Interlude” - [This is part 2 of a longer series – previous track “Wesley’s Theory” – next track “King Kunta”] “For Free?” is labelled as an “interlude,” and though it does have the feel of skit that goes between two more properly formed songs, what happens on this track is much more than a transition. Under cover … Continue reading To Pimp A Butterfly #2: “For Free? Interlude”
- To Pimp a Butterfly – #1: Wesley’s Theory - [This is part 1 of a longer series – next track “For Free?”] For a few years now I’ve listened to To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 masterpiece, with my junior English classes. I have learned a lot about music, about the experiences of both Kendrick and of my students, as well as a … Continue reading To Pimp a Butterfly – #1: Wesley’s Theory
- What I’ve Learned Bringing Kendrick Lamar into my Classroom - [This post is part of a broader project I’m calling “Pop Culture Pedagogy” where I write about ways pop culture finds its way into my classroom] When Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize today, I think more than a few people probably dismissed it as somehow the committee trying to be trendy but that … Continue reading What I’ve Learned Bringing Kendrick Lamar into my Classroom
- Teaching Students Past Moral Relativism – Some Experiences in a High School English Classroom - “That’s just like, your opinion, man.” Jeffrey (“The Dude”) Lebowski, The Big Lebowski In the Coen Brothers classic, the Dude is called “a lazy man… probably the laziest in Los Angeles County, which puts him in the running for laziest worldwide.” We laugh at the Dude’s outdated 60’s radicalism in lots of other forms. His … Continue reading Teaching Students Past Moral Relativism – Some Experiences in a High School English Classroom
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