Breaking Down the Prompt

Please reread information from the first page of the Hip Hop synthesis packet, which I have included below. Notice that the information provides context, and it also includes the prompt and basic expectations for the response. When you are finished reading this information, please post a comment to this post that answers the following questions:

1. Paraphrase the instructions listed under "Directions."
2. What information from the "Introduction" part of the prompt do you believe is most helpful in presenting the issue/topic of the packet? Why do you think this information is most helpful?
3. The "Assignment" part of the prompt asks you to create an argument that argues one of two options. What are the two options the prompt asks you to select from?
4. What are a few other important instructions or details you should pay attention to in this information?

Hip Hop Education Synthesis Packet

Directions: The following prompt is based on the accompanying sources.

This question requires you to synthesize a variety of sources into a coherent, well-written essay. When you synthesize sources, you refer to them to develop your position and cite them accurately. Your argument should be central; the sources should support the argument. Avoid merely summarizing sources.

Remember to attribute both direct and indirect references.

Introduction

Hip-hop artist KRS-One once observed, “Rap is something you do. Hip-hop is something you live.” Hip-hop has has an indelible impact on our American culture. For better or for worse, hip-hop culture has shaped who many of us are. However, we as Americans have a complex relationship with hip-hop. It is either celebrated or demonized (or both), depending upon who you ask.  For that matter, many Americans are concerned with hip-hop’s effect on our youth and whether that effect is positive or negative.  While there are those who lament the damaging impact of  hip-hop on our young women and men, there are likewise those who argue that hip-hop is precisely what we need to bridge the gaps that exist in education.

Assignment

Read the following sources (including the introductory information) carefully. Then, in an essay that synthesizes at least three of the sources, develop a position on the value that hip hop culture  has in education. Your position should be that the pros of integrating hip hop into education outweighs the cons, or vice-versa.

You may refer to the sources by their titles (Source A, Source B, etc.) or by the descriptions in parentheses.

Source A (Christopher Emdin, PhD)

Source B (Channel 3000.com)

Source C (Suzi Parker)

Source D (Courtney Garcia)

Source E (Jodie Dalmeda)

Source F (Rap Genius.com)

Identifying Initial Reactions and Opinions

I would like you to reread the prompt information for your synthesis packet one more time, so I have included it below. After you reread this prompt information, please respond to the following in a comment to this post:

• If you were to write an essay in response to this prompt right now, without doing any further research and without reading any of the included sources, which side would you argue, and why? 
• Then, using your answer to the previous question, write out a rough main claim that states your position and a few reasons.

Hip Hop Education Synthesis Packet

Directions: The following prompt is based on the accompanying sources.

This question requires you to synthesize a variety of sources into a coherent, well-written essay. When you synthesize sources, you refer to them to develop your position and cite them accurately. Your argument should be central; the sources should support the argument. Avoid merely summarizing sources.

Remember to attribute both direct and indirect references.

Introduction

Hip-hop artist KRS-One once observed, “Rap is something you do. Hip-hop is something you live.” Hip-hop has has an indelible impact on our American culture. For better or for worse, hip-hop culture has shaped who many of us are. However, we as Americans have a complex relationship with hip-hop. It is either celebrated or demonized (or both), depending upon who you ask.  For that matter, many Americans are concerned with hip-hop’s effect on our youth and whether that effect is positive or negative.  While there are those who lament the damaging impact of  hip-hop on our young women and men, there are likewise those who argue that hip-hop is precisely what we need to bridge the gaps that exist in education.

Assignment

Read the following sources (including the introductory information) carefully. Then, in an essay that synthesizes at least three of the sources, develop a position on the value that hip hop culture  has in education. Your position should be that the pros of integrating hip hop into education outweighs the cons, or vice-versa.

You may refer to the sources by their titles (Source A, Source B, etc.) or by the descriptions in parentheses.

Source A (Christopher Emdin, PhD)

Source B (Channel 3000.com)

Source C (Suzi Parker)

Source D (Courtney Garcia)

Source E (Jodie Dalmeda)

Source F (Rap Genius.com)

Practice Source A

The following source is NOT a source you will find in your actual synthesis packet; however, it is a source that is related to the packet's topic of Hip Hop in some way. Please read the source and then answer the following questions in a comment to this post:

1. What is the source's SOAPSTone?
2. What type of source is this?
3. How does the information from this source relate to the prompt?
4. How could the information from this source be used in your synthesis (if you were to go with the main claim you drafted in a previous post)?

Hip Hop as an Instructional Tool

(Excerpt from "Using Hip Hop Culture to Motivate Millenial Students" by professors at the University of the Sacred Heart and the University of Puerto Rico in 2006)

Our students use Hip Hop to study. An alumnus of Stanford University told me that in order to pass a calculus course, he wrote all of the calculus formulas and equations into a rhyme and learned them that way. Our students use Hip Hop to complete homework assignments and projects. One of my students took a rhyme that he had written and turned it into an academic essay for a writing assignment. Our students use Hip Hop in personal ways within the academy. Students have written me notes on which they tagged their names for signatures and tagged my name in the salutations. Students sign attendance sheets with tags and they tag their names on assignments which they submit. Several years ago, while writing the essay section of his entrance placement examination, a student at Bergen Community College asked if his response could be a rhyme instead of an essay.

Because it a part of their youth culture and primary Discourse, Hip Hop can be utilized as an innovative classroom instructional tool. In our writing classes, where we introduce students to the writing process, if there are students who are emcees, we collaborate in instructing the class with the emcees explaining the writing process to the class. Knowing this process intimately, Hip Hop emcees employ the writing process when they create and compose their rhymes. Another example of its collaborative instructional value is to introduce documentation of sources and research to a class with student emcees discussing “why they do not bite other emcees’ lyrics;” that is, why they do not plagiarize the lyrics of others. Put in this context, other students quickly understand why they cannot plagiarize. At the 2005 Conference of the College Language Association held at the University of Georgia in Athens, Kelli Weiss, a doctoral student at Howard University, discussed using Hip Hop lyrics in her freshman writing classes to teach the relationship of the thesis statement to the body of the essay. As an instructional tool, Hip Hop can be utilized in other ways in the writing classroom and in other disciplines, as well. The following articles are examples of using this culture in the literature classroom, the sociology and criminology classrooms, and in counseling groups of students.

Practice Source B

The following source is NOT a source you will find in your actual synthesis packet; however, it is a source that is related to the packet's topic of Hip Hop in some way. Please read the source and then answer the following questions in a comment to this post:

1. What is the source's SOAPSTone?
2. What type of source is this?
3. How does the information from this source relate to the prompt?
4. How could the information from this source be used in your synthesis (if you were to go with the main claim you drafted in a previous post)?

Practice Source C

The following source is NOT a source you will find in your actual synthesis packet; however, it is a source that is related to the packet's topic of Hip Hop in some way. Please read the source and then answer the following questions in a comment to this post:

1. What is the source's SOAPSTone?
2. What type of source is this?
3. How does the information from this source relate to the prompt?
4. How could the information from this source be used in your synthesis (if you were to go with the main claim you drafted in a previous post)?

Women and Hyper Sexism in Hip Hop
(Excerpt from HelloGiggles.com, a blog for girls and women to post about society and culture)

As the mainstream music industry has grown over the years, a substantial majority of the songs being played on the radio are far from appropriate. Not even a simple replace of an inappropriate word with something cheesy and age-appropriate can help. In Tricia Rose’s article “There are Bitches and Hoes,” it is addressed that hip hop and urban street culture has often praised the demeaning of women. Popular old school hip hop artists like Too Short, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, and Snoop Dogg are just a few hip hop artists that seem to embrace the disrespect of women. Snoop’s famous line “Bitches ain’t shit, but hoes and tricks,” and Too Short’s song “Gangstas and Strippers” are so inappropriate, that it may not even be appropriate to write in a scholarly paper. The culture captures the idea that being a pimp to a woman is alright. Their defense is that “they are talking about a reality of life and dare people to deny it” (Rose 322). Artists like Snoop try to justify their songs by saying they are not talking about all women even though that is all the type of women they sing or rap about. What is the most interesting aspect about hip-hop artists deeming this language towards women to be okay is the reactions and actions women take and receive when listening to this music.