Using Hip-Hop Culture to Engage in Culturally Relevant Literacy Instruction

The COVID-19 pandemic along with Black Lives Matter have both cast a spotlight on inequities that exist racially, and the glaring disparities in the digital divide that exist in our culture today. With student demographics changing across the nation, these issues have created a need for educators to effectively meet the needs of a diverse student population that is and continues to change. Schools and classrooms need to be culturally responsive using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and learning styles of diverse students to make learning more engaging and effective more than ever. Culturally responsive literacy instruction bridges the gap between the school and the student\u27s world. Using hip-hop culture in literacy instruction encourages teachers to adapt their instruction to meet the learning needs of all students by providing literacy instruction that is culturally responsive and promotes high achievement among culturally diverse students. According to Broughton (2017), hip-hop culture is communication identified through artistic, musical, physical, and visual modes that people use to express their experiences, beliefs, and emotions. Rap music (spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics performed in time to a beat) is one of the four key stylistic elements of hip-hop culture, in addition to deejaying/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing (word art)