Chapter 8: ”I Know I can be what I want to Be”: Using Rap Lyrics to Encourage Self-Reflection and Meaningful Writing from Students of Color

Many Composition scholars suggest that we can better embrace students’ identities and literacy practices by implementing a culturally relevant pedagogy where they question traditional ideologies and analyze both themselves and the world around them. Yet, in a school system with so many federal and state mandated objectives, assignments, and course readings, how can we successfully implement a culturally relevant pedagogy full of non-mainstream materials and activities in a secondary English classroom? How can we, in good conscience, allow students to express their home experiences, including their home dialects, in the writing classroom when we know that Standard English is privileged in our educational system and in society? In other words, how can we best close the gaps between students’ home literacy practices and school writing expectations? In this chapter, I describe a culturally relevant writing assignment I performed with African-American middle school students that draws on their home identities and also encourages them to think critically about society and the role they want to play in it. Through culturally sensitive assignments such as the one analyzed here, teachers can encourage quality writing from students in a way that is inclusive of their own experiences while also preparing them for larger society.