The Hip Hop Language Arts Academy: get high engagement with your students while providing culturally relevant language arts lessons and activities using rap song lyrics as reading passages that are school-appropriate and standards-aligned!
Click here to join the Academy waitlist!
Hey, I’m Ken, the owner of Rap Opera for Kids. We’ve provided teachers with high-quality, Hip Hop culture and rap music based, language arts activities for almost a decade with
over 1,000 highly satisfied educators!
Teacher4lyfe “Highly versatile and comprehensive resource! Engaging lessons, activities, and assessments adaptable for any teaching environment. Clear instructions and creative content cater to diverse learners. Seller’s ongoing support is exceptional. A must-have for educators looking to elevate their classroom instruction.“
Amy C. “I really enjoyed using this resource. Kids were really engaged with the raps. I used it as an opportunity to collaborate with the homeroom teacher to meet both music and language expectations.”
Brandi F. “Great for my tough class that relates to music!”
You can learn all of our strategies and methods for integrating Hip Hop and rap music into language arts activities to:
- incorporate your students interests
- address your specific content needs
- and integrate local standards and topics!
Click here to join the Academy waitlist!
I’ve worked with English learners (ELL/ESL) and urban youth for over a decade, and the strategies and methods I used to help my students achieve success are based on researched and proven activities that are great for all students!
So how did I end up on this path of using Hip Hop and rap music as language arts activities? It’s because of what one of my students said to me in class.
“I didn’t learn anything. I just liked the beat.”
I used to play lots of popular educational rap songs for my students. But when one of my students made the comment above after listening to a song, I stopped. At that moment, I realized that there was a disconnect between the songs and the actual skill-based practice my students were doing.
They liked the cool music and slick visuals, but there was no direct relationship to the activities that followed. They needed engagement AND strong, focused language instruction. That’s why the Rap Opera for Kids’ mission statement is,
“When the music stops, the learning doesn’t!“
ALL students benefit from strong and engaging language instruction.
Students from lower socio-economic, special education, and inner-city backgrounds need language support to build context around the content and skills they’re learning.
They also need vocabulary scaffolds and targeted, skill-based language activities to fill in gaps in their knowledge and abilities. And all of this needs to be done with high engagement and cultural relevance as research has consistently proven.
Hip Hop started as the voice of the youth, and rap music is the most popular genre of music with youth today.
By combining proven language-learning strategies with Hip Hop and rap music, this is a guaranteed formula for student success!
Check out two preview lessons below!
Click here to join the Academy waitlist!
The course includes:
- 10 detailed lessons that teach you exactly how to use Hip Hop and rap song lyrics as language arts activities
- monthly live coaching and feedback on your lessons and curriculum
- access to a database of clean, school-appropriate rap songs from the old-school and modern eras of rap with ELA activity suggestions for each song
- access to our Everything Language Arts Bundle that includes:
- 5 Hip Hop and rap music history, ELA print AND digital bundles with 50+ done-for-you activities to get you started with using rap songs as activities
- 5 Black history plays with rap musical options and comprehension questions to give your students a creative way to express their talents while learning history and practicing speaking skills
- monthly requests for any individual activity in our TPT store
- access to all new activities
- access to our freebie library.
If you have Title I or Title III grant funds, they can be used for this training as the Academy aligns with both by:
- helping ensure fair, equitable, and high-quality education
- closing educational achievement gaps for all students
- improving the education of English learners by helping them learn English and meet challenging state, content, and academic achievement standards.
The Hip Hop Language Arts Academy launches in May!
Click here to join the Academy waitlist!
Use the links below to learn more about the Academy!
- Why the Academy?
- Who is the Academy for? (Coming soon!)
- What will you learn in the Academy? (Coming soon!)
- What is the research behind the Academy? (Coming soon!)
- Can Title I and III grant funds be used for the academy? (Coming soon!)
- How is the Academy different from everything else already available? (Coming soon!)