Rap music as an instructional tool to teach rhetoric
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Authors
Lockwood, Danny K.
Issue Date
2005
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Teaching
Alternative Title
Abstract
Increasingly, changing musical genres in the United States have captivated the listening pleasures of adolescents from various cultures. Music can be a refreshing learning tool when used as a vehicle to supplement the learning of difficult concepts. Thus, relying on the natural musical interests of adolescents, music can be used as a pathway into teaching the underlying concepts of literary analysis.
One such form of music, a genre which has been growing steadily since the 1980s, is rap music. This explosive genre—rap and hip hop music—with its controversial and provocative lyrical content has captivated the minds and hearts of today's youth, creating a musical culture. The intent of this thesis is to determine whether rap music is a viable teaching tool in supplementing the learning of rhetoric in the curriculum of ninth grade students.
The focus group will be ten ninth graders who have participated in the entire study (September 2001 to December 2002). The project addresses the viability of rap music as a teaching tool to learn rhetoric, the attitude of these students as it relates to rap music, and the qualitative and quantitative techniques used to investigate whether the methods proved effective in aiding the students in applying the elements of rhetoric in their writing. The conclusion of my analysis will show a correlation between rap music and rhetoric.