Hip-Hop: Rhetoric & Rhyme

"Students were in your class sharing their work, not being a passive receptor of your work." 

Tim Schott, Executive Director, Secondary Schools, Des Moines Public Schools

Hip-Hop: Rhetoric & Rhyme is an 8th Grade Literacy elective taught at Warren G. Harding Middle School in Des Moines Public Schools. Through connections between hip-hop, literacy, and the social sciences, students build writing, fluency, comprehension, and life skills, enhancing their abilities to collectively achieve. Through the exploration of documented human experiences that connect history, current events, and hip-hop, they learn how the past and present directly affect each other. Through the deconstruction of social myths, students extend their aptitude to think critically outside of the classroom.

Students in Hip-Hop: Rhetoric & Rhyme are proud to present their final projects for the 2012-2013 school year! In pairs of 2-3, students created their very own non-profit organizations, addressing needs in their community. Each organization will be presented in front of a panel of judges from the Des Moines area who currently make their living giving back, and the winning pair will receive a limousine ride and dinner downtown! To view the organization websites these remarkable young people have created, click on the links below!

SEXperience: http://sexperienceharding.wordpress.com/

From Youth to You: http://fromyouthtoyou.wordpress.com/

Generation X: http://generationxharding.wordpress.com/

DMI Creative: http://dmicreative.wordpress.com/

Sexual Awareness: http://sexualawarenessharding.wordpress.com/

Failure 2 Success: http://failure2successharding.wordpress.com/

Runaway Love: http://runawayloveharding.wordpress.com/

Project Breakthrough DMI: http://projectbreakthroughdmi.wordpress.com/

Check out our student-run website, Hip-Hop: Rhetoric & Rhyme, for the latest updates on what we're learning! You can also "like" us on Facebook (Hip-Hop: Rhetoric & Rhyme) or follow us on Twitter @HardingHipHop.

The 2012-2013 Crew!

"As teachers come forward with inventive ideas like Hip-Hop: Rhetoric & Rhyme, we will actively support them in an effort to shift our curriculum resources away from textbooks to providing materials specific to the needs of these teacher-created courses that will both provide more relevance and meaning for our students and address our Board's graduate ends."

Thomas M. Ahart, Superintendent, Des Moines Public Schools