The Unit
This unit will be an examination of American Ideas through the expression of the hip hop culture. The unit will be incorporated in my United States/Virginia History class. Students will generate spoken word poetry, street art, and rap music samples based on the ideas of America at the turn of the eighteenth, twentieth, and twenty first century through the eyes of the various immigrant groups that were streaming into America during these time periods.
The students will focus their studies on primary and secondary sources from these time periods. The students will use the experiences in the sources to create hip hop expressions that will help explain the immigrant experience to 21 st century learners. The students will examine the motivations of these immigrants to come to America, and compare their expectations to the reality they faced when they arrived.
The unit will be taught at three separate points throughout the year with the same theme in U.S. History, Immigration, and the Idea of America. Each time period will be examined through primary sources available in books and at local libraries and newspapers. Once the students have a general understanding, they will create a hip hop interpretation of the immigrants' thoughts and experiences as they try to survive in America. The purpose of teaching the same unit at three separate points in the year is to allow the students to grow and become better each time they complete the unit. Each unit will have the same rules and design; the only difference is that a different group and the challenges each faced will be examined each time the unit is taught. The three groups of immigrant experiences that will be examined are African-Americans during the 17 th and 18 th centuries, Italians during the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, and Mexican immigrants during the late 20 th and early 21 st century.
At the end of the school year, the students will create one final hip hop expression that sums up the experience of all three time periods and immigration in America. The best expressions will be put on display at a poetry jam for school and community members.
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