Poetry as Sound and Object

Rationale

“Suspended from school and scared to go home. I was a fool with the big boys breakin’ all the rules”-Tupac

I have learned that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make ’em drink. My granny, Minnie Ola Bullock, always preached this when I was a child, fussing at my momma for one thing or another. Like many of my students, my grandmother raised me with me affectionately calling her “Momma” and my mama by her government name, Verna Mae. I must remind myself of this when I hear students referring to their mothers by their first names and not cringe or think they are being disrespectful. I never got it as a kid, but I get it now as an adult, all the fussin’ and cussin’ Momma did with Verna Mae. It came from a place of love, although the delivery was not the most diplomatic or kind.

As a teacher, I want so much more for my students than they even think they want or deserve for themselves. I fuss at my students often, sounding more like a Black momma instead of a Black teacher, because life experiences have taught and shown me that the choices they are making as teenagers can have life-altering effects on the remainder of their lives. Momma did not suffer fools, and I do not either. I know I must give them room to grow and mess up, but I just want them to get it BEFORE they mess up. I tend to forget that they are kids, bigs if you will, and might make mistakes.

When they make those mistakes, instead of being afraid, they can use their pen and voice to rectify their misdoings and inspire others, as Tupac did with his rap lyrics. Why poetry? Why Tupac? Why not? Suppose a Honduran student can listen to and vibe to an artist and not even speak the language. In that case, I should be gifting him the artist's background and be a source of infinite wisdom and knowledge by exposing him to more than just the artist but also the art. The art of using spoken words and written words to convey messages and thoughts to others, to use as an outlet when the world wants them to be silent, is my job as their teacher. “For many, the name Tupac Shakur evokes negative images of a young male rapper full of anger and hatred.”⁷ And the same can be said or thought of regarding my students. People are critical and quick to pass judgment against them because they believe they know them. To me, Tupac was more than just a rapper. The article further contends that “Tupac is not only ‘a rose growing from concrete,’ an apt metaphor for an African American reared in inner city street life, but he is also someone who suffered greatly for what he believed.”⁸ My students are often misunderstood or too critically judged without first getting to know them. My students care deeply about their education and are simply not provided with an avenue to take their love of music and Tupac to the next level. They are wading in the pool’s shallow end with their knowledge of the rapper and his music. My curriculum unit will have them swimming in the deep end by the end of it. To lead them to the metaphorical waters of poetry and allow them to dip their feathered pens into the ink of sonnets, blackout, erasure, and shape poems to expound their knowledge of the English language with listening, speaking, reading, and writing. According to Christ and Cho, I can “Share power with your students during book discussions by creating space for students to (a) initiate new, unplanned topics; (b) provide cognitive or linguistic supports to help their peers develop better understanding; and (c) make spontaneous, non-solicited responses to the book, such as unanticipated inferences.”⁹ It is essential for emergent bilingual students to maintain their identities as multilingual by providing them multiple chances to share out in class. Read-alouds were a regular part of my day when I taught elementary students, but are almost nonexistent at the high school level. Just because they are high schoolers, it does not mean that pedagogical practice should cease. Research supports this practice in all learners, not just emergent bilingual students.

Everybody and their momma had an opinion about Tupac when he was alive and even today. Still, regardless of those opinions, he remains just as relevant today for my students as he was 25 years ago when I was in high school. Remarks Tony McKenna, “In the brief time he lived, Tupac was a poet, artist, actor, rapper, model, and screenwriter. As well, he was a convicted batterer, a ‘thug’ and a self-styled ‘gangsta’ with murky gangland affiliations.”¹⁰ It is no secret that my students in Hearne, Texas, as well as other states nationally, share similarities to the late rapper, the good and the bad. I cannot change or fix their choices, for whatever reason they make them, but as their teacher, while they are in my care, I can teach culturally relevant lessons that can alter their choices for the better. My students will be whatever they are; at least with this unit, they will be well-read and can better express themselves and use their words instead of violence to get their points across. According to Francis Gooding, when writing about the Anthology of Rap, “The central demand motivating the collection is that the form itself –rap, or at least its lyrics – be recognised as a legitimate part of the literary canon. It is a claim admirably and clearly made, with enthusiasm and in good faith, which only the ignorant or prejudiced would deny had substance.” This curriculum unit will give my students substance in a way they can benefit from. My job as their teacher is to teach them English Language Proficiency according to the Standards of Texas, and how to use English with no difficulty concerning listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This unit encompasses all those things and is relevant to their lives as theirs is synonymous with the late Tupac Shakur. Tanya Christ and Cho Yonsuk say, “Using culturally relevant texts for literacy instruction with Emergent Bilingual (EB) students (or English language learners) supports positive vocabulary and comprehension outcomes.” The texts I will use in this unit include reading done in the seminar with Feisal, lyrics from Tupac, and poetry from various poets. Teaching is hard, and we teachers have found that we cannot control everything. However, one thing I can control is the type of literature I put in front of my students. The Yale National Initiative has taught me that what I have learned from Feisal should be taught to my students. It is not a gift for me to keep to myself, but one to be shared with humanity, shared with my students. Part of the game of life is to pass the torch, to pay it forward. My curriculum unit is how I pass it forward, giving new and stimulating lessons in poetry and history. Teaching them things that standard curricula would never touch on because the opportunity would never present itself.  Nowhere in any Texas English curriculum would students learn about syncopated sonnets. I always preach to my colleagues about us being part of our students’ forever memories. My unit will use poetry and Tupac to show the importance of read-aloud for emergent bilingual students. I cannot change the choices they have made in the past, choices that make them them. I can, however, help shape the choices they may make in the future.

“What I learned in jail is that I can't change. I can't live a different lifestyle - this is it. This is the life that they gave, and this is the life that I made.” -Tupac Shakur