{"id":27973,"date":"2019-10-14T10:20:53","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T15:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=27973"},"modified":"2019-10-14T10:20:53","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T15:20:53","slug":"through-apsu-ceca-partnership-kennedy-center-hip-hop-teaching-artist-engages-kenwood-middle-school-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2019\/10\/14\/through-apsu-ceca-partnership-kennedy-center-hip-hop-teaching-artist-engages-kenwood-middle-school-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Through APSU CECA partnership, Kennedy Center hip-hop teaching artist engages Kenwood Middle School students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts teaching artist Bomani Armah stood at the front of Kenwood Middle School\u2019s library on October 3rd with more than 60 students staring at him.<\/p>\n

\"Kennedy<\/a>

Kennedy Center teaching artist Bomani Armah leads about 60 Kenwood Middle School students in a hip-hop writing exercise. Grabbing the sides of your head and blasting your hands out symbolizes prewriting in Armah\u2019s hip-hop dance. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make sure you learn these five steps of the writing process, I found a real easy way to remember the five steps,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to show it to you. If you follow these five steps, I promise you everything you write will be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moments later, the music started, and the beat drummed out its crescendo. Armah captured the beat and launched into his rap, \u201cWhen I want to write something and my thoughts are all a mess, I put it all together with the writing process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he involved the students \u2013 the entire room \u2013 in the dance and words that accompanied the chorus, \u201cI\u2019ve got thoughts I must express or issues I must address, the way to do it best is the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, publishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a Kennedy Center teaching artist, Armah travels the country showing educators how to use hip-hop to teach the creative writing process. He led 15 Clarksville-Montgomery County School System educators in a teacher training workshop on October 2nd, and the following two days, he held several writing workshops for nearly 350 Kenwood middle schoolers.<\/p>\n

The Austin Peay State University (APSU) Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA) paid to fly in Armah in collaboration with CMCSS as Kennedy Center Partners in Education. Armah, who lives outside Washington, D.C., in Maryland, was the first of four teaching artists who will come to Clarksville this school year.<\/p>\n

\u2018Engraining the concept into their brains\u2019<\/h3>\n
\"Bomani<\/a>

Bomani Armah gets Kenwood Middle School students to engage in the writing process. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

Guiding students as they write lyrics for a hip-hop song helps to energize them about learning not only a subject but also how to write, Armah said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe basic idea is that I help students turn any text into a song,\u201d Armah said about his student workshops. \u201cThis year we\u2019ve written songs about the American Revolution, about the water cycle, about where to put the decimal place, about classroom rules, literally whatever the text is, we break it down and turn it into rhyme.\u201d<\/p>\n

[320left]The finished rhyme is a pneumatic device that helps students remember a subject, \u201cbut more important than the finished product is the process of getting there,\u201d Armah said. \u201cStudents breaking down the text, figuring out what the words mean, finding the simile, metaphor, rhyme words.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat whole activity of trying to make the rhyme helps engrain the concept into their brains because they\u2019re forced to look at the concept from a whole bunch of different angles,\u201d he said. \u201cOn top of that, it\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018They don\u2019t even notice they\u2019re writing\u2019<\/h3>\n
\"Bomani<\/a>

Bomani Armah gets Kenwood Middle School students to engage in the writing process. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

During his workshops with Kenwood eighth-graders, Armah guided the students through the writing process, asking them to find words that rhyme with their names and to describe the places where they\u2019ve lived. The students took those tidbits to start crafting an autobiographical song about themselves, prewriting, drafting, revising and editing along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the whole process of having them write words that rhyme with their names expands their vocabulary,\u201d he said. \u201cThey start talking to their classmates, they come up with interesting words.\u201d<\/p>\n

For educators, the process allows teachers to engage students through pop culture while showing the students they can use their voices \u2013 and their body through dance \u2013 to communicate clearly, whether verbally or in writing.<\/p>\n

[320right]\u201cThe students don\u2019t even notice they\u2019re doing the writing process,\u201d Armah said. \u201cI show the students that the beginning process of writing rhymes is also the beginning process of writing absolutely anything else, whether you\u2019re writing a book or an essay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next two Kennedy Center teaching artists are Cissy Whipp and Eric Johnson \u2013 who both teach arts integration through dance.<\/p>\n

The teaching artist residencies are supported by CECA and the Heydel Family Foundation, which gave a generous 10-year gift to Austin Peay State University in honor of June Heydel. The CECA-CMCSS partnership also is supported by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.<\/p>\n

To support CECA and other APSU fundraising initiatives, call the Office of University Advancement at 931.221.7127.<\/p>\n

To learn more<\/strong><\/p>\n