Learning Shakespeare through hip-hop

Alan Sitomer, a teacher in a rough area of Los Angeles, has a new approach to teaching the works of classic authors like Shakespeare,Emily Dickinson, or Rudyard Kipling.
Sitomer relates the works of these authors to works by hip hop artists, according to an article in School Library Journal:

Ask the teens in Sitomer's class if they’ve heard of Ludacris, Tupac, or Nas and you’ll get a resounding yes. Ask the same kids if they know the works of Dickinson, Kipling, or Keats, and you'll get the same answer. In fact, these teens are experts at analyzing the poetry of hip-hop and the world’s greatest writers—and they can identify the symbolism, imagery, and irony in both.

What's so special about that? These at-risk students attend a severely overcrowded, low-performing school in East Los Angeles that’s surrounded by what Sitomer describes as "gangs, guns, and drugs." Prostitutes work the streets just a half mile away from the school, and many kids can’t take the most direct route home because it would put them in danger. "We have students every year who are victims of gang beatings, stabbings, and shootings," Sitomer says.

Life at school is rough, too. There's a campus probation officer who tracks students wearing electronic ankle bracelets and a canine crew regularly sniffs students for drugs and gunpowder. Many of the students are in foster care or come from troubled homes, so it's not surprising that more than 45 percent drop out.

The article offers examples of Sitomer's teaching including this one:

Dressed in a pair of Sketchers, jeans, and a lavender button-down shirt, the 40-year-old Sitomer walks around his classroom, telling a bunch of 10th-graders about one of his favorite writers. "You gotta realize that Shakespeare was a really cool dude," says Sitomer, who's so laid back that he’s a pretty cool dude himself. "I mean, he put rhymes down on paper about the same stuff that Biggie, Tupac, and Ice Cube laid down some of their best tracks about."

Sitomer goes on to explain that Hamlet deals with the abuse of power, greed, and feelings of desperate isolation, exactly the same things Tupac sang about in his famous song "Me Against the World."

"See, that's why we study literature," Sitomer continues, adding that inside the works of great writers we find universal themes of humanity. The whole point? That great literature isn't just about the past, it's very much a part of our lives today.

"Is there anyone in this room who hasn't felt all alone?" he asks, knowing very well that most, if not all, of his students can relate. "And have you ever wondered if it's 'you against the world'? Have you ever thought about whether it's worth it to go on or, as the Great Bard put it, 'To be or not to be?'"

Students shake their heads in acknowledgement and Sitomer knows he has a captive audience that really gets what he's talking about. "When the bell rings and students are still talking about your lesson on their way out from class, that’s when you know you’ve hit it out of the park," he says with pride.