What do poetry, cheerleading, dance, football, the culinary and performing arts have in common? They are all part of UrbanFUTURE's Explore! Enrichment hour at Fanning Middle School.
One of the more enlightening Explore! Enrichment classes offered at Fanning is the Hip Hop & Poetry Class in which students learn about poetic devices and forms in classic literature and how those forms show up in the popular hip-hop music today. Over the past 6 weeks, students have learned how to scan a poem for rhyme schemes, the difference between slant and perfect rhyme, similes and metaphors. They have compared Tupac to Shakespeare, Lil’ Wayne to Langston Hughes, and Emily Dickinson to Talib Kweli. Through this unique approach to learning, UrbanFUTURE students gain exposure to established authors in the literary canon using the vernacular of everyday life. The students also get the chance to produce an original work. Below are samples of work done in the creative writing class, inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred”
“Dreaming is like sleeping on a cloud.
Sometimes we have nightmares
And fall off that cloud.
Then there are sweet dreams
When we stay on that soft cloud.
Dreaming can help us expand our beautiful ideas.
Then the bad dreams come
Out of nowhere and smack us.
Troubles we have find ways into
Our dream like sneaky little ninjas.
Dreaming makes us as creative
As the best artist in the world.
But sometimes dreams slip away like a ghost.
That could be a good thing
When you had a bad dream.”
Excerpt from “Dreaming”, Christine Ordono, 7th grade
“Is life fair, will you be upset if your dream didn’t come true?
What can you do to make your dream stay alive?
Are you going to sit there and watch your dream die?
…
My dream won’t die,
‘Cause it’s going to stay alive, no need to lie,
My dream will never say bye bye.
My dream will not be out of my sight,
‘Cause my dream is on my head every morning, every night,
I invent my dream
My dream is like a word that never ends.”
Sinh Le, 7th Grade
Through the UrbanFUTURE Explore! program, these students are discovering their possibilities!
One of the more enlightening Explore! Enrichment classes offered at Fanning is the Hip Hop & Poetry Class in which students learn about poetic devices and forms in classic literature and how those forms show up in the popular hip-hop music today. Over the past 6 weeks, students have learned how to scan a poem for rhyme schemes, the difference between slant and perfect rhyme, similes and metaphors. They have compared Tupac to Shakespeare, Lil’ Wayne to Langston Hughes, and Emily Dickinson to Talib Kweli. Through this unique approach to learning, UrbanFUTURE students gain exposure to established authors in the literary canon using the vernacular of everyday life. The students also get the chance to produce an original work. Below are samples of work done in the creative writing class, inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred”
“Dreaming is like sleeping on a cloud.
Sometimes we have nightmares
And fall off that cloud.
Then there are sweet dreams
When we stay on that soft cloud.
Dreaming can help us expand our beautiful ideas.
Then the bad dreams come
Out of nowhere and smack us.
Troubles we have find ways into
Our dream like sneaky little ninjas.
Dreaming makes us as creative
As the best artist in the world.
But sometimes dreams slip away like a ghost.
That could be a good thing
When you had a bad dream.”
Excerpt from “Dreaming”, Christine Ordono, 7th grade
“Is life fair, will you be upset if your dream didn’t come true?
What can you do to make your dream stay alive?
Are you going to sit there and watch your dream die?
…
My dream won’t die,
‘Cause it’s going to stay alive, no need to lie,
My dream will never say bye bye.
My dream will not be out of my sight,
‘Cause my dream is on my head every morning, every night,
I invent my dream
My dream is like a word that never ends.”
Sinh Le, 7th Grade
Through the UrbanFUTURE Explore! program, these students are discovering their possibilities!
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