Writing for Something: Essays, Raps, and Writing Preferences

Cooks, Jamal

doi:10.2307/4128851

Cited by 26 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…For the cool kids, these configurations were characterized by how black males symbolically embrace and collapse multiple forms of black male identity through systems such as talk and style. These systems tend to be uniquely defined in black male social circles, particularly in the cultures of hip-hop and sports (Cooks, 2004;Dimitriadis, 2001;Johnson & Roberts, 1999;Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2002). We note here that these cultures too are everchanging (Taylor & Taylor, 2007).…”

Section: Implications: Toward a Theory Of Black Masculine Literaciesmentioning

confidence: 76%

A Critical Analysis of Research on Reading Teacher Education

Risko

Roller

Cummins

et al. 2008

Reading Research Quarterly

133

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This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of the literacy practices of a group of 11-to 14-year-old black males who called themselves "the cool kids." The study is framed using theories that view literacy as a social and cultural practice involving multiple sign-and-symbol systems. Two research questions guided the study: How did coolness relate to literacy among "the cool kids," and what symbolic patterns helped to shape these relations? The findings describe how race, gender, and pop culture marked the group's use of language and style and reveal how coolness, as a pop-cultural artifact of black manhood, contributed to the literacy practices of the young men and to the construction of their symbolic selves. These findings contribute to building a theory of black masculine literacies. F or the young men in the "My Brother's Keeper" (MBK) Program, playing with language and style seemed central to literacy practice. Even their body was a tablet that rendered the self textually, allowing powerful forms of composing to be accomplished and shared. Regularly, we observed the young men of MBK-who, by school accounts, were thought to be barely literate in the narrow, print-based sense of the term-operate within multiple symbolic systems to define themselves and shape what they saw as "cool." They made literate decisions, indeed, scribing identity texts in unstable social situations, for example, in the events of dress and speech. The texts that defined these events-and we include here "cool" vernacular and apparel in addition to traditional print and other multimodal semiotic forms (Hull & Nelson, 2005), such as songs, films, etc.-were circulated, shared, and picked up by the young men in sophisticated ways. The texts they produced were also symbolic, offering a narrative of who these young men were and wanted to be.As we sought to locate meaning in their texts, this study took shape around a particular set of literacy practices firmly rooted within black masculine and popcultural models. Although a growing body of literacy research on urban youth has seemed to harden literacy into a performance of race and gender, we have resisted this impulse. Instead, we present the constructs of race (blackness) and gender (masculinity) merely to present a telling case (Mitchell, 1984). What follows is an examination of literacy revealed through the language and style of 11-to 14-year-old black boys.The initial purpose of the study was to examine the critical literacy practices of the young men of MBK. As we became more familiar with the young men, we became more aware of the social ecology of the group. Important to us was understanding how the literacy practices of seven of its members, "the cool kids" (the phrase "the cool kids" is actual language taken from one of the students in the program), had lifted literacy off the page. As two young black men ourselves, the literacy practices of these young men were both unique and familiar. However, we experienced difficulty finding theories of literacy that acknowledged t...

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Section: Implications: Toward a Theory Of Black Masculine Literaciesmentioning

confidence: 76%

A Critical Analysis of Research on Reading Teacher Education

Risko

Roller

Cummins

et al. 2008

Reading Research Quarterly

133

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, Kaiden and Walker () documented how collaborative groups composed raps with new vocabulary. Cooks () used both rap and essay writing and then engaged students in a discussion about the different conventions of each form. During a Canterbury Tales unit, Lynch's () class composed a rap CD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cooks () has argued that students “must learn not to think of writing in a hierarchical structure but rather to think of all types of writing as being equally valid” (p. 76). Exposure to multiple genres, and the conventions of each, can empower students.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Untold Stories to Tell”: Making Space For The Voices of Youth Songwriters

Williams¹

2013

J Adolescent & Adult Lit

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A lthough it is a school night, the high school auditorium is packed for a talent show. The emcees introduce the next act. To the center of the stage, a young man moves and then lowers his head, listening intently. A recording of a Holocaust survivor plays over the sound system: "The world is not learning anything...racism, anti-Semitism, the starvation of children...day in, day out, week after week, and year after year, people kill each other..." Gradually, a simple yet strange guitar line fades in. It has a haunting quality. Then the beat starts.Suddenly, the young man on stage wakes. With full force, he launches into a fast-paced rap about the Holocaust: "The boys were taught to avoid bein' caught / they would not use restrooms, they assumed / there would be less doom if nobody ever knew / the truth, they were the first to die / They knew you were a Jew if you were circumcised." He gestures for emphasis, almost nonstop, as he paces around the stage in sneakers and a track suit.Although the performer is getting a workout, he appears relaxed and smooth, light on his feet and absolutely in his element.

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“…Pacheco (2009) successfully used Latino sixth graders political-historical knowledge to engage them in research and writing about the topic of Mexican immigration. Other studies show the benefits of using students' translating (Martínez et al, 2008), rap writing (Cooks, 2004), and hip hop culture (Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2004) to value their out-of-school literacies and build on them to foster academic growth.…”

Section: Recommendations For Teaching: What Could Have Beenmentioning

confidence: 99%

"I Don’t Want to Write for Them": An At-Risk Latino Youth’s Out-of-School Literacy Practices

Stewart¹

2014

NABE Journal of Research and Practice

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This single-case study demonstrates one bilingual Latino youth's out-of-school literacy practices and how he has learned to disconnect them from his academic work. Qualitative data taken from interviews, the participant's social networking sites, poetry journal, and observations of him in community organizations demonstrate the frequency and purposes of his out-of-school literacy practices of writing poetry, language brokering, reading, technology use, and activism. The findings suggest that the participant has many sophisticated and bilingual literacy practices that were never viewed as funds of knowledge in his linguistically and culturally subtractive schooling environment, contributing to his lack of educational success.

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Writing for Something: Essays, Raps, and Writing Preferences

Cited by 26 publications

References 2 publications

A Critical Analysis of Research on Reading Teacher Education

A Critical Analysis of Research on Reading Teacher Education

“Untold Stories to Tell”: Making Space For The Voices of Youth Songwriters

"I Don’t Want to Write for Them": An At-Risk Latino Youth’s Out-of-School Literacy Practices

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