Hip-Hop and the Writing Process

National Arts Education week is an important time to not only support students engaging in the arts, but also a special time to give our teachers that same opportunity through professional development! During this celebratory week Orlando Family Stage (OFS) invited no other than Bomani Armah, aka “Baba Bomani”, to present an incredible professional development workshop rooted in hip-hop for Orange County School (OCPS) teachers. For over two decades, Bomani has used the art of hip hop songwriting to teach English Language Arts (ELA) skills with the goal of helping students summarize, review, and explore all different subject areas. Throughout his career he has worked with over 50,000 students, grades K-12,  in over 240 schools nationwide. His effective and engaging arts-integrated approach to writing has been termed BARS, the Bomani Armah wRighting System, and has made him one of the most sought after teaching artists in the country. 

Through the Partners in Education (PIE) partnership with OCPS and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, OFS is able to provide invaluable professional development workshops throughout the year exclusively to OCPS teachers like this one.These full day PD experiences include watching a live production, observing a live arts-integrated model lesson with students, followed by a 3-hour professional development workshop led by a teaching artist. What makes this program unique is that the entire experience focuses on a specific strategy or approach that serves as a common thread throughout the day. With OFS presenting P.Nokio: A Hip Hop Musical, a modern twist to the classic Pinocchio tale presented through hip hop, it felt like Bomani was the absolute perfect teaching artist to follow-up and demonstrate just how to integrate hip hop into the writing process – a perfect combination and application of arts-integration. His work was presented through a model lesson designed for students and a professional development workshop for English Language Arts teachers. 

After the show students sat in a circle around Bomani, with teachers sitting right behind them observing closely. He quickly established that “rapping is the art and engineering of language divided by math” – a definition he emphasized throughout the entire afternoon. Bomani walked students through a sample hip hop song about himself and shared that they would be creating their own songs together. He had them brainstorm different elements about themselves (their names, where they were from, etc.) and write it down, he then had them think of various rhyme words to go with those. It was also important to review counts in a song – so he made sure to cover that using one of his songs too. Their final task was to take their notebooks and create couplets which would serve as verses to their very own hip hop songs. This process was important for them to go through, but equally as important for the teachers observing as they were going to be led through the same process afterwards. Students were enamored with Bomani’s relaxed style and cool rhythm – some even asked if they could do it again! They were eager to leave with their very own BARS notebooks!

When it was time for teachers to participate in their follow-up workshop, Bomani had them go through the same process, but added an extra layer to their work – they were also taught how to examine an essay, synthesize it, and create couplets based on rhyming vocabulary words they felt were impactful and important to convey the overall message. With Bomani also being the founder of the Fredrick Douglass Writing Club, he used an essay from  Douglass as an example for teachers to work through. This process of working through hip hop was both an exciting one, yet challenged many of them to be vulnerable and creative through their process of word selection and rhyme. Bomani emphasized throughout the session that this was “…not about perfection, but about process”. Being that these were English Language Arts teachers that were not necessarily accustomed to performing, this shift from final product to process gave them a sense of freedom to write, and comfortability in sharing their lyrics with each other. 

Bomani provided a foundational tool that these teachers were eager to take and implement right away. Learning the basics of hip hop gave them a world of endless possibilities to both engage and explore content with their students. These teachers, many who had never even been to Orlando Family Stage before, also got to experience first-hand the power and effectiveness of arts-integration.

Want to learn more about Orlando Family Stage’s arts-integration professional development programs? Email sperez@orlandofamilystage.com for more information!