WHO WE ARE

Literacy Through Hip Hop was founded by Shahmeer Ansari and Jason Henry-Shrouder. LTHH is an innovative literacy program for children. The program uses the popular youth culture of hip hop, specifically hip hop music, as a means to engage children about their reading and writing. Our aim is to improve the literacy skills of children in this crucial stage in their development.

DEFINITION OF LITERACY

We ascribe to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) definition of literacy. In essence, while LTHH accepts that while reading and writing are traditional aspects of literacy, there is a wider communicative realm of literacy that, likewise, informs the traditional skills of reading and writing. As a program, LTHH hopes to encourage underprivileged kids to use language and images in rich and varied form to read, write, listen, speak, interpret, and represent their thoughts and ideas.

CORE OBJECTIVES

·   Improve each student’s literacy through repeated exposure to reading and writing provided by engagement in LTHH.

·   Improve student’s confidence through engaging them in interesting and innovative literacy activities.

·   Foster sustainability of the LTHH program in the community.

·   Maintain consistent numbers of children throughout program.

·   Continual development of innovative classroom material and follow up programming to core LTHH session. 

·   Expose students, teachers, principals, funders, community partners to the constructive capabilities and origins of hip hop music and culture.

·   Maximize operating efficiency by keeping costs low, while program quality
high.

LTHH 2007/2008 CURRICULUM

In the upcoming 2007/2008 curriculum, Literacy Through Hip Hop will be continuing its partnership with Parkdale Project Read and, for the first time, will be working with the Toronto Public Library (TPL). The following TPL GTA branches will function as the primary sites for this year’s campaign:

·          Barbara Frum

·          Long Branch

·          McGregor Park

·          Rexdale

·          Kennedy Eglinton

·          Steeles

·          STAR Hamilton

In addition, LTHH will be continuing its program out of the Hamilton, Ontario

and Sao Paolo, Brazil locations. Along with our new partnerships, LTHH has

worked diligently to adjust its programming by designing a new curriculum for

the up-coming 2007/2008 campaign with the aim of targeting students in

junior grades; that is, students in grades 6 and 7. In the past, LTHH has

aimed its programming at youth in elementary grades of 4 and 5, however,

with greater awareness of the needs and challenges young people face,

LTHH concluded that its programming would be best suited for youth at a

later stage of elementary education.

UNIT TOPICS

i. Hip Hop Videos: What They Do
Analyzing the image presented and learning about how they are created.  

ii. Hip Hop Product
Developing an understanding of how hip hop is used to sell particular products.

iii. Dance
Exposing students to a greater appreciation for the history and creative processes of hip hop dance. 

iv. Graffiti
Understanding of graffiti’s historical place in hip hop, while creating their own graffiti.

v. Music
Understanding musicality that grounds hip hop by creating their own music and performances. 

vi. Rap and Poetry
Understanding the similarities and distinctions between more traditional written poetries, oral poetries such as Spoken Word, and rap.

The end results of completing this program are threefold: (i) Students will visit a studio where they will record their own creations, (ii) Students will receive a published anthology of some of their class work, and (iii) Students will get to perform live in concert for their parents and friends. Throughout the school year, members of the hip hop community (ie. Rappers, dancers, graffiti artists) will be acting as guest speakers.

PROGRAM EXPANSION

LTHH curriculum has been extended from a 40 hour to an 8 month program

- twice a week from 4pm to 6pm. By extending the time in which the

curriculum takes place, the program can deliver more effective results within

a more comprehensive framework. The days of the week in which the

program takes place will vary according to the availability of time at each

branch, and will be dependant on the needs of each site.