Title: Teaching Poetry Through Rap | Scholastic
Headings: Teaching Poetry Through Rap
Lesson Plan
Teaching Poetry Through Rap
Students connect the structural similarities of poetry and rap music through rhythm, simile, and metaphor, as well as through thematic similarities, such as social commentary.
Teach This Lesson
Discovering Similarities Between Rap and Poetry
1. Rhythm Without Rhyme
4. Social Commentary
5. Symbolism, Personification, and More

Content: critiques the music industry’s corporatized nature, and the difficulty of gaining recognition. Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore--
And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load. Or does it explode? Langston Hughes’ “A Dream Deferred” implicitly questions the result of postponing one’s aspirations, recognizing the moral, psychological, and emotional damage that stem from the crush of racism, and the too-distant prospect of racial integration. 5. Symbolism, Personification, and More
The similarities between poetry and rap continue in symbolism, personification, narratives, and more.