Kendrick Lamar, a world-famous rapper asked to visit High Tech High School, a magnet school in North Bergen, N.J., after reading a blog post by teacher Brian Mooney. Mr. Mooney had used an edited version of one of Mr. Lamar’s albums with students struggling to understand Toni Morrison’s novel “The Bluest Eye.” Using “hip-hop ed,” a literary perspective that he learned in graduate studies at Columbia University’s Teachers College, the English teacher used Mr. Lamar’s album to help students make connections to Ms. Morrison’s novel. He found that students — through their writing, art work and performances — had gained better, even inspired understanding of the celebrated novel.
You’ll learn more when you read Colleen Wright’s article.