How to turn a popular Rap App to your teaching advantage Dr. Christine Rosalia Phillip Chapman Hunter College, City University of New York

Genius.com & Language Learning Complements traditional “Cloze” listening activities with popular culture Close reading and written discussion of authentic texts using social media Extensive reading of “texts” (e.g, literature, sports, screen, music) Multi-modal annotating across the “web” Options for “walled” classroom learning and/or transfer into the wild…

Started in 2009 as a way for fans to annotate rap lyrics online collaboratively [history] [history]

Rap and Music Lyrics are still the “texts” most annotated Annotations include: TEXT, AUDIO HYPERLINKS IMAGES VIDEO Layered replies Likes, Chats

Genres of Music have expanded An app was added in 2013 across phone platforms and languages

In 2014, GENIUS adds more genres (e.g., SPORTS, LITERATURE, NEWS, HISTORY) as well as CLASSROOM TOOLS

Teacher or Student pages show the Pages Created and help you keep track of annotations needing to be reviewed. For the “point” motivated recognition is given for support you give others on the site:

Example of pairing GENIUS with Voice of America ESL news site

Example of pairing GENIUS with “minimal pairs” word study: Song repeats : THIS and THAT

TIP 1 : Even though GENIUS is for multiple genres of text to add text you still need to press the ADD SONG button to start a page for annotation TIP 2: Be aware of the opportunities, but also the challenges of annotating real texts that will no doubt include difficult issues, and sometimes vulgar language. Consider what “walled” texts you will use and what “across the web” learning you wish to moderate.

Understanding the challenges & opportunities of using real texts

More Resources The video used in this presentation: Within Genius.Com: Genius.Com: ● ●Educator’s Forum: See THANK YOU!!! Dr. Christine Rosalia, Phillip Chapman Hunter College, City University of New York