Hip-Hop Unlocks the Meaning of Literary Classics
A visitor wandering into Alan Sitomer's English literature class at Lynwood High School could be forgiven for wondering when Elmore Leonard became required reading for 10th graders.
In the course of leading a lively discussion about a work of fiction, Sitomer described one character as a whore and another as a gold-digger. One's a hanger-on, the type who'd take advantage of his best friend, the rap star. And then there's the "regular dude," a guy who just "wants things to be good in his 'hood."
But the work of fiction is "Hamlet"; the characters are Gertrude, Ophelia, Polonius and Horatio. And the students -- teens whose prior view of Shakespeare could reasonably be summed up as "boring dead white guy, impossible to understand" -- are deep into the text.
"Who's got the power, Anthony?" Sitomer demands of a student who has a bit of swagger to go with his shaved head. "When Mom's not around, who gets the remote control?"
The older brother gets it, Anthony replies. That's Hamlet's father, the king, giving his younger brother, Claudius, good reason to want him dead.
And Anthony, a younger brother, gets it too.
For Sitomer, 38, who grew up in New York and Florida and has a touch of street in his step, teaching literature is all about building bridges that allow his students to understand that great literature is not just a window into the past but a mirror illuminating their own lives.
"Kids would rather go to the dentist than read Shakespeare," he said during a stroll through his school's well-tended, bunker-like campus, which closed for the semester Friday. "But if you turn on that internal light, make it relevant and contemporary
Jose Urias, Lynwood's principal, credits Sitomer with helping to improve academic performance at the school. He said 99% of Sitomer's students pass the English portion of the California high school exit exam. "He exemplifies what a good teacher is," Urias said. "It's just a whole new perspective that he's able to share with the kids and with all of us."
Since starting at Lynwood High six years ago, Sitomer has juggled teaching with writing. He recently published his second book, "The Hoopster," a coming-of-age novel for teens about a high school student who lives in an inner-city neighborhood and grapples with real-world issues that include racism, violence and basketball.
The book struck a chord with Sitomer's students, who are nearly all Latino or black, mostly poor and acquainted with violence and crime.
