Flocabulary
Encyclopedia
Flocabulary is a publishing company that produces educational hip hop music
and accompanying books for use in the classroom. Founded in 2004 by Blake Harrison and Alex Rappaport, the company takes a nontraditional approach
to teaching vocabulary
and United States history
by integrating content into recorded raps
. Flocabulary products bundle teacher lesson plan
s, student workbooks, and accompanying recorded music. A number of hip hop artists have collaborated with Flocabulary, including Grammy Award
-winner 9th Wonder
.
The company has emphasized outreach to underprivileged schools in its business decisions. Over 300,000 students across more than 12,000 schools have used Flocabulary products in the classroom. Flocabulary has been praised by rapper Snoop Dogg
and historian Howard Zinn
, and the company's products have been generally well-received by educators and the press. However, the project has been criticized for perceived cultural inauthenticity and politically-charged material in some song lyrics.
and A Tribe Called Quest
, Harrison wanted to combine the easy retainability of hip hop lyrics with educational content. Harrison graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
with a degree in English
. He then moved to San Francisco, where he met Alex Rappaport, a music graduate of Tufts University
. Harrison shared his idea with Rappaport, and in 2004 the two made a demo
recording of two songs with a combined total of 80 SAT
words. Within two months Sparknotes
made the songs available for free streaming
, and soon afterward Harrison and Rappaport set up a Flocabulary website. Cider Mill Press published Flocabulary books and distributed them through Sterling Publishing
to sell the book at Barnes & Noble
and Borders
stores. The Hip Hop Approach to SAT Vocabulary sold 10,000 copies in its first year of publication and was reprinted five times. In 2005, Flocabulary went on a promotional tour of concerts at schools.
By early 2006, Flocabulary began self-publishing its products. Harrison and Rappaport raised $50,000 from family and friends and began visiting schools and education conferences to sell their products. Flocabulary entered into a contest for startup businesses
at Columbia Business School
and won a social value award. After participating in a collaborative business advice program with Columbia students, Harrison and Rappaport decided to stop self-publishing and returned to Cider Mill. Flocabulary raised $110,000 from investors and hired 30 sales representatives
. In September 2007, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt released a line of Flocabulary products called "Word Up" for teaching standardized test
vocabulary. Word Up! proved successful and helped to double their annual revenue in 2008 to $600,000. Flocabulary's 2007 release Shakespeare Is Hip-Hop featured musical and lyrical contributions from a number of hip hop artists, including Grammy Award
-winner 9th Wonder
. In 2008, Harrison and Rappaport created The Week in Rap, a weekly series of songs that has covered current events including the 2008 presidential election
and the results of California Proposition 8
. By 2009, Flocabulary made $900,000 in annual revenue. Flocabulary products have been used by 300,000 students in 12,000 schools across 100 school districts.
Rappaport says that Flocabulary has made access to its products a priority over profitability, saying, "We wanted to reach the kids who might never get to the SATs, whose families weren't buying books at Barnes & Noble." According to Rappaport, Flocabulary has made "social responsibility a core value [of the company] and never [let] it get overshadowed by our revenue goals," and, "we're trying to make this as affordable as possible, because unfortunately the schools with money aren't necessarily the schools that need Flocabulary. So we're trying to work with some government organizations and other charities to really get these into the schools that need them." Flocabulary's non-profitable social projects have included charitable donations and outreach to underprivileged schools.
Flocabulary has drawn attention from various media outlets, ranging from newspapers and magazines to mainstream media television networks. Howard Zinn
and Cornel West
endorsed Hip-Hop U.S. History. Keith Garvin's article on Flocabulary in ABC News
measured the impact of Flocabulary on the test scores at a high school
. According to the article, "Menchville High
reports that the average SAT writing score for 11th graders in August 2005 was 420. In April 2006, after Flocabulary was introduced into the curriculum, the average score rose to 477." However, the school's assistant principal said in the same article that they "can't say Flocabulary was 'the' factor." A study conducted across six US states by former International Reading Association
president Roger Farr demonstrated improvement in reading and writing skills among middle schools students who studied with Flocabulary, with vocabulary proficiency increasing by over 20 percent. Flocabulary has been recommended for teaching secondary English language learners.
Snoop Dogg
is an admirer of the company's work and considered a collaboration. Alyx Kellington of Americans for the Arts
favorably compared Flocabulary to Schoolhouse Rock!
for "making the connection between core curriculum and music". Jack Rosenthal of The New York Times says that Flocabulary is "one example of how Web sites have latched onto mnemonic
s as ways to teach SAT words to high-school students." Flocabulary's music was called "remarkably catchy" and "more than you ever got out of that Princeton Review
course" in DailyCandy
. Gayle King
of Oprah Radio's The Gayle King Show
praised the project for its effectiveness in helping students to memorize content through music. USA Today
named Flocabulary as one of their "Hot Sites" on their Web Guide in 2005.
In September 2010, the use of Flocabulary was postponed in Oklahoma City Public Schools
after several teachers voiced concern over some of the lyrics in the program. The lyrics to the song "Old Dead White Men" drew complaints for referring to the Founding Fathers of the United States
as dead white males
, a term used to criticize perceived disproportionate emphasis on the contributions of historical European males. The lyrics to "Old Dead White Men" also compare Andrew Jackson
's policy of Indian removal
to Adolf Hitler
's Final Solution
.
Rappaport responded that the materials were meant to keep the students engaged and promote discussion, saying "Without engagement and motivation it’s very difficult to learn, so our main purpose is to create materials that will motivate the students that are least likely to succeed with traditional methods." Tucker Carlson
criticized Flocabulary as a "get-educated-quick [scheme]" that disregards historical "context or accuracy", arguing that "there are still no independent studies that demonstrate rapping about social studies is any more educational than rapping about sex or gunfights." Carlson particularly noted what he saw as over-simplification of the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the song "Let Freedom Ring".
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
and accompanying books for use in the classroom. Founded in 2004 by Blake Harrison and Alex Rappaport, the company takes a nontraditional approach
Alternative education
Alternative education, also known as non-traditional education or educational alternative, includes a number of approaches to teaching and learning other than mainstream or traditional education. Educational alternatives are often rooted in various philosophies that are fundamentally different...
to teaching vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
and United States history
History of the United States
The history of the United States traditionally starts with the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The...
by integrating content into recorded raps
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
. Flocabulary products bundle teacher lesson plan
Lesson plan
A lesson plan is a teacher's detailed description of the course of instruction for one class. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class instruction. Details will vary depending on the preference of the teacher, subject being covered, and the need and/or curiosity of children...
s, student workbooks, and accompanying recorded music. A number of hip hop artists have collaborated with Flocabulary, including Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winner 9th Wonder
9th Wonder
Patrick Douthit , better known as 9th Wonder is a hip hop record producer, record executive, DJ, professor, and lyricist from Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A. He began his career as the main producer for the hip hop group Little Brother, and has also worked with Mary J...
.
The company has emphasized outreach to underprivileged schools in its business decisions. Over 300,000 students across more than 12,000 schools have used Flocabulary products in the classroom. Flocabulary has been praised by rapper Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
and historian Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
, and the company's products have been generally well-received by educators and the press. However, the project has been criticized for perceived cultural inauthenticity and politically-charged material in some song lyrics.
History
Blake Harrison conceived of the idea that would become Flocabulary while in high school. Inspired by hip hop artists like OutkastOutKast
Outkast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, consisting of Atlanta native André "André 3000" Benjamin and Savannah, Georgia-born Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. They were originally known as Two Shades Deep but later changed the group's name to OutKast...
and A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group, formed in 1985, and is composed of rapper/producer Q-Tip , rapper Phife Dawg , and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined in 2006...
, Harrison wanted to combine the easy retainability of hip hop lyrics with educational content. Harrison graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
with a degree in English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
. He then moved to San Francisco, where he met Alex Rappaport, a music graduate of Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
. Harrison shared his idea with Rappaport, and in 2004 the two made a demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
recording of two songs with a combined total of 80 SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
words. Within two months Sparknotes
SparkNotes
SparkNotes, originally part of a website called The Spark, is a company started by Harvard students Sam Yagan, Max Krohn, Chris Coyne, and Eli Bolotin in 1999 that originally provided study guides for literature, poetry, history, film, and philosophy...
made the songs available for free streaming
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
, and soon afterward Harrison and Rappaport set up a Flocabulary website. Cider Mill Press published Flocabulary books and distributed them through Sterling Publishing
Sterling Publishing
Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. is a publisher of nonfiction titles, with more than 5,000 books in print. Founded in 1949, it publishes a wide range of nonfiction and illustrated titles in categories which include art, biography/autobiography, body/mind/spirit, crafts, culinary, do-it-yourself,...
to sell the book at Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
and Borders
Borders Group
Borders Group, Inc. was an international book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company employed approximately 19,500 throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders and Waldenbooks stores....
stores. The Hip Hop Approach to SAT Vocabulary sold 10,000 copies in its first year of publication and was reprinted five times. In 2005, Flocabulary went on a promotional tour of concerts at schools.
By early 2006, Flocabulary began self-publishing its products. Harrison and Rappaport raised $50,000 from family and friends and began visiting schools and education conferences to sell their products. Flocabulary entered into a contest for startup businesses
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
at Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School is the business school of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for undergraduate and graduate Columbia University students...
and won a social value award. After participating in a collaborative business advice program with Columbia students, Harrison and Rappaport decided to stop self-publishing and returned to Cider Mill. Flocabulary raised $110,000 from investors and hired 30 sales representatives
Sales
A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....
. In September 2007, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt released a line of Flocabulary products called "Word Up" for teaching standardized test
Standardized test
A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a...
vocabulary. Word Up! proved successful and helped to double their annual revenue in 2008 to $600,000. Flocabulary's 2007 release Shakespeare Is Hip-Hop featured musical and lyrical contributions from a number of hip hop artists, including Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winner 9th Wonder
9th Wonder
Patrick Douthit , better known as 9th Wonder is a hip hop record producer, record executive, DJ, professor, and lyricist from Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A. He began his career as the main producer for the hip hop group Little Brother, and has also worked with Mary J...
. In 2008, Harrison and Rappaport created The Week in Rap, a weekly series of songs that has covered current events including the 2008 presidential election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
and the results of California Proposition 8
California Proposition 8 (2008)
Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections...
. By 2009, Flocabulary made $900,000 in annual revenue. Flocabulary products have been used by 300,000 students in 12,000 schools across 100 school districts.
Rappaport says that Flocabulary has made access to its products a priority over profitability, saying, "We wanted to reach the kids who might never get to the SATs, whose families weren't buying books at Barnes & Noble." According to Rappaport, Flocabulary has made "social responsibility a core value [of the company] and never [let] it get overshadowed by our revenue goals," and, "we're trying to make this as affordable as possible, because unfortunately the schools with money aren't necessarily the schools that need Flocabulary. So we're trying to work with some government organizations and other charities to really get these into the schools that need them." Flocabulary's non-profitable social projects have included charitable donations and outreach to underprivileged schools.
Reception
Hip-Hop U.S. History is a wonderful way of presenting history, both in its point of view and in its unique use of hip-hop to present serious ideas to young people. I see it as an extraordinary teaching tool for the next generation, on whom we count to make a better world.—Howard Zinn
Howard ZinnHoward Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
Flocabulary has drawn attention from various media outlets, ranging from newspapers and magazines to mainstream media television networks. Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
and Cornel West
Cornel West
Cornel Ronald West is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America....
endorsed Hip-Hop U.S. History. Keith Garvin's article on Flocabulary in ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
measured the impact of Flocabulary on the test scores at a high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
. According to the article, "Menchville High
Menchville High School
Menchville High School is one of five high schools in Newport News, Virginia. The school was named in honor of Thomas H. Menchville.They are the top school in Newport News in terms of the number of students taking AP exams, and have the highest rate of passing.In 2008, Menchville High School was...
reports that the average SAT writing score for 11th graders in August 2005 was 420. In April 2006, after Flocabulary was introduced into the curriculum, the average score rose to 477." However, the school's assistant principal said in the same article that they "can't say Flocabulary was 'the' factor." A study conducted across six US states by former International Reading Association
International Reading Association
The International Reading Association is an international professional organization that was created in 1956 to improve reading instruction, facilitate dialogue about research on reading, and encourage the habit of reading....
president Roger Farr demonstrated improvement in reading and writing skills among middle schools students who studied with Flocabulary, with vocabulary proficiency increasing by over 20 percent. Flocabulary has been recommended for teaching secondary English language learners.
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
is an admirer of the company's work and considered a collaboration. Alyx Kellington of Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts is a nonprofit organization whose primary focus is advancing the arts in the United States. With offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City, it has a record of more than 50 years of service...
favorably compared Flocabulary to Schoolhouse Rock!
Schoolhouse Rock!
Schoolhouse Rock! is an American interstitial programming series of animated musical educational short films that aired during the Saturday morning children's programming on the U.S. television network ABC. The topics covered included grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and civics...
for "making the connection between core curriculum and music". Jack Rosenthal of The New York Times says that Flocabulary is "one example of how Web sites have latched onto mnemonic
Mnemonic
A mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...
s as ways to teach SAT words to high-school students." Flocabulary's music was called "remarkably catchy" and "more than you ever got out of that Princeton Review
The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is an American-based standardized test preparation and admissions consulting company. The Princeton Review operates in 41 states and 22 countries across the globe. It offers test preparation for standardized aptitude tests such as the SAT and advice regarding college...
course" in DailyCandy
DailyCandy
DailyCandy is an e-mail newsletter based in New York. It was founded by Dany Levy in March 2000. It was sold to Bob Pittman's Pilot Group Ventures for around $3 million in 2003, and then sold to Comcast for $125 million in August 2008. Previously a New York-only insider's newsletter; DailyCandy has...
. Gayle King
Gayle King
Gayle King is editor-at-large for O, The Oprah Magazine and the best friend of Oprah Winfrey. She has previously worked as a television news anchor and talk show host...
of Oprah Radio's The Gayle King Show
The Gayle King Show
The Gayle King Show is the name of several programs which have been hosted by Gayle King, friend and business associate of Oprah Winfrey. The first show to be called The Gayle King Show was a half-hour syndicated television show which lasted one season, running from 1997 to 1998.In September 2006,...
praised the project for its effectiveness in helping students to memorize content through music. USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
named Flocabulary as one of their "Hot Sites" on their Web Guide in 2005.
Criticism and controversy
Flocabulary has also been criticized, most often over the appropriateness of hip hop's role in education. In the book Slam School: Learning Through Conflict in the Hip-Hop and Spoken Word Classroom Bronwen Low, while praising Flocabulary and similar programs for incorporating hip hop into American schools, argues that Flocabulary is culturally inauthentic. Low refers to Flocabulary's methods as "a gimmick or a hook to engage students in the standard curriculum rather than reimagine a classroom and curriculum significantly shaped by youth culture," and warns against "erecting an easy divide between a sanitized hip-hop culture to be found inside schools and the messiness of the culture without." Similarly, while the book The Anthology of Rap describes Shakespeare Is Hip Hop as an "effective and entertaining [tool] for using rap to teach canonical poetry to middle school and high school students," Flocabulary is criticized for failing to "illuminate rap's distinct poetic tradition."In September 2010, the use of Flocabulary was postponed in Oklahoma City Public Schools
Oklahoma City Public Schools
The Oklahoma City Public Schools is an urban inner-city public school district located in Oklahoma City. It is the largest primary and secondary education district in the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area, as well as the largest in the state of Oklahoma with over 42,750 enrolled students in 2009...
after several teachers voiced concern over some of the lyrics in the program. The lyrics to the song "Old Dead White Men" drew complaints for referring to the Founding Fathers of the United States
Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some...
as dead white males
Dead white males
Dead white males or Dead White European Males is a derogatory term that refers to a purportedly disproportionate academic focus on contributions to historical and contemporary Western civilization made by European males....
, a term used to criticize perceived disproportionate emphasis on the contributions of historical European males. The lyrics to "Old Dead White Men" also compare Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
's policy of Indian removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
to Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
.
Rappaport responded that the materials were meant to keep the students engaged and promote discussion, saying "Without engagement and motivation it’s very difficult to learn, so our main purpose is to create materials that will motivate the students that are least likely to succeed with traditional methods." Tucker Carlson
Tucker Carlson
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American political news correspondent and conservative commentator for the Fox News Channel...
criticized Flocabulary as a "get-educated-quick [scheme]" that disregards historical "context or accuracy", arguing that "there are still no independent studies that demonstrate rapping about social studies is any more educational than rapping about sex or gunfights." Carlson particularly noted what he saw as over-simplification of the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the song "Let Freedom Ring".