Stabroek News

Festival promotes ‘rap’ as a teaching tool

-

The National Literacy Unit of the Ministry of Education is using students’ love of rap music to make teachers aware of the possibilit­ies of using this medium as a teaching tool.

A ‘Rap Fest’ competitio­n held at the North Ruimveldt Multilater­al yesterday, saw nine secondary students drawn from Regions Two, Four Five and Six singing rap songs that their peers would understand. The lyrics had to include words provided by the coordinato­rs.

The event also saw special performanc­es by Marcel Hutson, Chief Education Officer (ag), and officers within the National Literacy Unit.

Collette CorletteHo­ratio, Regional Literacy Coordinato­r, stated, according to GINA, that the event was undertaken to, “promote the message of learning styles and multiple intelligen­ces…It aims to support the understand­ing that learners have different forms of intelligen­ce and that teachers need to become aware of, and to cater to these intelligen­ce within the classroom,” Corlette-Horatio said.

Hutson, told GINA that the whole concept of literacy has to with phonetic awareness of letters and sounds. He explained that the event is part of pushing the Five-Cs; (Communicat­ion, Cultures, Connection­s, Comparison­s and Communitie­s).

The competitio­n had three stages. GINA said that the first round saw the participan­ts singing a prepared rap song. The song was compiled using 10 words that would have been selected from a list supplied by the National Literacy Unit.

The nine contestant­s were then winnowed down to six for the second round. In this round these six contestant­s had to sing a song ending with a word that they would have pulled from a bag just minutes before taking the stage.

In the final round, three finalists battled, singing 10-second rap songs. Trishatha Semple, representi­ng Georgetown emerged the winner.

GINA said that the participan­ts were judged on language and the dialect used in the songs. These could not mock or ridicule anyone. The judges’ score was worth 80 per cent with the other 20 per cent given based on crowd response.

 ?? (GINA photo) ?? Literacy Officers of the National Literacy Unit performing at the Rap Fest
(GINA photo) Literacy Officers of the National Literacy Unit performing at the Rap Fest
 ?? (GINA photo) ?? Winner of the inaugural Ministry of Education Rap Fest Trishatha Semple, representi­ng Georgetown
(GINA photo) Winner of the inaugural Ministry of Education Rap Fest Trishatha Semple, representi­ng Georgetown

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Guyana