"The book illuminates on the consequences of the deficit model of schooling in American society; it also describes the reality of racism, marginalisation, and exclusion of minorities in the school context, providing a solution to improve the quality of learning and teaching for African American and Latino students."
Rupam Saran "Overall, Low's book is useful for community literacy scholars ... Read moreas an application and assessment of a popular practice and growing pedagogy in schools and community organizations . . . Low's approach, of juxtaposing multiple interpretations of an event, is one step toward focusing more intently on listening and audience. This practice is one that any discussion of conflict and pedagogy should feature, and scholars who engage with this book will have found another tool for doing so."
Amanda Fields
Community Literacy Journal
"Low not only celebrates the potential of using hip-hop in the classroom, but also examines the very real and difficult tensions that both inhibit and demand its use in schools. Her concern with issues of cultural 'insider and outsider-ness,' the sharing of authority and expertise in student-teacher dynamics, and the contradictory nature of popular culture, all enable teachers with little or no connection to hip-hop and spoken word to engage these artistic, literary, and verbal traditions."
H. Samy Alim
Stanford University
"Low not only synthesizes hip-hop and spoken word history and culture, she brings them to life through a dynamic pedagogical portrait examining the complexities and power of creating a curriculum around youth culture. Slam School is a must read for educators seeking to bridge the gap between the coffee house and the school house."
Maisha T. Winn (formerly Maisha T. Fisher)
Emory University, author of Writing in Rhythm and Black Literate Lives
"Low's Slam School gives hope to teachers by offering an alternative to standard language forms while also empowering students' identities, cultures, and language (in its many forms) through a student-centered pedagogy based on hip-hop and spoken word."
Tiffany Farias-Sokoloski "Low imparts an insightful account of how slam poetry provided students with an essential critical space to acknowledge shared identifications, negotiate new meanings, and witness displays of each other's academic and social strengths . . . [T]his book will inspire practitioners to afford learners with creative, culturally relevant, and meaningful ways to express their realities."
Tryphenia B. Peele-Eady
Journal of Anthropological Research
"Slam School is a welcome and necessary addition to the current literature on hip-hop based education. Drawing from an impressive range of intellectual traditions, the book also adds a sorely needed layer of theoretical complexity and practical insight to the current conversations around youth culture, pedagogy, and identity. Low's careful, wide-ranging, and reflexive analysis will be instructive to scholars, theorists, and practitioners alike."
Marc Lamont Hill
author of Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity
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