Hybrid Texts

Consistent with a sociocritical frame and the analytic tools of hybridity theory, this article explicates how urban fifth-grade children made language hybrids using rap and poetry to participate in classroom literacy. Ethnographic data from a yearlong study illustrate two key findings. First, standards-based and canon-driven writing models maintained literacy and language borders through antihybrid practices based in antipopular ideologies. Second, the children used hybrid rap poems to negotiate and challenge linguistic and ideological constraints that hemmed in classroom literacy. The author suggests that canon-driven writing pedagogies be more inclusive of youth popular cultures and culturally relevant literacies.