A local math teacher is using hip-hop to help her students learn. Christine L. Smith, who teaches math at Paul Lawrence Dunbar Academy in Downtown Toledo, said her sixth-grade students’ math scores on the Ohio Achievement Test swelled from 0 percent to 48 percent passing in 2005-06. The idea was inspired by a conversation she had with Atlanta-based multi-platinum music producer Alex “ Al E. Cat” Nesmith. His discography includes Charlotte Church, Keith Sweat, Akon, Twista, OutKast, Avant, Ronald Isley, and Jamelia. Nesmith helped Smith teach her students how to rap about math and recorded a song of them doing so. Nesmith said he has frequented Glass Roots Studios in Toledo since 1999 and produces music for local groups such as Lade Bac, Roc Clic, Ray Stone, Sinamin and Al Sheez. He was in town last year to work when he encountered Smith. Smith said she was “extremely frustrated” because her students had not been grasping math facts. She commented to Nesmith during a casual conversation that despite two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree in education from UT, she hadn’t yet figured a way to reach her students, who are primarily from urban backgrounds. Nesmith said he comes from a family of educators. His mother is a principal and his father is a teacher, so he said he was adamant when he told Smith, “If students can memorize complicated rap lyrics, they can memorize math facts.” Nesmith said he had always wanted to combine music and education, so when Smith asked him to help her, he agreed. “I meet kids all the time who tell me they want to be a music producer. The first thing I ask them is, are you good in math? Because there’s so much of it involved with creating music, the tempo, the beat…” Nesmith said. “They are going to need to know what to set their quantization on- should it be 1/ 4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32?
If they don’t understand division, they won’t understand music. The top producers-- Kanye West, Rodney Jerkins, Teddy riley, Dr. Dre-- they might not explain things in mathematical terms, but they all have that mathematical grasp that makes their music sound so good.” Smith said her first experiment was to use the beat from Eminem’s “Without Me” in an exercise on perimeter and area. Her students were struggling to remember the difference between the two. “I changed the lyrics to help them,” Smith said.
Lyric Examples
Sixth-grade Dunbar Academy student Marquisha Modisett expressed gratitude for that exercise. “It helped me because Ms. Smith makes learning fun. The song and the beat made it easier to learn and remember,” she said. Modisett’s mother, Rugena, said, “Ms. Smith tool special time out to find a way to help kids learn. Not many teachers do that. Even as a parent. I find myself humming the math facts song.” “ The Math Facts Song,” which can be downloaded for free at www.sparkthemind.com, is based on multiples of 12 and was recorded over an instrumental of rapper E-40s song “Tell Me When to Go.” Smith said more than 100 students spent weeks preparing to compete for a chance to rap, sing, dance or write for the production. She said she lets the students vote on the instrumentals to rap over. “One of the things that makes it exciting for them is that they tell us what the hottest songs are. The students connect with it because they like the song to begin with,” she said.
Nesmith said the process of selecting seven students to record was rewarding because, “Even the students who struggled to stay on beat and rhyme well and didn’t get picked to go into the studio were still learning.” Juan Boyd, who provided the verse on “The Math Facts Song,” and is now in the seventh grade at Toledo School For The Arts, said, “It was great to take something we liked and put it with learning. I like rap, but the opportunity made me like it even more. Dazia Cooper, a sixth-grade student at Dunbar said, “I didn’t know my multiples of 12, but now when I’m taking a test I just think of the song and I get it right. The teacher and music producer said they have formed a company, Spark The Mind, to spread the concept to other schools. They are beginning a new round of recordings. Studio fees, Nesmith said, were waived by J. Konneck, owner of KGB Studios. Smith was recently recognized by the Ohio Council of Community Schools with a certificate for “Best Scantron Performance in Math in the Sate of Ohio.” The Scantron Performance Series is a computerized program aligned to the State of Ohio Achievement Test and is a predictor of how students will perform. Smith math scores provided her school with the highest in Ohio for all participating charter schools. “Many teachers want to make the connection with their students but don’t know how. Spark the Mind can help,” she said.
