What’s good, scholars, parents, and teachers! I’m Mr. O the Hip Hop Teacher. For over 18 years I’ve stood in front of classrooms in New Jersey and Florida — urban, suburban, and rural — and here’s what I’ve seen: a LOT of students are reading and writing one to three grade levels below where they should be. That’s not because they aren’t smart. It’s because somewhere along the way, the fundamentals got skipped.
Think about a hip-hop track. You can’t drop a hot verse without a beat underneath it. The fundamentals — phonics, sight words, spelling, word parts, sentences — ARE the beat. Once the beat is solid, you can freestyle on anything: essays, research papers, novels, speeches.
This book takes you back to the basics, but we’re not moving slow — we’re moving SMART. Every chapter gives you a lesson, a Mr. O tip, practice, and flash cards you can cut out and drill. Do a little every day and watch your skills level up.
Let’s run it back and build it right.
— Mr. O