The first part of the lesson involved analyzing and critiquing the symbolism in a contemporary painting by Fahamu Pecou and a canonical poem by Robert Frost, which requires students to move between two typically exclusive social languages to make meaning of the texts. Since Pecou’s (2013) work aims to “raise critical questions about the types of images and representations that come to inform the reading and performance of black masculinity” (“Artist Statement,” para. 2), Ysheena felt that many of her students, particularly her Black male students, would be compelled to engage with the image and that this could lead to increased motivation for reading and writing about other texts. Analyzing the thematic symbolism at work in the painting, which revolves around the wordplay of gold and goals, gave students a familiar, yet challenging, foundation from which they entered into a reading of “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” a poem that some of Ysheena’s students had previously found difficult to understand and disconnected from their lives. Frost’s challenging vocabulary, use of biblical allusions, and invocation of nature imagery does not typically speak to her students’ everyday concerns and interests, so the Pecou painting was chosen as a high-interest text that would activate their personal connections to the poem’s themes.
At the top of Pecou’s painting appear the words “ALL DAT GLITTERS AINT GOAL$”—the title of the piece and a remix of a phrase from the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare, among others. Ysheena supported students as they used the academic language of literary analysis to express their understandings of the painting, which relied on personal knowledge of hip-hop culture. Only insiders within this culture understood the prominently scripted term, lush, which means “poser” in hop-hop culture, and were able to develop nuanced thematic interpretations that built on this detailed cultural knowledge. In this situation, these students were able to use hip-hop literacy as a foundation for textual analysis aligned with traditional classroom literacies. Ysheena noticed that guiding these students’ use of academic language in this analysis of a culturally relevant text resulted in active engagement by students who were often reluctant to participate in similar activities. In this instance, they seemed confident about their knowledge of the content, and this confidence led to a willingness to engage with the more traditional Frost text.
A comparative analysis of “All Dat Glitters Aint Goals” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” facilitated movement between the language of hip-hop culture and Frost’s poetic language. As students discussed and wrote about connections between the painting and the poem, they mixed vocabulary from each text with the language of the standards. Thus, these literacy acts brought together academic and community-based languages to form a hybridized discourse in which students practiced using language that may be “recognized and accepted” (Gee, 2015, p. 189) as appropriate by both themselves and others in a variety of social contexts, including future academic classes.
Ysheena observed that students who felt more at home using the language of hip-hop culture seemed to feel validated as thinkers, speakers, writers, and readers in the more traditional reading of the Frost poem because they were first provided opportunities to build upon their cultural knowledge. Students who had previously shown little interest in analyzing and responding to canonical literary texts enthusiastically wrote about thematic connections between the painting and the poem. Instead of refusing to complete the assignment or simply complying with classroom expectations, Ysheena found that pairing texts that spoke to student interests and concerns with more traditional texts led students to eagerly and actively participate in discussions and writing assignments in order to make their opinions known to their classmates and their teacher.
Initially discussing the gold/goals symbolism in the painting helped students readily develop understandings of the gold/nature/religious symbolism in the poem. Eventually, this discussion led students to question what goals they believed were worth pursuing in their own lives. If things are not always what they seem and nothing lasts forever, what do they believe is worth striving for? Questions like this challenged students to critically examine their values, beliefs, and the ways that people’s identities are constructed. Although Ysheena plans to provide more time for engagement with each text by introducing the painting and the poem on different days in the future, in this single-class segment, student analyses revealed how the poem’s theme resonated with their personal experiences and Pecou’s painting.
Student paragraphs were typed, shared, and subsequently critiqued and evaluated by classmates through Google Classroom and demonstrated a variety of text-based thematic analyses. While some students argued that pursuing the “gold” of material goods can lead to dissatisfaction, others focused on the ways that all idealized goals are an unattainable illusion and that one must strive to find contentment in things like family and friends. Ysheena provided individual feedback and allowed students to critique each other’s drafts throughout this process. Her aim was to help students generate understandings that would provide a foundation for analyzing the second set of texts and for writing the essay that served as the culminating task for the entire lesson.