
“IDIOT Rap”

Journal #4

Practice Essay

Example Essay

Test Tomorrow

Look over your journals, questions, and practice essay

IDIOT - Inspired, Disciplined, Invincible, Outstanding, Teenager
Inspired
Drop your jaw, you’re about to get amazed,
I have 4 secret powers that can’t be fazed.
Bring me problems, challenges, or any reasons to fail.
I reverse their power and give ‘em life in jail.
My inspiration rises from one simple fact.
I have power: I control how I act.
Disciplined
Now some say inspiration is all that you need,
But I’ve never bought that stale chicken feed.
I reflect on my life and write my goals down,
Then work: success is a verb not a noun.
Good, bad, all I do adds to my sum,
I have power: I control who I become.
Invincible
As the sun rises from the east and sets in the west,
Every great champion is put to the test
When life wracks me with pain and the price seems too steep,
I create heroic victories by refusing defeat
So no matter the challenge, no matter the foe,
I have power: I choose how much courage I show.
Outstanding
If it were all about me, that’d be the end of this rhyme
But thinking only about yourself, that’s the ultimate crime,
Outstanding doesn’t mean I’m the star of the show
I can also stand out for the kindness I sow,
My contributions stream, like water through a sieve,
I have power: I control what I give
Teen
So don’t rob me of life, don’t tell me the lie,
That I’m not old enough to spread my wings and fly
I was born to soar, and not someday but now,
I was born with the talent, and I already know how
So drop your jaw, you’re about to get amazed,
I have 4 secret powers that can never be fazed.


Adolescents often feel powerless in their lives.
Mawi tells his readers that true powers come from the inside. In his poem “Idiot Rap,” he lists 4 powers that all teenagers possess. Identify times in your life when you have had each of the powers. Tell the story of the event and then explain how it shows that you were using that power.

Practice Essays: “The Unmaking of a Man” and
“Eyeing the Mountaintop.”
1.
2.


3.
4.
Choose one of the following prompts to respond to.
This is a short essay response, with a beginning, middle, and end, that must incorporate citations from the book.
Identify a lesson that Mawi’s father has taught him.
Why is “metamorphisis” an appropriate term to use to describe Halieb’s transformation.
What important lesson(s) have helped Mawi achieve some of his dreams? (track, class president, Harvard)
Mawi learns that not all people share his view of life, in fact, some people are downright cruel. Identify some examples of when he saw such cruelty.

2. The term metamorphosis is an appropriate term to use for
Halieb’s transformation because it emphasizes that this transformation was complete and dramatic—Halieb’s transformation from an “angel” to a “beetle.” When Halieb lived in Ethiopia, he was considered an angel, a respected member of society he had “been an advanced dresser back home in Adi, and he had done everything: stitched head wounds, birthed babies, treated snakebites and malaria” (95). In Africa Halieb was respected, admired, an angel among his people.
When Halieb and his family came to America, things drastically changed. No longer was Halieb a respected and revered member of the community, instead he was sometimes ignored, or even looked down upon: “Halieb Asgedom found himself, in America, transformed into a monstrous black beetle”
(95). In America Halieb could only find a job as a janitor, and even lost that job due to his eyesight. Even though he was the same person inside, he was transformed in the eyes of the community and was now viewed as a beetle.