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Mateo Bryant, 11, steps up to the microphone and, along with Miyeah Cook, 11, sing a duet about an innocent love.

"This ain't no accident, this is heaven-sent," Mateo of Mount Rainier rhymes into the microphone as his instructor, Ziyad Jones, watches and encourages him to speak louder and with emotion.

The Mount Rainier Elementary School students are members of Youngfolk Music, an after-school program that combines tutoring, mentoring and music.

Jones, of Suitland, founded the program two years ago. He held it at Kenmoor Middle School last year and brought it to Mount Rainier Elementary three months ago after a completing stint of student teaching at the school to finish his master's degree.

In the past few years, Jones began producing music. He then came up with the idea to produce positive music written and performed by children.

"It's a combination of something I've always done and something I always wanted to do, which is make music," Jones, 30, said.

Jones takes cues from classroom teachers on the subject areas students need help in, and he cuts music time to use for tutoring if the students are struggling in their classes.

The trade-off seems to work on the students, who say the musical aspect of the program, in which they get to produce beats, sing and rap, is a motivational tool.

"It's good because if you have low grades, it pushes you to have higher grades," said Miyeah, a sixth-grader from Mount Rainier. She participates in the program with her twin sister, Miyah.

Paul Nelson, 11, of Brentwood has rapped since he was 5. He said he's not drawn to the music he learns in school the way he is to hip-hop.

"When I rap a song, all of my anger and stress just comes out," the sixth-grader said.

Sixth-grader Dominique Murray of Mount Rainier said she's also discovering how to work with others in the program.

"This is called our family now so we're learning how to work together," the 11-year-old said.

Jones, who has been working with children for 15 years, also holds one-on-one mentoring sessions with students while the others work on their homework. The program has eight students and is held twice a week.

During Tuesday's session, Jones addressed the children before they worked on math problems on the whiteboard.

"This is the last week you can do what you need to do for your report cards," he said. "You set goals for your report cards so that's what I expect to see."

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.