In January I wrote about my New Year’s Resolution, and so far I’ve been finding ways to pursue this endeavor. I also mentioned that sometimes I’d write about what it is I’m creating, and I’d like to share the Soundtrack of Your Life project that was the first project I assigned my students in 2015.
Basically, what they were to do was choose five songs that have some sort of impact on them and write about it. They also needed to create an album cover that ties each of these songs together symbolically. I wanted them to see if they could find a theme in what it is they wrote about.
Each song explanation, or “Liner Note” as I called them, was to be 150 words long, which ended up to be about fifteen paragraphs total. The students also had to analyze the lyrics to the song they were writing about. I’m trying to teach them how to introduce and talk about quotations instead of simply throwing them into a paper.
The trick was that they couldn’t write, ‘This song is so awesome because…” Or, “I just really like this song…” etc., etc. Since we were studying Creative Nonfiction, I talked about writing a story around the facts. So we talked about creating scene and character. We discussed how to use dialogue. We practiced a lot of metaphor.
Of course the best thing I could do was to show them what I mean when I tell them to tell me a story. So I wrote along with them. I wrote a story about the time my high school played Top 40 music in the hallways during passing periods (a brilliant idea that sadly didn’t last too long). I shared this piece with them. I told them the story behind John Mayer’s song “Daughters” and how I took that as a lesson in patience when I write.
I am pleased with the risks my students took with their writing. Once the projects were all turned in, I read through them and picked out a sentence or two to highlight on the wall in the classroom. I wrote their words out on pieces of construction paper and taped them up.
This kid’s writing didn’t bring tears to my eyes at all.
And this kid is going to be the next Walter Dean Myers.
A lot of students wrote about Imagine Dragons’ “Demons.” Many tried to connect Christianity to the song, and I thought their effort to do so was valiant. However, I liked this student’s observation of the “bad side” of ourselves that’s difficult to sometimes control.
One student wrote about being in the car with his dad on a day when they realized that they both liked the song that was playing on the radio. Another student wrote how “We Gather Together” is partly responsible for his family’s faith in God. One wrote about being lost in the woods and another wrote about being on the beach with her family; both of them tied music to their memories.
I’ll probably make a bunch of revisions if I assign this project next year. But for now, I’m pleased with the writing the students produced. Especially in January, when it’s cold and dreary and nobody really feels like doing much of anything.
Amen.
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