Have you ever considered using a soundtrack project as an end of the year review activity for your secondary English Language Arts classes? It’s an engaging and meaningful opportunity for students to practice analysis skills while incorporating an art form students often love- music! This project is a great way to incorporate reading and writing skills while still having fun and celebrating the end of the school year.
This post will cover what you need to know to implement a soundtrack project within your secondary ELA classroom. Read on for info, tips, and links to helpful resources.
What’s a Soundtrack Project?
This end of the year review activity asks students to create a playlist of songs highlighting the year in music. It’s a chance for students to pull from their own favorites and what is currently popular. The project also asks them to choose and analyze song lyrics. Students can take their favorite songs and delve a little deeper by looking at the lyrics.
Why Use a Soundtrack Project?
Students participating in this project will select songs from a list of their own favorites and popular artists. They will select songs that fit the criteria, including a song to sum up the year and an inspirational song. Students will need to analyze the lyrics of the songs selected in order to summarize their meaning. The intent is to spark critical thinking skills even at the end of the year. It also allows students to apply analysis skills to real-world activities in selecting their music.
How to Use a Soundtrack Project
The soundtrack project is an easy activity to adjust. It will fit in nearly any class size and culture and you are free to customize to your liking. Here are some suggested strategies.
You’ll need to decide if you would like this assignment to be completed as a group or individually. I think this works best as an independent assignment so students have free reign to select their favorite artists. If you have students who really struggle, partners might be beneficial.
The first part of the activity has students list their favorite artists, followed by listing current popular artists. Give students some time to brainstorm their favorites. You might come together briefly as a class to discuss popular artists. Make a list on the board or have students write down the ones they recognize during class discussion.
Make sure students have copies of all the handouts for the soundtrack project. The soundtrack project from my shop has a variety of types of songs that students will need to fill in, but you can add to or subtract from this resource to make it fit your class. Since this is an end of the year project and not meant to be too intensive, I wouldn’t add much to the project itself.
You might also need to give students time to look up or write down lyrics to the songs they want to use. I would caution that there are many types of songs in varying degrees of school appropriateness. I always told students that “PG-13” was my limit (for freshmen) and if there were one or two curse words, they could just omit them. Set your own parameters for content and language prior to letting students begin.
The bulk of this assignment will be students selecting songs and spending time analyzing the meaning of the lyrics and how it fits the category. You can then have students come together as a class or in small groups to share their favorites. If time allows, students can play portions of their soundtrack for the class. Some of the best fun has been discovering what songs students associate with the class, or what song they find most inspirational. It might even be fun for you to create a soundtrack to play on the very last day of class using their suggestions.
Done-for-You Soundtrack Project
My specific project complete with template, instructions and more can be found here in my shop. My resource is print ready and is also available digitally as Google Slides for maximum teaching flexibility. You can share with your students via Google Classroom, Schoology, or the Learning Management System of your choice.
If you’re an English Language Arts teacher, there is a version of this project for you! Choose songs to match characters in any text using the same process with my Character Soundtrack Project. Students will have so much fun choosing songs and lyrics that they won’t even realize they’re closely reading text.
For more engaging activities like this one to teach in your secondary ELA classroom, check out my blog.
I’d love to know what you think of the soundtrack project with students and any other engaging suggestions you have when teaching analysis. Do you have favorite, engaging end of the year review activities? Are there any songs that speak to you to sum up the year? Sound off in the comments below or follow me on Facebook and Instagram to join the conversation.
Happy teaching!
