What is the Soundtrack of your life?

Step One – What makes you, you?

List several (10 or more) events, people, or places from your life that you believe have made you who you are.

Example:-Broken collarbone-Evil step-mother-7th grade football-Newspaper reporter-First date—Ginger Bell-Parents reunite-Married-Woooo Pig Soooie

Step Two – Make Song Connections

Select songs which represent or connect to your different events/people/places. Consider the following tips:

-Start with events that have songs playing during them

-If you have chosen a person, does that person have a favorite song or a song that you associate with her?

-Does a place you’ve picked have a song associated with it? Is anybody going to San Antone?

Step Three – Tell the story

Connect the song and event/person/place in a “paragraphish” length piece of writing

-tell the story

-explain the song

-use lyrics if you want (remember them)

-describe the connection or association

Step Four–PublishBook cover

Create album art and post those around the classroom or in the hallway

Facilitate a way that students can share their writing with each other

Let’s do some unpacking

• As I use this assignment with my students, it is an eleven + paragraph personal narrative, including at least eight events/people/places matched with songs, an introduction, personal statement, and conclusion.

• I use this assignment early in the year to both assess my students’ writing strengths and learn more about them as people.

• Personal narrative is a softer place to start but can also provide a basis for other modes of writing, skills.

• 1/509 students failed to complete this, he wanted to do a “film score of his life.”

CLASSROOM Timeline • Begin with one track

• Help students select events/people/places and then make the connections

• Green Book of Songs by Subject as a resource; students are their own/each others’ resources

• Provide examples of different genres in which to explain each/describe/justify each connection

• Writing/listening time

• Presentation/album art

VALUE• Affective domain – helps students feel

more comfortable with each other, the classroom, the teacher, the curriculum

• Cathartic and Therapeutic potential (is being used in hospice and social work environments)

• Raises expectations for writing – often the longest piece of writing students ever completed

• Narrative skills are at the heart of good expository writing—consider the NWP research record

• Chance to discuss issues of confidentiality/appropriateness/copyright

Other Uses for SOYL

• Follows the same process as SOYL except with a work of fiction or non-fiction—soundtrack of the novel

• Connect songs to mood or tone

• Used to teach historical events or people

• Defend connections to any content area using academic language

Resources• Supporting documents and handouts

available on LitTunes.com and at nwp.org

• http://www.greenbookofsongs.com

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• Anything else, including this presentation, available for free from me at