In order to provide a creative task that strengthens understanding of a text’s themes and to allow students to express themselves in relation to a text, I like to use the Jukebox Journal.
Whether it is a quick task in a lesson or an ongoing project, the Jukebox Journal requires students to select popular music songs that reflect characters, events and themes in a chosen text.
I ran a short version of this task today for Life of Pi. I asked students to pick 5 songs that capture Pi’s ordeal. The suggestions and discussions that followed soon helped us group the major themes of the text. In oral or written form, students can be asked to justify their choices, identify a lyric that relates to the text, or link the song to a particular quote.
Here are some examples:
- I’m on a Boat – The Lonely Island (Double points for themed band title!)
- Eye of the Tiger – Survivor (Double points for themed band title!)
- We Gotta Get Out of This Place – The Animals (Double points for themed band title!)
- Living on a Prayer – Bon Jovi
- Daydream Believer – The Monkees
- Six Months in a Leaky Boat – Split Enz
- Paradise, Lost – Coldplay
- Stronger – Kelly Clarkson
- Dreams – The Cranberries
- I Won’t Give Up – Jason Mraz
- Message in a Bottle – The Police
- Stayin’ Alive – The Bee Gees
- Riptide – Vance Joy
- Hungry Like The Wolf (Hyena!) – Duran Duran
- Roar – Katy Perry
- Float on – Modest Mouse
- I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor
- Born to be Alive – Patrick Hernandez
- Born to be Wild – Steppenwolf
- Wild, Wild Life – Talking Heads
- Fight Song – Rachel Platten (fitting lyrics)
- Losing My Religion – R.E. M.
- Hungry Eyes – Eric Carmen
- Don’t Stop Believing – Journey
From this list we identified Dreams, Animals, Eyes, Religion, Survival, Hunger, Water, Faith as key themes and motifs.