Amina's Voice

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Amina’s Motown Songbook”

After reading about Amina’s connection to Motown music in Amina’s Voice, students compile their own songbooks composed of Motown lyrics connected to Amina’s experiences.

In this activity, you will find lyrics to classic Motown songs and put them together into a songbook that reflects Amina’s feelings and experiences.

• Break the text’s chapters into six sections. Decide where to break the chapters up by thinking about important events in Amina’s story and grouping the sections around these moments.
• Do some online research into Motown music and popular Motown songs. Your goal is to find Motown songs that connect to Amina’s emotions and experiences in the story.
• Choose a song that represents what is happening in Amina’s life during each set of chapters. (You may not choose any song already mentioned in Amina’s Voice.)
• Create a songbook that represents Amina’s experiences. Your songbook will consist of the lyrics to the six songs you choose along with a brief note about the connection you see between the lyrics to each song and some part of Amina’s story. Share your songbook with your peers in a short presentation and/or by placing it for display.

Teaching Suggestion: This assignment can be completed either in hard copy or online, but students will require internet access to find the song lyrics. If students have a hard time getting started, you might discuss with them the songs already mentioned in the text and look one or two up together so that you can discuss how the lyrics to these songs relate to the story. This project can be made more challenging by asking students to create a multimedia presentation that incorporates the lyrics into a video or slideshow that also includes images, video clips, and music. It can be completed more quickly by allowing students to work with partners or in small groups.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with dyslexia or who have attentional, executive function, or processing speed issues, as well as students who are emergent English language learners, may need to complete a modified version of this assignment. Completing all six sections requires a fair amount of reading and organization, and a reasonable modification might be to ask for a reduced number of songs. For students who struggle with written expression, you might consider reducing or omitting the requirement to explain their thinking for each song.