When you read, do you ever tap your foot? Does music ever spark an idea in your head? Can you come up with a song or an artist that blends music and literature? Joyce Carol Oates wrote one of her most enduring works of short fiction after hearing Bob Dylan on the radio.
In a few of my English classes, we are going the other way. We are developing a soundtrack for the memoir we read this semester: Girl, Interrupted. Students are choosing a song or an artist to best represent a passage from the book. It’s fun and thought-provoking. I have seen some students express important meaning with hardcore gangster rap songs. Occasionally, I’ll get someone from another class touch upon the same idea with Taylor Swift. How cool is that?
Here I’m going with the Beatles’ Dear Prudence. I mean, all you need is Love.

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