New Year's Playlist 2021 - Students in English III Honors (fall 2020 cohort) created a mix of songs to celebrate the end of the weirdest year ever (2020) and beginning of a fresh start. For the track listing, click here. To read their rationales for why they chose the songs on this mix, click here.
The Great Gatsby Soundtrack - In the novel, Fitzgerald incorporates auditory imagery through sound effects and references to specific songs being played during specific scenes. A mix, available here, is a collection of those songs: "The Sheik of Araby," "The Love Nest," "Ain't We Got Fun," "Three O'Clock in the Morning," "Wedding March," "Beale Street Blues," and "The Rosary."
The Great Gatsby Soundtrack Revisited (vol. 1) - A creation by English III Honors (fall 2020 cohort). First, I showed this handout which emphasizes how Fitzgerald created his own soundtrack for the novel in a lot of ways. What I wanted students to do--inspired by Baz Lurhman's updated soundtrack that he supplied for his 2013 film--is to imagine that they were in charge of music for an updated movie version of the novel. They were to pick a scene from the novel and a song that they think should be playing in the background while that scene is being performed in the movie. They posted the songs to this Padlet along with a 5-sentence analysis as to why that song is appropriate with attention to such aspects as lyrics, tone, theme, era, genre, etc. For an abridged track listing, click here.
The Great Gatsby Soundtrack Revisited (vol.2) - Click here to listen to the newest mix curated by students (spring 2021 cohort). You can find their track listings here. Unfortunately, they turned in the rationales for their song choices in a non-public location, so I don't have that to share this time.