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.