Student-Designed Honor Songs
What happens when students take the lead in the creative process? This session explores a student-driven approach to music-making that empowers learners to engage with their community, tell meaningful stories, and compose original music—all while developing essential musical and creative skills.
Rather than merely reproducing existing music, students take ownership of the entire creative process—interviewing community members, transforming insights into lyrics, and composing original songs to honor them. They choose a musical genre that reflects their honoree’s background and experiences, then improvise melodies to bring their lyrics to life. This project is adaptable for instrumental, choral, or general music settings in elementary, middle, or high school. Instead of a traditional, teacher-directed model, this approach centers student voice and collaboration, allowing learners to contribute in ways that resonate with them—whether through writing lyrics, singing, playing instruments, or public speaking.
This curricular project is not an “extra” add-on; it is embedded in my curriculum and has become part of our school culture. Past participants remain engaged, mentoring younger students and continuing to hum their original compositions in the hallways. The result is an authentic, interdisciplinary experience that opens pathways for exploring diverse cultures, history, geography, storytelling, and multigenerational learning, all while reinforcing holistic music literacy.
This session will provide a replicable, interdisciplinary model that seamlessly integrates the art standards of creating, responding, performing, and connecting, while fostering intrinsic motivation, student agency, and meaningful community engagement. Attendees will see real student examples from initial brainstorming to final performance, and walk away with actionable strategies to decenter the teacher as the sole knowledge-giver, uplift student agency, rethink traditional success measures, and empower students to create music that is meaningful, relevant, and deeply connected to their communities.
Session Objectives:
Demystify Creativity in Music Education – Provide educators with concrete strategies to foster student-driven creativity, improvisation, and composition, even if they have little experience teaching these skills.
Redefine Musical Excellence – Shift the focus away from technical perfection and toward music’s power to build community, convey emotion, and foster personal expression. Challenge traditional notions of excellence by embracing creativity, collaboration, and storytelling as essential musical skills.
Cultivate Intrinsic Motivation – Explore how student-led creative projects can naturally inspire engagement, ownership, and deeper investment in musical learning without relying on external rewards or assessments.
Make Music Relevant and Connected – Illustrate how the artistic standard of “Connect” can be authentically embedded in music education by linking students’ creative work to real-world experiences and relationships.