Silent Film Movie Music Soundtrack Composition Unit

Students will have a blast creating their own silent film soundtracks in this comprehensive movie music project. Despite the misleading name, silent films were often set to live music. Your students will experience how movie music impacts our interpretation of a scene as they plan and create a silent film and corresponding soundtrack in this fun music composition unit!

Even the most hard-to-please students have fun creating their own movie music as they connect classroom music to the real world.

As they progress through the project, students will…

⭐️ learn about (and use!) found sounds

⭐️ write a script for their own silent film

⭐️ compose a soundtrack using graphic or standard notation

⭐️perform their movie soundtrack (acting optional!)

⭐️ write a narrative about the process

Grading is a breeze with the included rubrics. Use them to help students track their progress throughout the project and provide constructive criticism to their peers. The pre-populated templates make grading speedy and help keep students on track.

The best part? You can pick and choose activities to meet your needs. This unit provides everything you need for an estimated 5-6 hours of class time. Feel free to eliminate, shorten, lengthen, or combine activities to make it work best for you!

(Plus, you’ll earn brownie points with your school’s theater and English language arts teachers when they see the cross-curricular connections spread throughout the unit.)

This resource includes:

✅ teacher notes with pacing suggestions

✅ 2 differentiated reading passages (each approx. 5th grade and 8th grade reading levels)

✅ found sound scavenger hunt, brainstorm, and planner

✅ character planner

✅ scene planners

✅ soundtrack planner

✅ soundtrack composition pages

✅ presentation expectations

✅ self-graded, peer review, and final (teacher) rubrics - filled in and blank templates

✅ 2 reflections prompts and lined writing pages

Take a look at the preview to see the contents in detail!

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