Keeping my students interested like musicians on the radio

When I was reading the Copland chapters, he said that "what fascinates him is the thought that by its very nature music invites imaginative treatment, and that the facts of music, so called, are only meaningful insofar as the imagination is given free play." This quote stood out to me, especially being a teacher because it is important to keep the attention of our students, much like a musician needs to keep the attention of their audience to keep selling records. The question is how? The quote talked about music being meaningful because it allows the imagination to have "free play". This is the same concept that I need to apply in my classroom to help make productive students are interested in their learning. I need to allow their imaginations to grow by giving them experiences that encourage that. One way might be to assign an activity, but give them options on how they want to complete it. This would ensure that each student was demonstrating their knowledge of a topic, but doing so in a way that was the most meaningful to them, and allowed them to use their imagination the way that they want. For example, if I gave an assignment that was strictly writing, my students who don't enjoy writing might not do so well tapping into their creative mind when completing the task. However, if I said you could draw a picture and give it a caption, write a paper, or write a poem, this might open the doors and allow more students to complete the activity in a way that was meaningful to them. Student A might choose the first option and do a much better job because they were able to use their imagination to create the picture, and still did a portion of writing by using a caption. The point is that all of my students are different and each has their own imagination. Each imagination may need different activities to get the wheels spinning, as well as make the assignment meaningful to my students. I think I will be a better teacher by trying to use multiple activities to keep my students' attention and help them develop their imaginations even more!