Pre-Reading: “The Crossover” – the coolest, new middle school book available! Follow my TpT story for ALL my activities for The Crossover!
This in an interactive lesson to be completed as a pre-reading activity for “The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander. The lesson focuses on:
- Cooperative learning
- Inductive reasoning
- Sequencing
- Predicting
- Making connections
- Creating a storyboard
There are eight documents included in this product along with instructions for the activity. These documents were created based on the characters and events in the novel. For example, a diploma, a doctor’s report, a note, a report card, etc. Students are given the eight documents in a small group. They are instructed to analyze the documents, make connections, predict the purpose of the documents and infer how they connect with the novel. Students can be given white boards or posterboard to create a storyboard on their findings and predict what “The Crossover” will be about.
When each group has finished their predictions, each group will create a storyboard. The storyboard should attempt to predict how characters and events may be related in the story. The students should study the documents for dates, common names, places and specific details which may link to one another.
My seventh grade students had a blast participating in this lesson. Then, as we began the book, they would refer to the documents in this activity and make connections with this activity and the text. These “a-ha” moments kept coming up in class and the kids really enjoyed this activity!
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