Writing Journal prompts – The Crossover
The writing prompts are ideally used as a companion to “The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander. They are inspired from his book, “The Playlist”. I used these in my seventh grade class as a writing reflection to the book, “The Crossover”, which we read together as a read aloud in class. There are 27 slides total in this product in the form of a PDF files which can be used in a PowerPoint or Google Slideshow presentation.
The first two prompts coincide with pre-reading activities. The first is a narrative piece where the students would create a story prediction. The second writing prompt is a reflection on “The Rose that Grew from Concrete”. This is a poem by Tupac Shakur which can be used as a pre-reading activity for “The Crossover”. If you’d like to see this unit in its entirety, please click here.
Then, to end each section of the book, Warm-up, First Quarter, Second Quarter, Third Quarter, Fourth Quarter and Overtime, there is an opportunity for a writing response based on some character trait in the novel. These prompts were inspired from Kwame Alexander’s book, “The Playbook”. Each prompt asks students to reflect on a character trait (focus, determination, grit, “the rules”, motivation, passion, teamwork and tenacity). Then, there is a slide with famous quotations to correspond with the character trait. Students are instructed to choose one quotation to cut out and paste in their writing journal. It makes it more of an interactive notebook.
If you are interested in more lessons from “The Crossover”, please follow my TpT store. I read this book as a read aloud with my seventh grade students and they absolutely loved it.
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