“The Crossover” Printables, Chapter Activities & Assessments

 

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander – Chapter Activities

This product is for printables with a complete key for the novel The Crossover by Kwame Alexander.  The printables include, but are not limited to analyzing the physical text, identifying character traits, exploring figurative language, citing text based details, identifying and explaining poetic elements, compare/contrast, finding the main idea, expanding vocabulary, making text connections and seeking author’s purpose.  There is also a complete key included with answers and/or suggested answers.  It is the greatest young adult book to teach in a middle school classroom.

To assess the quality of my work, please click here for a free sample of “Warm-up”  Warm-up:  A FREE PRODUCT   This product is for a three page printable for the first section of The Crossover:  Warm-up.  The handout specifically focuses on studying the physical textual layout of a piece and how that contributes to the chapter as a whole, citing textual evidence, identifying and explaining the author’s use of poetic elements and figurative language and making personal text connections.  If you like this free sample, please follow my store as I roll out ALL the materials you need to teach this fabulous novel.

This also includes the “Skills to Know”, “Question Types” and “Figurative Language Terms” which are covered in the ENTIRE unit.  All of these skills are not covered in the Warm-up, just as a heads-up.  But, this will show you the quality of my work and what you can expect throughout the entire unit.

Follow my store for the complete unit for The Crossover.  It’s AWESOME!  In includes an entire week of interactive pre-reading activities, printables for the entire book, nonfiction and poetry connections and assessments.  There is also a literature circle unit which can be used in addition to the novel available.  Click here for a FREE sample of the text based vocabulary development.

First Quarter:

This is a 5 page .pdf file with a complete key.  These activities directly correspond with the first quarter of The Crossover and include, but are not limited to, activities in:

• Analysis of physical text
• Reading comprehension
• Discovering author’s purpose
• Identifying and exploring figurative language
• Establishing how parts of a text contribute to the text as a whole
• Writing and answering questions
• Labeling parts of speech: adjectives and verbs
• Literature based vocabulary development

Second Quarter:

This is a 5 page .pdf file with a complete key.  These activities directly correspond with the second quarter of The Crossover and include, but are not limited to, activities in:

• Citing text based details
• Reading comprehension
• Parts of speech
• Identifying and exploring figurative language
• Foreshadowing and irony
• Writing and answering questions
• Point of view
• Literature based vocabulary development

Third Quarter:

This is a 5 page .pdf file with a complete key.  These activities directly correspond with the third quarter of The Crossover and include, but are not limited to, activities in:

• Analysis of physical text
• Reading comprehension
• Tone and cliffhanger
• Identifying and exploring figurative language
• Reviewing poetic elements
• Writing and answering questions
• Theme – maturity
• Literature based vocabulary development

Fourth Quarter:

This is a 4 page .pdf file with a complete key.  These activities directly correspond with the fourth quarter of The Crossover and include, but are not limited to, activities in:

• Analysis of physical text
• Reading comprehension, recall, and analysis
• How an author’s word choice effects text as a whole
• Identifying, reviewing, analyzing and exploring figurative language
• repetition
• Writing and answering questions
• Mood vs. tone
• Literature based and independent vocabulary development
• Close reading

Overtime:

This is a 2 page .pdf file with a complete key.  These activities directly correspond with Overtime in The Crossover and include, but are not limited to, activities in:

• Text analysis
• How an author’s word choice effects text as a whole: “crossover”
• Identifying, reviewing, analyzing and exploring figurative language
• Parts of speech
• Literature based vocabulary development

Assessments:

This is a .zip file containing 2 assessments for the novel The Crossover by Kwame Alexander.  The first assessment is 25 questions and corresponds with the first and second quarters.  The second assessment is 30 questions and this is a formative assessment of the novel. Each assessment has a complete answer key with the correct answers highlighted.  It also includes a blank answer sheet with a key.

There are a number of basic recall questions in each assessment.  In addition, there are specific questions related to the following:

• protagonist
• setting
• figurative language
• pace
• point-of-view
• characterization
• chronological order
• vocabulary
• author’s style
• how lines/words contribute to the text as a whole
• foreshadowing
• theme

These assessments can work independently, but work best when paired with The Crossover Printables and Chapter Activities.

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“The Crossover” Writing Prompts

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.

“The Crossover” Extension Activities

“The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander is the newest, greatest book to use as a teaching resource in middle school.  This year I taught this book with my seventh grade students and all the kids absolutely loved it!  I’m currently working on uploading all my resources, so follow my TpT store.  There are FREE samples of certain products and more will be uploaded!  This blog describes some of the extension activities I used with the students:  Nonfiction Connections and Writing Response Journal.

 Nonfiction Connections

For these two lessons, I used “The Playbook” by Kwame Alexander as a text connection.

To begin, I give the students 6 and 8 laminated slides with various quotations and images on them.  I use Inductive Learning to allow the students to observe and categorize the images.  I used this helpful YouTube video as inspiration.

I created two nonfiction texts based from excerpts in the book.  They are both mini-biographies:  The first is about Péle and second is about LeBron James.  Both biographies instruct students to annotate and answer higher level thinking questions about the text.  Then, each biography displays a character trait:  Focus and Determination.  The students are given a writing prompt to complete a journal entry about each quality.  They are also given quotations and photographs to make their journals interactive.

 

Writing Response Journals

Here, I created a PowerPoint presentation focusing on a variety of characteristics that it takes to make a person successful.  Again, I used “The Playbook” by Kwame Alexander as the inspiration for this assignment.  The students are given 9 writing prompts dealing with the traits of “Focus, Determination, Grit….”  Then, they are given quotations to cut out and use as an interactive notebook.  I paired this activity with my nonfiction connections as well.  The students enjoyed writing in their journals and making real-life connections between the text and their lives.  In its entirety, the product has a 26 PowerPoint presentation or 26 .png files.

The Crossover – Pre-reading Activity

Pre-Reading:  “The Crossover” – the coolest, new middle school book available!  Follow my TpT story for ALL my activities for The Crossover!

Creating a Storyboard

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!

“The Crossover” Pre-reading Activities

The Crossover                           

Here are some ideas for pre-reading activities for “The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander.  I read this epic novel with my seventh grade students and they LOVE IT!  I have all of these activities in my TpT store.

Preparation:

First, I laminate both the “photographs and poetry” handouts and make enough copies for each group.  I place the images inside a manila folder and staple the directions on the outside of the folder.

Then, I do the same for the documents in the “storyboard” folder.  This way, I have all my materials ready for the first two lessons.

I also laminate all the basketball instructions so they are more durable in the gymnasium.

I find using white boards in each group for poetry and storyboarding to be a more fun way to create the final projects.  As there really are not right or wrong answers for these activities, it makes it a little more engaging for the students. 

For these activities, I divide my class into seven small groups of 3-4 students. 

 

Predictions and Poetry – Lesson 1; One class period

In each group, students will receive an envelope with all the photographs, a white board and an eraser. 

First, the teacher should read the instructions to the students (I also staple these to the manila folder).

When the objectives are understood, students will begin by viewing and grouping all the photographs.  They are looking for connections.  They can write their predictions on the white boards.  When all groups have finished and shared their predictions, students will write a Haiku poem on the whiteboard. 

Storyboards – Lesson 2:  One class period

Very similar to the photograph and poetry lesson in terms of objectives and procedure.  However, in this lesson students are given random documents to create a storyboard.  This does not necessarily have to be a prediction, but a way to creatively tell a story.  It is helpful to have documents in an envelope with the instructions stapled on the outside.  Whiteboards work well for this lesson too.

Play Basketball – Lesson 3; One class period

To play basketball, I laminated the directions and took the students into the gymnasium.  They were able to keep the document at their feet while trying the different drills.

Vocabulary & Tupac – Lesson 4; One- two class periods (or one class with homework)

First, I hand out copies of both vocabulary lists and the skills to know list for students to use as reference throughout the unit.  I briefly review the words but they appear in greater detail as the unit unfolds.

In this lesson, I use “The Rose that Grew from Concrete” and “Before Tupac” to introduce how rap music is actually poetry.  This helps to make the connection of how “Crossover” is actually written.

The Crossover – Pre-reading

• Pre-Reading:  “The Crossover” – the coolest, new middle school book available!Lesson: Photographs and Poetry
  

  

  

   

  This is 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
  • Writing poetry
  • Narrative writing
  • Social interaction

  Follow my store as I will be continuing to update my Crossover unit this fall!

  There are eight photographs included in this product along with instructions for the activity.  Students are given the eight photographs in a small group. They are instructed to analyze the photographs, make connections with the photographs, predict the purpose of the photographs and infer how they connect with the novel.  Students can be given white boards or paper and pen to use to take notes on their findings and predict what “The Crossover” will be about.  

  When each group has finished their predictions, each individual student should chose one photograph to use as inspiration for a haiku poem.  Then, students should take their ideas and write a narrative piece describing their story prediction. The product includes a template for a visual for the haiku and introduction of their narrative piece.

  This lesson could be one or two class periods.  It would be up to the individual teacher. The photographs could be used on their own.  The teacher could also decide if they wanted to culminate the activity with the poem, narrative writing, both or neither.  It could simply be the opening for communication about “The Crossover” themes and plot structure.

  As a group activity, I laminated seven sets of all the photographs.  I placed them in a manila envelope for each group to use. Then, I let the students use dry erase boards to make study predictions.  As a class, we came together at the end of the lesson to share each other’s findings and predictions. This also allows students to see other classmate’s points-of-view.  It is a really fun way to introduce a novel.  

  For more activities paired with “The Crossover”, please follow my store as I am currently uploading this entire unit.  

 

Hoot Chapters 20, 21 & Epilogue Activities

This product is for activities for Chapters 20, 21 & Epilogue in the novel “Hoot” by Carl Hiaasen.  It is a .zip file with 6 .pdf printable handouts.

2 one-page Warm-up Activities including:

Tier II vocabulary found in the text

Brainstorming

Creating a protest sign

3 one-page Chapter Activities including:

Summarizing

Re-creating the protest at Mother Paula’s construction site

Creating a comic strip

1 page Exit Ticket including:

Two general assessment questions

All handouts include a complete key with answers or suggested answers included.

These activities would fit perfectly into a typical class period where students could complete the warm-up activity, read the chapter and complete the activity.  The exit ticket would be completed at the end of the second class day.

All printables are visually appealing and ready to use.  If you like this activity, check out the entire novel study for Hoot located here.