Sharon lynch diana nabors cynthia simpson laverne warner. It gives the reader a glimpse of africanamerican culture through a story that has nothing to. In this middle grade novel told in dynamic verse, twelveyearold twin basketball stars josh and jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. Visit themes for classrooms to find your perfect classroom theme ideas. India, who lives with her father known as the preacher, finds new purpose in life because of winndixie. She tries to work at a pet store so she can buy a collar for him and meets many of the towns residents. In the past few years, the market for crossover books has really opened up, as well. Novel study rebound, the prequel to the crossover, is a fantastic book to use for novel study for students in middle to upper grades. At times he likes his nickname filthy mcnasty, but at other times he wants to be called josh. This novel study includes everything you need to turn booked into a mini book course. Welcome students to your room in a way that reflects the theme. Yes, so much of what genre a book will be is decided by the marketing department of the major publishers.
Written in verse, basketball is a metaphor for life for twin middle school boys jordan and josh. Try some of these creative teaching themes that evolve over the course of a year to reflect the level of learning in the class as well as. In this animated one minute video, alexander gives a shout out to librarians as the coolest people on earth and gives readers an inside view to the major themes of the crossover. Themes for inclusive classrooms lesson plans for every learner. Creative teaching themes are excellent tools for teaching kindergarten students about days of the week, or high school students about world history. See more ideas about book activities, book themes and preschool activities. Learn how to find the theme of a book or short story. Because of winndixie printables, classroom activities. Im a big fan of kwame alexanders book the crossover. Teachervision provides a detailed unit plan that includes activities regarding vocabulary, studying and writing original poetry, readers theater for teachers planning to use the youngadult favorite. Using those poems, determine a theme of the novel and analyze its.
The experience of pursuing knowledge, even through simple conversations with peers, can allow students to retain information better than simply reading it out of a book or being told by a teacher, explains. These questions can also be used as study guide questions or for a quiz. The crossover themes from litcharts the creators of sparknotes. Classroom themes are a great way to capture attention, peak interest and get students involved in learning. As a novel written in verse, the text of the crossover is able to play with rhythm, visuals, and language in a way that a novel written in prose cannot. Winner of 2014 newbery and coretta scott king awards for childrens literature. Children in this age group acquire the skills to help themselves incredibly. He and his twin brother jordanor jbare basketball stars and are best friends on and off the court. Spark a love for reading from the first page to the last with this instructional guide for the crossover. This is a great way to purchase books and activity sets for your classroom library at up to 80 percent off the published price. The great works of literature used throughout this series have important themes that have been relevant to people for many years. Commonlit the library commonlit is a free collection of fiction and nonfiction for 3rd12th grade classrooms.
Crossover learning creates space for students in the formal curriculum to pursue individual interests and themes related to the subject. Our program is designed to support their early experiences of learning and being independent in a nurturing and childfriendly environment. These instagramworthy teacher hacks will keep your classroom organized, your sanity intact, and your social media channels popping. Basketball is extremely important to them, and they both want to play professionally someday. Kwame alexanders the crossover won the newbery award in june and for good reason as yash. Create your classroom theme with our themed classroom bulletin board sets. Each book has a desire for all children to learn and play, and to be accepted for themselves as other children are. The plot of a novel is the action that takes place within the course of the narrative.
Commonlit texts free reading passages and literacy. This study guide consists of approximately 39 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of the crossover. Over the moon about writing love poems becoming a poet form before story finding time to write the human soul distilled finding the universal in poetry visual poetry in the crossover. The crossover by kwame alexander book club discussion guide. The crossover study guide contains a biography of kwame alexander, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. The crossover book talk multicultural value context clues in the story lead the reader to believe that josh and jordans family are blackafricanamerican, but it is never directly said. Each year, kwame visits hundreds of schools sharing poetry, conducting bookinaday workshops, and reading his books. Its all about the bottom line who they think will more likely to buy the book, teensyoung adults or actual adults. However, it would also benefit students to have independent time to think about the key themes of the novel.
Historically, professional development training for teachers with no background in working with english language learners ells has failed to shore up the everwidening gaps in achievement that occur as classroom. We know a plain classroom wont do much to interest young minds. Crossover making classroom connections to young adult. Dads, brotherhood, basketball, and music are a blockbuster combination for middle grade readers. In this game of life your family is the court and the ball is your heart.
Explore classroom activities, puzzles, teacher resources and enrichment pdfs for this book. See more ideas about crossover, sports theme classroom and teaching poetry. The book is a mashup of poetry and prose told with the highenergy beat of a hiphop song or an edgeofyourseat basketball game. See more ideas about classroom themes, classroom and classroom decor.
Awardwinning author kwame alexander on why we need. Classroom themes to inspire your school year scholastic. The crossover themes from litcharts the creators of. The crossover novel study guide kwame alexander reading. Josh has many identities in this bookson, brother, basketball player, poet, and friend. This month, we examine 2015 newbery medal winner, the crossover by kwame alexander.
All study guides are written by experienced teachers or advanced degree holders masters, phd in relevant fields and include a plot overview, chapter summaries, character analysis, quote explanations, themes and symbols, and essay topics. The crossover by kwame alexander common core elaliteracy. Even children have obstacles to overcome and this book set is actually honest, light, and direct. Sailing classroom theme sailing theme boat theme new classroom classroom design kindergarten classroom classroom themes vbs themes classroom organization valerie king on instagram. For me, this helped me not go overkill on the book during reading. Explore classroom activities, puzzles, teacher resources. The book thief why young adult fiction classification. Teachers clubhouse offers elementary classroom management activities, end of the year memory books, games, bulletin board resources, calendar cut outs, back to. Sometimes its tough to get a kid to pick up a book. Search and filter our collection by lexile, grade, theme, genre, literary device, or common core standard.
Josh s narration makes use of changes in font size, line breaks, and rhyme to guide the reader through the novel, slowing down or speeding up the action according to how the text is arranged on the page. Like lightningyou strikefast and freelegs zoomdown fieldeyes fixedon the checkered ballon the goalten yards to gocant nobody stop you. A bulletin board for the wonderful newbery book the crossover by kwame. Family is an important theme in the novel the crossover by kwame alexander. Tenyearold india opal buloni, new to the town of naomi, florida, finds a dog in the supermarket winndixie.
Included are 35 questions that can be used to complete a book club or literature circle on the crossover by kwame alexander. Add it to your list of great worksinverse from 2014. Solo is also rife with symbolism, themes, allusions, powerful rhetoric, interesting. A books theme is not the same as its plot or its moral lesson, but these elements are related and necessary in building the larger story. Hardcover, 237 pages published march 18th 2014 by hmh books for young readers crossover krawsohver noun a simple basketball move in which the player dribbles the ball quickly from one hand to the other. By getting the best themed elementary school classroom decoration products, the day will feel bright from the moment the kids walk in. During reading, i had students write a found poem modeled after the newspaperstoryturnedpoem. The video concludes with him reading a poem from the book. The narrator of the novel which is told in verse is josh bell, an 8thgrade boy. Poet and childrens author kwame alexander won the 2015 newbery award for the crossover, a middlegrade novel about twin tween boys on the cusp of thirteen who play basketball and are brimming with preadolescent angst. I always get a lot of questions about my flexible seating in my classroom.
The transcript is divided into the following sections. Kwame alexander figurative language there are many different examples of figurative language in this book. So we asked the experts teachers, parents, and librarians to share their tips. Below is an edited transcript from our interview with kwame alexander.
The first days of school are buzzing with excitement and questions as students meet new peers, start new routines, and look ahead to a years worth of learningcovering the crucial first day, and each of the first four weeks of school, this guide gives you the tools you need to foster key socialemotional and academic skills in your students. The crossover printables, classroom activities, teacher. Commonlit is a free collection of fiction and nonfiction for 3rd12th grade classrooms. With issues ranging from asthma, diabetes, autism, downs syndrome, handicapped, blind and poor eyesight. Literary fusions is a team of international education consultants dedicated to helping k12 teachers effectively integrate social studies, reading and writing, and technology in their classrooms through onsite workshop style training, instructional coaching, and.
Decoding the newbery is a monthly column in which newbery medal winners are examined and deconstructed by regular contributor and author catherine faris king. Alexanders publisher, houghton mifflin harcourt, identifies the target readers of his award winning crossover as nine to twelveyearolds. The moral is the lesson that the reader is supposed to learn from the plots conclusion. This held the students responsible for deep thinking but also let them enjoy the flow of the story as well. Best books for students and classroom teaching themes. Kwame alexander riffs on why librarians should check out his book, the crossover. Download an educators guide to the 2015 newbery medalwinning book the crossover by kwame alexander.
The title of this book is the crossover the crossover series and it was written by kwame alexander. Periodically scholastic book fairs hosts warehouse sales. Save on our entire selection of classroom decorations at dk classroom outlet. Why crossover learning is working in the classroom bored. With lessons plans created specifically for this 2015 newbery medal winner, this resource helps students analyze story elements more critically with close reading practiced throughout the units.
Josh and jb are at the crucial age of passing from being children to young adults. Other books related to the crossover kwame alexander has written several other middlegrade and young adult novels in verse, including swing, he said, she said, and rebound, which is a prequel to the crossover that follows dads introduction to basketball. For a space theme, have a countdown as you launch into a new school year. The crossover the crossover series by kwame alexander. The crossover study guide from litcharts the creators of. The crossover is also a phenomenal mentor text for poetry writing. Kwame alexanders the crossover contains ten basketball rules poems that apply to life.
The crossover by kwame alexander is a novelinverse sure to attract reluctant readers, particularly boys. Berkeley county high schools were going to be reading the crossover as a county. Strategies for english language learners what can teachers do to increase effective communication in classrooms when language barriers exist. It was published by hmh books for young readers and has a total of 240 pages in the book.
1241 693 831 1404 216 47 183 1312 1493 794 1403 58 432 1549 638 1636 1609 1648 609 1305 255 1000 872 422 512 691 1417 1483 760 529 687 596 628 724 399 583