Engaging Activities for Teaching The Crossover

If you teach (or you’re thinking about teaching) The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, congratulations–this book is a joy to teach! It hits that “sweet spot” that English teachers look for in a whole-class novel. It’s practical, engaging, accessible, and teachable. The Crossover crosses off these must-haves:

  1. It’s the perfect length–240 pages of playful, creative verse! I would say “short and sweet” but that would be misleading (ugh, the ending)! Practically speaking, the novel’s length means you can plan for a short, efficient, and meaningful unit. You can do all of the reading in class and still have time for lots of engaging activities. 
  2. It’s high-interest. Whether students are attracted to the basketball, family dynamics, or coming-of-age journey, there’s something that every reader can relate to. Students LOVE this book, and it will hook them on the other books in the series, the graphic novel adaptations, and the new show!
  3. It’s accessible so you can meet readers where they are. With a Lexile of 750, the language is very accessible. You can focus less on comprehension and more on analysis, which many middle school students struggle with. It’s a great way to scaffold some of the most complex literature standards. 
  4. It’s full of complexity so you can scale the rigor up, too. On the surface, the language is easy to understand, but Alexander’s verse is full of more layers to peel back and dissect! You can dig into the symbolism, figurative language, structure, style, and more. 

In other words, it strikes an ideal balance: accessible and engaging enough to empower all students, but complex enough to teach tough skills and challenge advanced readers, too. Whether you want to focus on character development, poetry, figurative language, author’s craft, or any other skills/standards, The Crossover makes it easy to make learning fun. 

The only problem is that there’s so much you can do, teach, and discuss with The Crossover that it can be challenging to focus your novel unit and plan activities that do this book justice. It’s a blessing and a curse, but I’m here to help you outline your unit and plan activities that will maximize engagement and learning. 

If you’re excited to plan an engaging novel unit for The Crossover, here are 10 ideas for bringing the book to life and teaching the standards in a creative, student-friendly way:

NOVELS IN VERSE: “WHAT DO YOU NOTICE?” ACTIVITY

Many students have never read a novel in verse before I introduce them to a book like The Crossover, so I’ve found it’s important to plan for a fun, inquiry-based introduction to the format. I like to introduce students to verse novels and prepare them for reading The Crossover with a student-centered “What Do You Notice?” lesson or book tasting! 

This low-prep but high-impact activity is a great way to explore the unique format, structure, and style of verse novels. Start by gathering a variety of novels in verse (or create a digital menu featuring links to ebook samples). Then, ask students: “What do you notice about how these books are written and structured?” Give them time to browse the selections, examine different titles, jot down their observations and questions, and share their thoughts with classmates. Afterward, gather the class to share what they noticed and discuss what readers should know before reading a novel in verse like The Crossover.

This activity not only sets students up for success but also encourages them to think critically about why Kwame Alexander chose to write in verse and how that choice shapes the storytelling. You can find this lesson as a single resource HERE or included in my full bundle for The Crossover HERE.

PRE-READING LEARNING STATIONS

Learning stations are my favorite way to start ANY novel unit, and The Crossover is no exception. With pre-reading stations that pique students’ curiosity, you can hook students before they read a single page of The Crossover. During these introduction stations, students discuss, debate, collaborate, connect, predict, and reflect. Here’s the station lineup I use:

  • Station 1: Anticipation Guide: Students debate different statements that relate to the plot and themes of the book.
  • Station 2: Preview the Story: Students watch the book trailer and read the back cover blurb, tracking their inferences, predictions, and questions.
  • Station 3: “Investigate” the Book: Students preview the first few poems of the story to explore the format, style, and structure.
  • Station 4: Meet the Author: Students learn about author Kwame Alexander before reading The Crossover. 
  • Station 5: Life Lessons: Students reflect on and visually represent a life lesson they’ve learned from a sport, hobby, or mentor.

These stations will set a strong foundation for your students so you can jump right into reading with shared background knowledge and curious questions! You can find them available separately HERE or bundled together with other resources for The Crossover HERE. To learn more about using learning stations in the ELA classroom, check out the following blog posts:

CHARACTER TRADING CARDS

As students begin reading The Crossover, they’ll learn about narrator Josh Bell and his twin brother, Jordan aka “JB.” Eventually, you’ll probably ask students to compare the brothers, analyze character development, and consider how their relationship contributes to the plot/themes. But first, you’ll want students to focus on Josh and JB’s differing traits, personalities, motivations, and more. You could do this with a worksheet on characterization, or you could lean into the basketball theme and switch things up with a fun “character trading cards” activity!

This simple twist on tracking character traits is a crowd-pleaser for students, especially those into sports (or even collectible card games like Pokemon). Students can choose between Josh and JB or create cards for both, tracking each character’s “stats” and even recording textual evidence for the “highlights” section. This unique approach will engage your students as they get to know Josh and JB and learn more about their tight-knit but complex relationship. You can find this activity in my unit bundle for The Crossover.

ENGAGING POETRY ANALYSIS

If your students are anything like mine, they probably cringe when they hear the word “poetry,” and they hate nothing more than being asked to “analyze” it. This is precisely why we should be teaching books like The Crossover and showing students that poetry can be fun, break the rules, and tell a story. It can be explored without it feeling like a tedious chore English teachers assign for torture! The Crossover can be a game-changer (pun intended) in this way. You can use it to teach poetry that doesn’t feel like traditional poetry. Pull out individual poems and challenge students to analyze them like you would with any other poem. For example, here are a few poems perfect for close reading and analysis:

  • “Game Time: 6:00 P.M.”
  • “At Noon, In the Gym, With Dad”
  • “Questions”

The Crossover is a great book to teach as an “anchor text” in a poetry unit or novel in verse unit. For example, you can use it to teach poetry and review figurative language, and then move on to analyzing standalone poems in a more traditional poetry unit. Another approach involves reading The Crossover as a whole class, and then facilitating novel in verse book clubs where students read different verse novels in small groups. Both of these approaches are helpful because you can practice skills as a whole class with The Crossover and then apply these same skills in more challenging texts.

To learn more about facilitating lit circles/book clubs or teaching novels in verse, check out the following blog posts:

MENTOR TEXTS + POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP

The Crossover is the ultimate mentor text. Thanks, Kwame Alexander! Packed with unique poetic formats, vivid figurative language, fun stylistic choices, and complex emotions, it’s the perfect text to help students experiment with writing poetry. If you’re unfamiliar–or not entirely confident–with the concept of using “mentor texts,” it’s essentially the mindset of reading “like a writer” (instead of a reader). This means paying more attention to WHAT the author is doing with words, identifying their techniques, and searching for inspiration to return to your writing. 

To help students engage with The Crossover this way, I designed mentor text exercises that include rich excerpts from the novel. With each mentor text, you can prompt students to record what they notice about HOW it is written,  building on the “What do you notice?” activity from the beginning of the unit. Then, students use techniques, elements, and craft moves they notice to “imitate” the mentor text with their own topic. It’s a great, low-risk way for students to experiment with word choice, style, structure, and more. For example, here are some of the mentor texts just begging to be analyzed and imitated during a novel study of The Crossover:

  • All the definition poems 
  • “Ode to My Hair”
  • “Mom, since you asked, I’ll tell you why I’m so angry”
  • All the “Basketball Rules” poems

This hands-on study is especially effective for teaching narrative writing or poetry, as students can immediately apply what they learn to their own writing. You will be so surprised and delighted with what students come up with when they approach books like The Crossover as mentor texts.

You can find all of these mentor text activities and more in this comprehensive unit bundle for The Crossover.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE QUESTION TRAIL

Looking for a sneaky way to help your students master figurative language during your unit on The Crossover? Trick your students into learning with a kinesthetic question trail—a hands-on, interactive activity that gets students moving around the room to tackle a series of multiple-choice questions. If you haven’t used this strategy before, it’s a fantastic way to break up the routine of a novel unit and keep engagement high. 

Here’s how it works: Multiple-choice questions are posted around the room, and each answer choice (A, B, C, D) directs students to a different location on the “trail.” When students answer every question correctly, they’ll complete a full circuit with a specific answer pattern. But if they make a mistake, they’ll end up at a question they’ve already seen and need to backtrack to fix their error. This method not only energizes your class but also makes it clear who has a solid grasp of figurative language, who could use extra support, and which examples you need to review after the activity.

You can check out this question trail for The Crossover HERE or find it in the complete unit bundle HERE. For more information on the question trail strategy, check out the following blog posts:

VISUAL NOTES, GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS, AND CREATIVE ACTIVITIES

There’s no better way to kill the love of reading than passing out a boring packet of reading questions for your next novel. That’s why I always try to vary the activities I assign throughout a novel unit. I don’t want students to be doing the same tasks and lessons every chapter. Here are a few examples of how you can switch things up during your novel study of The Crossover:

  • Instead of asking students to merely identify examples of figurative language, assign them a fun color-by-device graphic organizer, a figurative language scavenger hunt, or a “figurative forecast” activity. 
  • Instead of a simple Q&A worksheet, give students the chance to illustrate and explain answers. (Studies show that drawing can improve comprehension!) For example, students illustrate and explain incidents that lead to Josh’s “tipping point” in The Crossover.
  • Instead of asking students to write about Josh’s character traits, give them t-shirt/jersey templates to visually represent his personality, traits, and motivation (and THEN ask them to explain their creations and Josh’s traits).

As you can see, these activities involve simple twists to traditional lessons, but a little dash of creativity makes all the difference. All of these creative approaches hit the same standards, but do so in a more memorable, engaging way. You can check out all of these activities in more in this bundle for The Crossover.

SEL CONNECTION: “HOW TO APOLOGIZE” WRITING ACTIVITY

I love weaving in social-emotional learning activities when I can, so when I reread Josh’s “apology” to JB in The Crossover, I couldn’t help but make this part of the text a teachable moment! As a teacher and human, I’ve realized that so many people have never learned how to properly apologize, so I broke down the lessons my momma taught me into a 4-step apology framework. Students use this apology framework to write a better apology to JB from Josh’s point of view. So not only is this a great life lesson, but a way to dig into characterization.

If you want to have a little extra fun with this activity, you can have students use the apology framework to practice writing silly apologies (like stealing cookies from the cookie jar, the dog eating their homework, etc.). The more practice students have with apologizing, even from a character’s perspective or with a fictional incident, the more likely they will be to remember these steps when it’s time to make amends in real life. You can find this activity in my bundle for The Crossover HERE.

EULOGY/ELEGY & FUNERAL FOR CHUCK BELL

I’ve been assigning eulogies and facilitating character funerals since my days of teaching The Great Gatsby in high school. It’s always one of the most memorable lessons of the school year. After all, pausing to reflect on a character who passes away feels more natural than just moving on to the next chapter, business as usual. Chuck Bell’s death in The Crossover is no exception, especially because it happens at the end of the book, a natural time for reflection and discussion. 

To facilitate this lesson in a meaningful way, give students the choice to write a eulogy or elegy for Chuck Bell from Josh’s point of view. I’ve found it helpful to show students examples of eulogies or elegies and give them a brainstorming sheet to make sure they cover essential details and write a text-based speech. After students have written their eulogies and elegies, it’s time for the funeral or celebration of life. I always pass out “programs” that are cleverly designed with a few questions to spark critical thinking and discussion. During the ceremony, students can volunteer to read their eulogies or elegies. Hearing the different speeches helps students reflect and sparks a more productive whole-class conversation.

After a celebration of life for Chuck Bell, you can talk more about Josh’s relationship with his dad, the life lessons he learned from him, and the themes of the book. It’s a great way to wrap up the novel with something meaningful and memorable. You can find this lesson HERE or in the deeply discounted novel unit HERE.

POST-READING SPEED DISCUSSION

Wrapping up a novel can feel overwhelming, especially one with a heartbreaking ending to unpack. Instead of jumping straight into a whole-class discussion, I’ve found that it helps to prime my students with low-risk, peer-to-peer discussion first. I facilitate this through speed discussion, a unique strategy that gets every student involved. Speed discussion helps students process the book with their peers and think through “big picture” questions while things are still fresh in their minds.

Here’s how it works: students rotate through multiple rounds of “speed” discussions. Each “round,” students are paired with a new classmate and a different question. By the end of the activity, they’ll have shared ideas with at least a dozen peers and explored a wide range of topics. It’s a low-pressure way to practice discussion skills and reflect on The Crossover as a whole.

Perfect as a lead-in to a Socratic Seminar or a writing assignment, speed discussion ensures every voice is heard and helps students think critically about the story. This activity is an engaging, collaborative way to wrap up The Crossover. You can find it HERE or in this fun, student-centered bundle for the entire text HERE.

I hope these ideas, lessons, and resources help you plan an engaging, varied unit for The Crossover. Good luck teaching this incredible book, and please let me know if you have any questions. To check out all of the resources mentioned in this blog post, click HERE or anywhere on the image below.

For more ideas and information on teaching novels in verse, check out the following:

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