The Crossover
Authored by: Kwame Alexander
Author's Website: https://kwamealexander.com/
Awards: Newbery Medal Award
Coretta Scott King Award
Summary: The crossover is a personal narrative written from the perspective of Filthy McNasty. Filthy is a star at basketball and so is his brother JB. When a cute girl with pink Reeboks comes along, things start to take a turn.
Take a look at the extended Book trailer!
An Inside look into-- The Crossover as a Graphic Novel
Authored by Kwame Alexander
Illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile
PBS Interview Kwame Alexander
Writing Redefined
In addition, your blog post should address the following:
Initial Thoughts
My initial thoughts before diving into this book were "okay, a book about basketball.. I can do this. All of the other books I read have surpassed my expectations, so this book shouldn't be any different." I never had an interest in reading, watching, or learning about basketball as a student or even as an adult. I just don't have a connection with the sport-- I prefer volleyball or football. I guess you could say I was dreading this week's reading. However, after I cracked open the book and began reading, I was hooked. The style, format, short verses.... wow. On the front cover of the book, Nikki Giovanni was referenced the book and said the book was "BOLD! EXPLOSIVE!" I couldn't agree more. This isn't a typical novel that is written from left to write, in a perfect line, covering the entire length of a page from top to bottom, it is a book of movement. That is the best way I could describe this piece to someone who hasn't read it. The book moves: it moves your eyes, your smile, your laughter, and level of excitment-- which must mimic the movment in basketball.
Even though this book is about basketball, it isn't a book that would only appeal to those who play basketball, boy or girl. There is a little bit of romance, sports, family humor, twin brother competition, and much more. However, what connected me to this book the most was the movement of the book that was previously mentioned. As a writer and reader, I constantly wonder how author's choose the words that they want to change the form of-- how does one decide? I can tell that when an Kwame uses words such as "slipping" or "falling" he writes the letters to show the motion of the action. For example this is how he illustrated the word 'falling' simply by altering the structure of the words themselves:
F
A
L
L
I
N
G
You eyes move to downwards to follow the letters from top to bottom, which gives your brain the illusion of falling. I find this extremely fascinating. This is the structure that I want to recreate while using The Crossover as a mentor text. As a writer, using mentor texts to help me understand a writing concept I don't understand helps tremendously. I am unfamiliar with using this textual structure, so I can rely on the experience and guidance a mentor text can offer. Therefore, let me introduce you to how I would invite my students to take part in using The Crossover as a mentor text:
Hook: Hi everyone, This week we started reading the Crossover. I want us to further focus on Kwame's craft and form of his writing style. Many writers have a specific style/form that makes them unique, similar to how we all speak differently.
We've talked about how his writing forms helps us visualize the movement that is taking place in the context of the story, pay close attention to sounds arounds around us. I want to show you how I use The Crossover as a mentor text. Let's turn to page 3 and page 36, towards the beginning of the book. Doesn't page 36 just make you visualize the ticking of the clock. How do you feel when you just look at page 3? I feel like the word MOVEMENT is screaming at me.I used this page as a model for a writing idea. However, I used my own writing ideas. I'm going to show you a picture of my writing in my notebook-- it's messy, imperfect, but I love it. While I show you these pictures, I want you to make connections to Kwame's writing and my writing.
Can you see my writing process... what do you notice????
Invitation to students: I want you to find any page in Kwame's book and just begin writing, while using his book as a mentor text. I want you to do something crazy.... USE PEN. Mistakes are beautiful and make writing unique. Don't be afraid to scribble and make a mess.. it is your writing after all :)
Here is the final product! I look like an author, right? You ready to become an author??? Your turn :)
Read aloud of my poem:
Inspired by page 3.
Finalized version:
Affordances of reading a verse novel:
The affordances students get from reading a verse novel is similar to the resources I gained from a teacher's perspective. From my perspective, I never read a verse novel until I was tasked with reading The Crossover. I was unfamiliar with the structure because in school I only every read haiku, sonnets, limericks in regards to poetry, yet I never had the opportunity of reading a verse novel. Essentially, a verse novel is a narrative written in the form of a poem. Writing Redefined describes verse poetry as a form that "seamlessly blends both traditionally alphabetic forms of composition, which privilege a limited number of students, and alternative forms of composition, which share access with a much wider range of students, into our practice" (Coppola, 2019). Therefore, because of the larger audience verse novels can reach, I think that verse novels is my new favorite form of poetry. I, like my students, are able to see how poetry can influence an author's style, craft, message, and more. Students are able to observe that you can use poetry to write novels about basketball, a girl in pink Reebok shoes, and/or about twin brothers. The story was still a narrative but the form was uniquely beautiful. Additional Resources for your students to connect to this weeks reading:
Let's combine math, reading, and make a connection to The Crossover: Take a look at Ian F Mahaney's Math of Football-- try and connect other sports to reading.
You could also try a comic book about Michael Jordan:
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