Before Reading Activity #1

Discussion Stations:

This Pre-Reading Activity is great to introduce topics that will be explored in the text as well as the students' preconceived notions about them.

It help taps into their prior-knowledge, while giving students ideas on what the text might be about. 

For this activity, students would be split up into groups of about 4 or 5 depending on class size. Each station has a different focus for discussion. The categories for discussion include argue for or against, explain, describe, or would you rather? Students move from station to station in their groups, picking one task card from the stack to read and discuss.

Here are the task cards we'll be using for Bronx Masquerade:

Before Reading Activity #2

Introduction to Poetry Slams

What are Poetry Slams!? In this Pre-Reading Activity we're going to explore that very topic!

Why? Poetry and the style of a poetry slam is integral to the text. The novel is written in a pattern that goes like this:

Student introduces themselves, their perspective, their challenges ---> writes and reads a poem about it to the class ---> Tyrone and usually one other student respond to it ----> then the cycle repeats.

So in order to fully comprehend this book, we need to be able to read, analyze, and understand the poems each student writes. These videos and the discussion questions that follow will help us get a feel for how their poems are meant to be read aloud.

Let's start here: Become a Slam Poet in 5 Easy Steps

Before Reading Activity #3

Poetry Analysis Practice

Now that we have a feeling for spoken word poems, let's practice analyzing the content of a poem. This is going to help as we read Bronx Masquerade, as each character writes a poem that typically represents their obstacles, and furthers their character development. 

Since the Harlem Renaissance and Langston Hughes is what sparks this whole novel, let's explore his work. 

Harlem

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up

      like a raisin in the sun?

      Or fester like a sore—

      And then run?

      Does it stink like rotten meat?

      Or crust and sugar over—

      like a syrupy sweet?

      Maybe it just sags

      like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode?

Before Reading Activity #4

Judging a Book By Its Cover

While we're usually taught to not judge books by their covers, sometimes it can be helpful to make predictions on what the text is going to be about! That's exactly what we're going to do in this activity.

First, look closely at these two versions of the front cover: