Becoming Muhammad Ali

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Have you ever read a novel in verse? What was it, and what was the reading experience like? Whether or not you have read a verse novel, what might influence a writer to choose that format for telling a story?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may be unaccustomed to reading a novel in this format, so introducing them to it can be helpful in training them to think about how to analyze the decisions authors make in telling a story and how poetry creates different effects than prose. It might be beneficial to introduce terms if students have little familiarity (prose, verse, stanza, couplet, etc.).

• The American Academy of Poets offers a definition of what makes a novel in verse.
• Book Riot has compiled a list of novels in verse.

2. What do you know about Muhammad Ali? What accomplishments is he known for? In what ways might he have inspired others?

Teaching Suggestion: Students might be familiar with Muhammad Ali from US history courses and conversations about Malcolm X and the African American freedom struggle. Part of this novel’s purpose is to offer context for the life of Cassius Clay before he was renowned as a boxer.

• The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, includes a museum that puts Ali’s life in context.
• PBS offers Muhammad Ali, a four-part Ken Burns documentary dedicated to his life, available for streaming in English or Spanish.

Short Activity

Think of a moment in your life when you felt you were “the greatest.” First, tell this story in one paragraph. Then, trade with a partner. Each partner will transform the narrative into a poem. When you get yours back, read it through and think about the following questions:

1) What stood out to you about the perspective your classmate took?

2) What would you add? What would you keep the same?

Then, come together as a class and discuss the process of cowriting. Did you enjoy it? What challenges, if any, did you encounter? Did the cowriting process make the story better?

Teaching Suggestion: This is a cowritten novel, and two different authors may take a different approach to telling the same story. This activity can introduce students to this method. Instead of using students’ personal stories, they could first adapt a classic fairy tale or fable and then have their partner retell as it a poem.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

How have you been shaped by the place where you live and the way you grew up? What role does your family play in the shaping of your identity?

Teaching Suggestion: Prompting students to think about this question will prepare them to discuss the theme of Remembering Who You Are and Where You Came From.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English language learners or students who are visual learners, you might instead ask them to draw a picture or a family tree to illustrate the connections between themselves and their families.