Long Way Down, My Kids’ Favorite Lit Unit!

“Written in verse, Long Way Down is breathtakingly gripping and spectacular. You almost read it without breathing; the action is so tense, the language so powerful. The author Jason Reynolds has said that he planned not to write boring books, so young people who think they hate books will learn that they don’t. He’s succeeded in his aim by a million degrees: this is one of the most exciting books written for young people or anyone. Give it to every teenager you know! All that, and the illustrations by Chris Priestly add to the haunting quality just perfectly.”

(Reynolds, Jason, and Mike. “Long Way Down.” BookTrust, Faber, 12 Jan. 2020, www.booktrust.org.uk/book/l/long-way-down/).

DOWNLOAD THIS FREE LONG WAY DOWN POSTER/PACKET COVER

My high school ELA students are fascinated by Jason Reynolds’ Long Way Down. It is their favorite lit unit every year. Even the most reluctant readers are drawn in by the unique format, compelling characters, and enthralling conflict of this popular young adult book. I pair the book with an equally amazing podcast and interesting, insightful activities and my students have a memorable ELA unit.

Discover how my Long Way Down teaching strategies and resources will engage your students. Read this post to check out my lessons and materials.

Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com

First, I have my students listen to and complete an activity for This American Life-Harper High School. Listening to podcasts enhances students’ listening skills and introduces them to a new form of literacy.

This American Life is a weekly public radio program and podcast. This activity addresses the two-part broadcast titled “Harper High School.” These episodes recount reporters’ visits to this Chicago high school where, in 2012 alone, twenty-nine recent and current students were shot. Students are introduced to an environment where everyone is a member of a gang simply by living in a particular neighborhood. They meet the courageous students, families, faculty, and staff that help each other survive and cope.

My student worksheet includes the following:

Cover page: “Why listen to podcasts?”
Quote from a communications professor about reading and listening, and the value of podcasts.
Four questions about podcasts and their experiences with this form of literacy
Teaching Tips: a table of contents with corresponding time durations
Tips about presenting the podcast in the classroom and pacing suggestions.
Student Activity: Eight pages addressing each act of the podcast.

Each page has a blank space for “Your Observations, Doodles, Questions, Thoughts.” Students often make some intriguing observations and ask poignant questions based on their notes and sketches. The packet includes questions and tasks for students to complete while listening to the podcast. The appealing format with boxes and graphics where students write responses engages students. I’ve designed this activity to promote more attentive listening; the tasks are spaced out throughout the act, so kids aren’t distracted by having to respond to questions. Most kids wait until the end of the podcast then return to complete the tasks from memory or by referring to the transcript (which they can refer to on the podcasts’ website).

CLICK HERE TO HAVE A CLOSER LOOK AT MY PODCAST ACTIVITY

In LONG WAY DOWN Jason Reynolds guides kids to explore the cycle of gun violence and the theme of revenge while they experience the beauty and effect of skillfully- crafted poetry. This is a great way to sneak in a poetry lesson.

To efficiently and effectively teach this important and compelling novel, I created a comprehensive novel teaching unit which includes everything needed to provide students with an engaging learning experience, focused on a compelling topic, and presented in a unique format.

The teaching unit includes the following elements:

Brief author biography to allow students to consider what influenced Jason Reynolds when he wrote this work.
Jason Reynold’s list, “10 Things I’ve Been Meaning to Say to You” with eleven reflection/discussion questions. I use this to establish author’s intent. Many students react positively to Reynolds’ works because they feel he is sincere and genuinely intent on addressing youth and their lives. This activity opens that important discussion.
Nine questions to discuss after viewing Trevor Noah’s author interview. I show the YouTube video of this interview.
A brief introduction to the book with a teaser: References to “The Rules” and a question: “What will Will do when he reaches ‘L’?”
Sixteen pages of comprehension and analysis tasks: four pages for Floor 8, and 2 pages for each subsequent floor (chapter). These questions deal with character, plot, symbolism, figurative language and poetic devices. I usually allot two chapters (floors) to a 40-minute teaching period. There is a nice mixture of questions, so students are overwhelmed with form and style questions.

After discussion of the novel, students complete a culminating group activity. Each group is assigned a floor/ghost. They then review their notes and prepare to go over that section of the worksheet with classmates. They create a portrait of their character. They create a collage that includes items that symbolize traits of their character. They create anagrams and identify symbols and themes. The group writes and delivers a eulogy. They write out questions to ask their character, and finally, they develop a game, discussion board prompt, or graphic organizer to accompany their class presentation. This is an effective and engaging way to evaluate students’ understanding of the novel.

Students love creative assessments, and I love grading interesting projects. Another fun and creative way to assess your kids’ understanding of the novel is with this “Character’s Phone” creative characterization activity for Long Way Down. This mini-project is a fabulous, and relevant way to assess students’ understanding of characterization! Kids love their phones! This activity has them imagine a character’s phone’s apps, their favorite entertainment, shopping, news, social media, and other indulgences.

The directions for the activity are as follows:

CHOOSE A CHARACTER (Will or a ghost)
Imagine your character in the present. What would this character have on his or her phone?
What image or graphic would your character upload to the home screen?
Choose apps from the categories: ENTERTAINMENT, SOCIAL MEDIA, SHOPPING, NEWS, AND SELF-INDULGENCES
Complete the illustration/discussion component for each (150-225 words per category).
Be sure to accurately represent the character’s traits demonstrated in the literature.

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There are many ways to use the Character’s Phone activity in your classroom. Sharing kids’ work is a great way to motivate students and hold them accountable.

Consider offering kids the following choices or choose one for the entire class:

Poster/Collage: This is a fantastic way for the artists in the class to demonstrate their knowledge of the god or goddess while demonstrating mad art skills. Provide kids with a poster board that they can section off for each component of the activity. Completed projects can be displayed for a gallery walk.
A variation of this strategy is to offer students old magazines (that pile left over in the library from days gone by) or have students print images from the internet to glue onto poster boards. They also include the written portion next to their graphics.
Hard Copy: Students can create a cover with the phone template and devote a page to each of the components of the activity. I’ve done this often with remarkable success. I then devote some class time to passing them around to appreciate classmates’ work.
Digital Copy: You can push the activity out to students so that they can complete the tasks on the computer or devices in whatever format they or you choose (docs, slides, PowerPoint) and submit digitally. These are easily shared with the class as well.
Collaborative Presentation: I recently had my seniors complete this activity for Othello in collaborative groups. They all contributed to a slide presentation. It was fabulous because for each component they provided links that took the class to music videos, movie clips, newscasts, etc. It was quite engaging and so much fun!

The kids really love this project, and I get awesome results.

For a closer look at the Character’s Phone activity click here.

Another creative formative assessment activity is the one-pager.

Students receive:

instructions
template
scoring rubric
The template has a frame labeled “Theme” where students write a theme from the novel then illustrate and comment on the theme in the space.
Character blocks on the template are labeled with characters including Will and his mom and all the ghosts. Students write and cite a quote about the character then illustrate the character’s traits in the box.
A box devoted to symbolism instructs students to choose a symbol and depict it in the box using pictures and words.
I’ve included a completed example of the activity and a discussion of why I chose my quotes, pictures, and words. I’ve also included some teaching tips.

Here’s a link to check out the one-pager.

I hope you’ve found some inspiration, tips, and resources for your Long Way Down teaching unit. Thank you for reading this post.

If you’re interested in purchasing all of my resources for Long Way Down in a discounted bundle, click here:

LONG WAY DOWN COMPLETE UNIT