Free Materials for Jason Reynolds' Long Way Down

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Long Way Down (Lexile 720) was the first book I finished at the start of the COVID lockdowns. A co-worker suggested it to me a few years ago when I had a class of tough boys that hated reading, but I never got the chance to read the book, let alone teach it. This was regrettable, since I know now that this would have been the perfect book for that class. This blog has free materials for Long Way Down.

In Long Way Down, the main character's brother (Shawn) is killed in a shooting. This book in verse then follows the thought process of the surviving brother (Will), who feels he must avenge his brother's death. If he does avenge his brother, Will will perpetuate a spiral of death and destruction in the neighborhood. If he doesn't, he will have broken the "rules" of his family. Each "chapter" is a stop on the elevator that Shawn is riding down. He starts on the 8th floor and rides down from there, picking up a new person on each floor who has advice for him on how to proceed. I am getting chills just thinking about it!

Luckily for me, there's no shortage of boys who don't like to read coming through my classroom, and I got my chance to teach Long Way Down during the 2020-2021 school year. We were virtual for much of this year, which is reflected in the heavy directions on each handout. Since I had 4? 5? preps that year (I don't remember), I leaned heavily on this unit that I found online from Columbus City Schools. My kids LOVED the opening materials about social codes, etc. This unit really carried me at the beginning of my unit and helped me to frame my lessons going forward. Since I was teaching this book to 10 Integrated students, though, who were quite a few years below grade level in reading, I still needed to supplement the above unit with a lot of graphic organizers, and I needed to break up some of the provided activities into smaller steps.

The materials below are the handouts that I created to scaffold lessons for my students. They are organized by "section" since the book is organized into 8 sections (one section for each floor of the elevator ride). I highly recommend looking through the Columbus City unit and then using my materials as needed to scaffold. Please enjoy these free materials for Long Way Down.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Essential Questions

• What is the "circle of violence"?

• How does the circle of violence affect the community, families, and individuals?

• Can this cycle be broken?

Free Long Way Down Pre-Reading Materials

• "Does Reading Fiction Make You a Better Person?" Graphic Organizer

• Trevor Noah Interview of Jason Reynolds

• "Code of the Streets" Article by Elijah Anderson

• "Code of the Streets" Article Group Reading & Graphic Organizer

• "Code of the Street" Paragraph

Opening Chapter of Long Way Down (8th Floor)

• Close Reading of Opening Passage

• Opening Character Chart

• Rules Journal

7th Floor

• Magical Realism Graphic Organizer

• Literary Devices in Long Way Down

• Section 7 Close Reading (for annotating)

• Section 7 Literary Devices Graphic Organizer

6th Floor

• Literary Device Analysis for Section 6

• Anagram PowerPoint

• Anagram Analysis Handout

• General Symbolism PowerPoint

• Section 6 Symbolism Handout

5th Floor

• Symbolism Reflection

4th Floor

No Materials

3rd Floor

• Section 3 Journals

2nd Floor

No Materials

1st Floor

• "Code of the Streets" Video & Questions

• Flipgrid Assignment

Assessment

• Long Way Down Multiple Choice Test (paid product)

Long Way Down Multiple Choice Test

Analysis for Long Way Down

• How to Identify Theme

Free Long Way Down Writing Materials

• End of Novel Essay Prompts

• Outline & Model

Connecting Texts

I really enjoyed teaching this book to a whole class. I only got to teach it this one time AND it was during virtual learning, so I am looking forward to teaching it again on e day. In the meantime, and I had a lot of luck getting kids to read it independently this year. Some of them had read it before and wanted to reread it and others enjoyed the graphic novel version.

Long Way Down Graphic Novel

Another book kids really enjoy if they liked Long Way Down was Yummy by Gregory Neri. Yummy is a short, easy high-interest graphic novel that is, unfortunately, a true story. Yummy is a kid in South Side Chicago and gets caught up with the local gang. Things quickly go very, very wrong.

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty

Other Stuff

• Teacher background reading (NPR Article about Long Way Down)
  

If you have any free materials for Long Way Down that you would like to share with others, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.