This winter, inspired by cool bookish tournament projects by Melissa Alter Smith of Teach Living Poets and Jared Amato of Project Lit, I decided to launch my own English teacher-y tournament.
I wanted to know – of the hundreds of amazing books out there – which were working BEST in the classroom for the teachers in our community?
After polling over 2000 teachers over in Creative High School English for their favorites in 9th/10th grade (11th and 12th grade coming soon!), I landed on 16 great titles and we’ve been voting ever since.
Today on the pod, I’ll be sharing the top titles and some of the comments and rationales teachers have shared along with their votes. If you’re looking for a new book for your curriculum, or you’re curious what other teachers are focusing on in theirs, today’s show will help!
Setting the Scene: The Initial Tournament
First things first, let’s look at how things began. After sorting through the almost 100 suggested titles and the votes, I selected sixteen strong candidates to start our tournament with, then sorted them into a bracket.
Since Long Way Down, Night, Fahrenheit 451, and Romeo and Juliet got the most initial votes, I gave them each their own section of the tournament.
Take a peek at the bracket:
We started off with a strong field, a nice mix of contemporary and canonical, and a diverse group of authors bringing many viewpoints to the table.
The Round of 16
The first round of voting featured a lot of close match-ups. If you’re curious, you can go and see the voting on FB below. I also ran polls for many close races on Instagram stories, where far more folks weighed in.
- Long Way Down vs. The Book Thief
- Animal Farm vs. Romeo and Juliet
- Night vs. Macbeth
- Fahrenheit vs. Of Mice and Men
- The Odyssey vs. The Lord of the Flies
- Speak vs. The House on Mango Street
- Dear Martin vs. Born a Crime
- The Firekeeper’s Daughter vs. The Poet X
Long Way Down showed a LOT of promise in this first round, sweeping the votes in its match-up and drawing comments like these from teachers:
“Long Way Down, I pair it with Slam Poetry and we listen to the Harper High Podcast. My students LOVE it. The story is engaging, listening to Jason read it is so cool.”
“Long Way Down- my students WANT to read this book. There’s nothing more to it, with engaged students the rest just comes!”
“Long Way Down wins because it takes only a few classes because it’s so short.”
“Long Way Down. My students love it. It’s accessible, insightful, thought-provoking, and full of beautiful language. I use it in the middle of my poetry unit and it hits every time.”
“We just started Long Way Down in sophomore English today, & they are absolutely loving it already.”
“Long Way Down. It offers a different perspective, medium, etc. to study in long form, and students are incredibly engaged. It’s a manageable text that can be paired with many others, and students can respond in so many interesting ways, like creating their own elevators.”
“Long Way Down- love how unique the story is. Plus there is a great graphic novel version too!”
“Long Way Down! I paired it with Macbeth last year and it was great!”
The Quarterfinals
In the second round, Long Way Down continued to dominate, sweeping through Lord of the Flies 18-1 in our Facebook group, and 183-72 on Instagram stories.
Night defeated House on Mango Street 14-3 on FB, 160-82 on Instagram stories.
Born a Crime just edged out Fahrenheit 451, with an initial tie on FB that was broken on Instagram stories with a 193-142 victory for Trevor Noah.
The Poet X nudged out Romeo & Juliet in the closest race yet, with Romeo and Juliet up 7-3 on Facebook but falling to The Poet X 197-212 on Instagram stories.
This dramatic round saw the fall of two of the top four seeds in the tournament: Fahrenheit 451 and Romeo and Juliet, both canonical texts going down to more contemporary titles.
- Long Way Down vs. Lord of the Flies
- Night vs. House on Mango Street
- F451 vs. Born a Crime
- Romeo and Juliet vs. The Poet X
Now we were down to four outstanding books.
The Semifinals
To be honest, I would be happy to seal off the story here.
These are four outstanding options for the classroom. They represent widely different experiences, challenge students in their thinking, present their ideas in different formats, center different stories. If you’re looking for a new option for your curriculum, these are great books to explore.
But, you know, a tournament is a tournament.
And the voting DID continue, despite many comments about how increasingly difficult and even painful it was getting to choose.
For me, there was a surprising twist here.
After watching Long Way Down coast through the tournament, I was sure it was going to float its way to victory.
But in droves, teachers stood up for the importance of Night in the curriculum in this moment. Night won dramatically on Facebook with a 62-22 victory, and on Instagram stories with a closer 292-266 victory.
Born a Crime barely nosed out The Poet X, with an initial 12-12 tie on Facebook, a 7-6 victory on an Instagram post, and a 200-149 victory on Instagram stories. SO close.
Let’s take a look at some of the comments about the vote that generated by far the most conversation – Night vs. Long Way Down. Teachers were often – understandably – torn. So let’s just reinforce here the fact that you CAN teach ALL these books!
Why Teach Night? (All these quotations come from the conversation between educators in this post).
“Night is a book that every American should read. It needs to be part of the common understanding and the common discourse. It turns a story of many ‘them’ into a story of one ‘me’, and truthfully, in the American culture of extreme individualism and focus on self first, that is quickly becoming the only way to engender true empathy. Long Way Down is a great book – engaging, moving, and relatable – but it’s about Americans in America. If we learn nothing else from the current situation, it should be that as a nation, we desperately need to understand more than Americans in America.”
“Night should be read by every human on the planet at least 3x at different ages….”
“I’ve taught them both. Both can be great but given today’s circumstances I think the most important book I teach is Night.”
“Night – We are sadly losing our survivors due to time; the history of the Holocaust is being forgotten/misconstrued despite our best efforts; the empathy and understanding gained from this book are needed in our society; and Elie Wiesel is such a testament to strength and advocacy. This entire text helps bring the Holocaust back to ONE and helps readers see the people in the Holocaust, not just the statistics. (I do LOVE Long Way Down, too!)”
“I really like LWD, but Night always leads to so much learning. I use resources from Facing History & Ourselves and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and students gain such an appreciation for the history and Elie Wiesel’s legacy.”
“Night- the history is either dying off or people are telling different versions of what happened. The belief in what happened with the Holocaust is becoming lost on people…with the way our country is currently…these kids need to read it and study it and appreciate it.”
“NIGHT. I agree that it’s a book everyone should read. Quite often, it’s the book that really opens students’ eyes to that part of history. Long Way Down is good, but so many kids are going to pick it up anyway. Night, on the other hand, wouldn’t be.”
“Teacher mom: Night. Sophomore son: LWD”
Why Teach Long Way Down? (All these quotations come from the conversation between educators in this post).
“Long Way Down! Both are important works, but Long Way Down will hook reluctant readers in a way that Night won’t. Everyone should read Night, but some students might not be ready to handle it yet in the first half of high school. It’s important information to know, but it’s incredibly difficult to process that reality.”
“So thankful I get to teach both in my 9th grade curriculum. If I had to choose, it would Long Way Down. The level of engagement it brings to students of all levels is top notch. Students start the unit by saying they hate poetry, and they end the unit with their new favorite book.”
“Long Way Down is a gripping book that pulls on emotions, which is relevant to teens. Even if students have not gone through what the character is facing, a sympathy can be felt for someone who has a tough decision to face. Jason Reynolds is an amazing YA author who really knows how to connect with students. The moral dilemmas faced in this book can be used as a learning tool which can teach lessons that extend far beyond the classroom.”
“‘Long Way Down’ was able to captivate students in a way that caused many “reluctant readers” to be on the edge of their seat(s) anticipating reading the next section. Both are important texts, but my vote goes to Mr. Reynolds and his contemporary work.”
“I taught Long Way Down for the first time last year with 9th grade reluctant readers. I will teach this every year as far as I’m concerned! Such a good book and the kids loved it!”
And Finally, The Finals
So in the end we had a final match-up of Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime and Elie Wiesel’s Night. You can see all the comments on FB here: Night vs. Born a Crime.
On Facebook it wasn’t too close, with a sweeping 47-14 victory for Night. On Instagram stories it was closer, but Night won there as well. This match-up didn’t drive as much conversation, which kind of made me wish that Night and Long Way Down had been on opposite sides of the bracket so they could meet in the finals.
My Takeaways from the Tournament
Well! This has been quite a project.
In the end, I’m really excited to share the top 16, 8, 4, AND #1 title(s). There are so many books here worth exploring for your curriculum, depending on what kind of hole you have to fill, the needs of your students, and the books you’re already teaching. The goal here wasn’t to prioritize any one story over another, but simply to learn more about what teachers around the world are finding to be engaging and relevant to students right now.
Of course, these 16 books aren’t the only great titles to teach, or the only voices it’s important to share. Sometimes our favorite books stem from what’s available, what’s already on the shelves, and what’s allowed. But I constantly see the question – “What’s your favorite book to teach?” – in our community, and I hope this project will be an asset to help folks find new ideas for texts worth exploring.
