It’s a rare curriculum book that inspires NO negative comments. Ever. To hear, month after month, year after year, that a certain book turns kids into readers, ignites interest and discussion in class, hooks unengaged students like nothing else has.
Long Way Down is one such book.
It’s a fast read, a novel-in-verse, by the former U.S. Ambassador for Youth Literature, Jason Reynolds. In my opinion it’s perfect for 9th and 10th graders, but really, there’s a lot there for students of any age. It tells the tale of Will Holloman, a teenager trapped in a cycle of violence by “The Rules” of his neighborhood – No Crying, No Snitching, Get Revenge. He’s watched every man in his life fall to gun violence because of the rules, and now that his brother has been killed, the rules are set to snare him. Until he steps onto a very unexpected elevator ride.
In today’s episode of “Plan My Lesson,” we’ll be planning a class period focused on the dialogue between Long Way Down, the novel-in-verse, and Long Way Down, the graphic novel.
This week’s request comes from an educator teaching a new graphic narratives course – which, by the way, sounds amazing. She’d like help crafting a lesson that guides students in comparing the two texts side-by-side, so that’s what we’re going to do!
Whether you teach a version of Long Way Down, a different text that’s been translated into a graphic novel, any other graphic novel, or even none of the above, I think you’ll find new ideas for your lesson planning today. After we walk through the lesson itself, we’ll be talking about helpful takeaways from designing THIS lesson that you can apply to designing ANY lesson, so be sure to stay tuned to the end.
Oh, and you can grab all the curriculum I’ll be sharing about today available as a free download right here.
Zooming in on the Text for this Long Way Down Lesson
For this lesson, we’re focused on the beginning of both versions of the text – both the novel-in-verse and the graphic novel. You can integrate at least part of this Long Way Down lesson into a Long Way Down Unit whether or not you have any copies of the graphic novel. You could also integrate it with any lesson on the language and choices of graphic novels, even if you’re not teaching Long Way Down.
Project your Agenda & Ask your Attendance Question
First things first, start by having your agenda up before students walk into the room. Answer their questions before they ask them with a clear list of the activities and the amount of time each will take.
To build connection and start to hook students’ interest for the lesson, project a “This or That” slide featuring two different examples of street art and invite them to let you know which one they find more striking when you call their name. I’ve created one such slide for you, but in your individual classroom you could also drop in street art from your city or street art from famous artists like Shepherd Fairey or Banksy.
Give Students Graphic Novel Language & Watch the Graphic Novel Trailer
As we get into the lesson, our first goal is to give students a vocabulary for talking about graphic novels.
They need to know about panels, captions, frames, gutters, close-ups, bubbles, bleeds, and layout. This is something I’ve gone deep on both in Camp Creative a couple of summers ago and in The Lighthouse, creating infographics, vocabulary cards, slide decks, and activities for teaching this language.
I adapted one of those infographics for this lesson, showcasing eight key terms with an infographic that matches the mood of Long Way Down with a bit of a ghostly feel. Start by passing this infographic out to students and giving them time to look at it for a few minutes. Narrow in on the idea of a “Bleed” and make sure they understand what one is. Ask them to turn to a partner and chat for a minute about why anyone might use a bleed to tell part of a story in a graphic novel. Call on a couple of pairs to share their theories.
Next, pass out the handout “In Search of Bleeds.” Let them know you’re going to play the trailer for the graphic novel version of Long Way Down, and you want them to keep a tally of all the bleeds they see as they listen to Jason Reynolds reading the opening and see Danica Novgorodoff’s pages.
They are going to see A LOT. Basically every page has a bleed, or several, depending on how you want to define them. The opening of the story is rarely contained in traditional frames, and bits of story bleed out across every page. After you finish watching the trailer, ask pairs to share their numbers with a question like “Raise your hand if you counted more than 10, more than 15, more than 20” so you can keep everyone participating as much as possible. Then then let them move onto the next part of the handout.
Next, invite partners to discuss the second part of the handout, considering WHY the bleeds are there and HOW they act as interpreters for the language and emotions of the story. While they’re discussing, write on the board: “Why might Novgorodoff use so many bleeds in her graphic adaptation?”
After a few minutes of discussion and writing, invite each pair to come up and write two of their ideas on the board (each partner can write one). If you have a large class, you might want to make room available on a second board if you can.
Give everyone a few minutes to read over all the responses, and then invite volunteers to share themes that come up across many responses.
Watch this Interview with Jason Reynolds about his Collaboration for the Graphic Novel
Now that students have begun to notice aspects of Novgorodoff’s style in interpreting Reynold’s work, it’s time to hear from Jason Reynolds himself about the collaboration.
Play this two minute video, in which Reynolds talks about using the page as a canvas to convey meaning through his line breaks and word positioning. I love how it shows his poem about the feeling of an earthquake alongside the illustration, showing how he interpreted the feeling of an earthquake through his words and she re-interpreted his interpretation into full visuals. He comments on his desire for “art that looks like it’s teetering between the living and the dead” and the way that “watercolor is ghostly.” These ideas are going to lead us into the next part of the lesson.
Argument Practice: Choose the Panel that Best “Teeters” between the Living & the Dead
Next, we’re going to build in a little bit of argument practice, inviting students to take what they’ve just learned from Jason Reynolds and go searching for the art that best exemplifies this idea of hovering between the living and the dead. Let the student partnerships find another partnership to join, and work together as a group of 4. Sitting together, they’ll start with an individual task – choosing a panel to fit the idea, then defending their choice with three reasons. After a few minutes, invite group members to present back, and the group at large to choose the strongest panel of the four to showcase to the class. Finally, everyone individually can choose the panel they felt was the strongest representation of “Ghostly Teetering” overall.
This simple argument practice is a chance to practice gathering and presenting evidence for an idea, as well as listening to how others do the same thing and analyzing whose argument comes across the strongest. All in the context of Jason Reynolds’ goals for the graphic adaptation of his work, and hopefully tapping into some of the vocabulary they’ve just learned (i.e. the idea of the bleed and any other key terms from the opening infographic).
Experiment with the Genres: Story-in-Verse & Graphic Adaptation
If you and your students get really into the initial activities, you may not have time for this one. But I figured I’d include it anyway, and you could always build it into another class period or use it as a homework assignment.
This creative activity gives students a chance to write a VERY short piece about a ghostly interaction, then adapt it into verse, then adapt it into canvas-like verse like Jason Reynolds, then adapt it into a graphic representation of verse like Danica Novgorodoff.
The handouts guide each step, and I’ve provided a model for your first run-through, until you have student models to turn to. This will be your students’ chance to explore the techniques they’ve learned about and analyzed throughout the period, using both texts (the verse version and the graphic adaptation) as mentor texts.
Students can use the “Final Canvas” handout for their final product, or work on Slides or Canva, as I did. It would be a great time to have watercolor paints and paper available in class if you can work out some kind of loan with your art department.
Wrap it Up with a Quick Exit Task
As students are leaving, have them tell you whether they think the graphic version of the story or the verse version has more impact, so far. Just stand by the door as they walk out- perhaps collecting their graphic adaptation pieces if you had time to finish – and listen to each student tell you their answer.
Teaching Takeaways
First things first, just like last week with Born a Crime, remember to project your agenda, ideally with time blocks so kids know how long everything is going to last. An attendance question is a nice way to build community, get everyone’ attention, and rally interest in the themes of the day if you choose to relate it to your activities.
Next, remember that whenever you can, it helps to make the invisible visible. In this case, it might be easy to assume that students know a fair amount about graphic novels, and that things like “bubbles” and “panels” are self-explanatory. But by sharing the vocabulary of the genre, you help everyone get on the same page and make sure that all students can speak the language of the text they’re exploring.
I’ve included a lot of really step-by-step handouts in this lesson to guide pairs and small groups, rather than project the questions and activities. Students have a very clear guide in front of them every step of the way so it’s easier to stay on track.
Because Jason Reynolds is a contemporary author, there’s a lot of wonderful video resources to pair with his work. I’ve been AMAZED over the last year at how many wonderful interviews and read-alouds I’ve found from him. Time after time I’ve seen students respond to short videos with strong engagement. This interview about his collab with Danica Novgorodoff is almost like having him step into the classroom for a few minutes to give his take on the lesson. You never know what you’re going to find when you go hunting on Youtube for contemporary authors, and I would really recommend taking the time to dig.
The creative activity in this lesson draws on both texts as mentor texts. Students will just have studied examples of the kind of writing they’re trying out, and they can go back and look at how Reynolds and Novgorodoff did it anytime as they work. Mentor texts are incredibly helpful, whether you’re teaching a grammar concept, a way to write a sentence or paragraph, or how to experiment within a genre.
Don’t Forget to Grab the Free Curriculum for this Long Way Down Lesson Plan
Remember, all the curriculum I referenced today is available as a free download right here.
Want to keep this lesson in mind for later? Pin it!
Looking for More Ideas for Long Way Down?
Want more help for Jason Reynolds’ Long Way Down? Check out this blog post full of ideas!
