a long way down essay

Teaching Long Way Down: 25 Engaging Ideas for Teaching the Verse Novel

So, you want to teach Long Way Down? Long Way Down is a verse novel about a fifteen-year-old boy named Will Holloman. It is a great book that really engages students!

Teaching Long Way Down can be an engaging and thought-provoking unit for your students, and there is so much you can do with this novel study. I use the materials in this Long Way Down Novel Study with my students as we read the text in my classroom. If you are looking at how to teach Long Way Down or activities to incorporate in your classroom when teaching Long Way Down, here is the ultimate list for you.

Here are 25 ideas for teaching Long Way Down.

Teaching long way down: watch author interviews.

A great way to introduce students to a novel and author is to have them watch author interviews and videos before reading the book. One of my favorite videos to show my class before reading Long Way Down is the Daily Show interview with Trevor Noah. This is a great introductory interview because students get to know Jason Reynolds, who he is, what he writes, and why he writes.

Teaching Long Way Down: Novel Introduction Stations

Before I start the novel study with my students, I like to have them complete these Long Way Down Novel Introduction Stations as a way to engage with critical information in the novel. This station activity includes three stations: author information, poetic terms, a nonfiction passage about gun violence in the US.

Teaching Long Way Down: Listen to NPR author interview

Speaking and listening is one common core strand in ELA classes. A great way to introduce the novel is to listen to Jason Reynold’s NPR interview . An ideal way to complete this is to have students listen to the interview twice. Each time, students should actively listen and take notes. Students should be listening for keys, and details that they missed during the initial listen during the second listen.

Teaching Long Way Down: Revenge vs. Justice

Revenge is a strong motif in Long Way Down, and a great way to have students explore this concept is to have them read about and discuss the concept of revenge vs. justice. This article about revenge vs. justice is a great starting point for students. I had them read the article in partners in class and then discuss the key differences between revenge and justice.

Teaching Long Way Down: My name is poem

The second poem of the novel is “MY NAME IS.” It is a poem where Will introduces himself to the audience. Before diving all the way into the novel, read this poem with your students first. After reading this poem, have them work on their own name poem that follows the same structure as “MY NAME IS.”

Teaching Long Way Down: Sticky Note Literary Analysis

A great way to engage with the novel as you read it is to complete this Long Way Down Sticky Note Literary Analysis . This versatile teaching resource includes analysis organizers for literary concepts including conflict, symbolism, figurative language, characterization, tone, setting, and more. As students work with these organizers, they will look for and analyze the chosen literary elements and illustrate and explain the literary concept.

Teaching Long Way Down: Long Way Down Character study

A great way to complete a Long Way Down character study is to assign different characters to different students and have them trace their connections with Will. As students trace the character development, they should keep track of things like how the character knew Will, what impact the character had on Will, how their past connection with Will might affect his decision, and what message Jason Reynolds is trying to convey through that character. At the end of the novel, have students form groups to discuss character development.

Teaching Long Way Down: Listen to the audio

If you are teaching Long Way Down without incorporating the audio, you and your students are missing out. Long Way Down is a verse novel, and the story is meant to be read, even performed, aloud. When I teach the novel, we read along as we listen to Jason Reynolds narrate the book aloud. Also, by listening to the book, students can see how Reynolds emphasizes certain words, and how that corresponds with the structure of some of the poems. The two work together to create a dynamic pairing. I use the Audible version of the audiobook.

Teaching Long Way Down: Use the Graphic Novel

Sharing the Long Way Down graphic novel with your class is a great way to further engage students in the story. While the audio narrated by Reynolds is captivating, some students are visual learners and will be able to see the story better with the aid of the images from the graphic novel. Another way to engage students in the graphic novel is to compare parts from the verse novel and the graphic novel since the words in each book are not precisely the same.

Teaching Long Way Down: Create and write anagrams

Throughout the novel, Will comes up with anagrams that represent his feelings. Having students create their own anagrams is a great way to have students work on their critical and creative thinking skills. Having students work with anagrams as a bell ringer is also a great way to introduce anagrams. To help scaffold this activity, provide students with one word of the anagram to start. Here are three anagrams to consider including in your classroom: night = thing, brag = grab, and angered = enraged.

Teaching Long Way Down: Mind map

This is one of my favorite activities for the novel. As my students read the story, I have them create a mind map that maps out their understanding of the story as it happens after our first day of reading, and then students add to the mind map each day after we read a certain level. You can read more about this activity in this blog post .

Teaching Long Way Down: Write your own rules

Just as Will Holloman and his friends and family have their own rules they must follow, our students and their families also have their own set of unwritten rules. There are two ways to go ahead and complete this activity. You can have students work in small groups deciding on three unspoken class rules that students must follow to be successful in your class, or you can have students work separately to come up with three family rules that they follow at their one home.

Teaching Long Way Down: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

This novel is the perfect entry point to introduce your students to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and get them thinking critically about Will. After reading level 4 with students, I like to introduce them to the Hierarchy of Needs. After doing so, I engage my students in a class discussion where they analyze where they think Will is and why. Then, I have them journal about where they believe they are on the Hierarchy of Needs.

Teaching Long Way Down: Track and Analyze Timestamps

Once Jason Reynolds introduces the timestamps, students can know just how much time is passing. By tracing and analyzing the timestamps, students will begin to see how there is no way possible for the story to play out in real-time. There just isn’t enough time. One way to track the timestamps is to have students keep a log of all of the timestamps. Instruct students to write down every timestamp that Reynolds includes and two quick details of what happens during that timestamp.

Teaching Long Way Down: Exploring poetry

Before reading the verse novel, I like to introduce my students to poetry. I use this poetry teaching unit that includes the SWIFT method for analyzing poems. I also introduce my students to spoken word poetry by watching the Louder Than a Bomb documentary and reading and analyzing some of the poems from the film.

Teaching Long Way Down: Symbol Analysis Stations

There are many important symbols in Long Way Down. These symbols work together to help Reynolds convey the novel’s message. After my students read the book, I like to engage them in a symbol analysis station activity where students go back and closely read carefully selected passages and analyze the passages for symbolism.

Teaching Long Way Down: Two-sided poem

In the poem “BUCK WAS TWO-SIDED,” Will describes Buck, who has two sides to him. In this poem, Reynolds uses juxtaposition to highlight the contrasting sides of Buck. After reading this poem with your students, have them write their own two sides poem where they share the two sides of themselves.

Teaching Long Way Down: Choices and consequences

Analyzing the characters’ choices and consequences is another activity you can do with your students as you read the book. This activity will also work hand-in-hand with final outcome of the novel as William will need to make an important decision when the elevator reaches the lobby.

Teaching Long Way Down: The cycle of violence

In the novel, Will is a victim of generational violence. He lives in a neighborhood where his livelihood and safety coexist in a world of gun violence. A great way to introduce this conversation to students is to discuss systemic racism and the injustices people in the Black community face. Just as Jason Reynolds shows the humanity in Will’s family and the tragic end of Dani, this should be a conversation of that focuses on understanding and humanity, not blame.

Teaching Long Way Down: Write the L level

I love reading the end of the book with my students. As we listen to the audio and Reynolds reads the last words and then just stops, students turn the page, look around a bit confused, and it takes them a moment to realize that the book ended. The story ends in a way that leaves students wanting more, which is the perfect lead-in to a creative writing assignment: have the students write the L level. In doing so, students should write the level in verse form and demonstrate an understanding of the novel. Will should be kept in character, and the story’s events should play a significant part in what the students write.

Random thought journals

In the novel, Will shares his random thoughts sporadically throughout the story. As you read the novel with your students, encourage them also to keep a random thoughts journal. You can do this as an occasional bell ringer activity where students write their random thoughts down as they walk into the classroom or as an exit ticket idea where students journal their random thoughts at the end of the class period.

Write a review

After reading the novel, have students write a review (without any spoilers) of the novel. The review can be a written assignment, or you can jazz it up by having students create a podcast review by recording their voices.

Extended Similes with the BEEF poem

In the novel, “BEEF” is an extended simile poem where Reynolds compares grudges to various things and then includes personification. Analyze the structure and the figurative language in the poem, and then have students use “BEEF” as a mentor text to write their own extended simile poem.

Is emotional vulnerability an asset or a weakness?

Discussing emotional vulnerability is a great way to engage students in a class discussion that will require critical thinking skills. A great place to have this conversation is after Will shares when he learns the rules. Will learned that he needs not to cry; however, should emotional vulnerability be seen as an asset or weakness? To take this discussion to the next level, have students share real-world examples to support their claims.

End of Unit Essay

At the end of the novel study, I like to have my students demonstrate their understanding of the story through a final essay . I assign this final argument essay that asks students to select which character had the biggest impact on Will and the decision he will make.

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A Long Way Down

47 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Discuss honesty in terms of each character. How are they honest? How are they dishonest?

Why do you believe that Hornby might have used the technique of frequently shifting between narrators? Do you believe it is a successful method? Why or why not?

A Long Way Down is considered a dark comedy. What literary techniques does Hornby employ to craft this tone?

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Author Interviews

In 'long way down,' the ghosts of gun violence chill a plan for revenge.

David Greene

Long Way Down

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Jason Reynolds' new novel Long Way Down is focused on a moment of decision. It happens in an elevator — teenaged Will is on his way to take revenge for the murder of his brother, but his plan is interrupted by a few visitors on the way down to the ground floor.

"Will is growing up in a community where there are certain rules," Reynolds says. "There's a code of conduct, and what those rules are is number one, no crying, number two, no snitching, and number three, always seek revenge."

Those rules ring true to Reynold's own experience: At 19, one of his best friends was murdered, and he considered revenge himself.

"I'm grateful that we didn't do the thing that we thought we were going to do," Reynolds says. "When you start to sort of work through those things and you come back to reality ... you're, like, 'Whoa, my entire life could have changed.' "

Interview Highlights

On the ghosts who visit Will

What I wanted to do in telling a tale about gun violence is not create one-dimensional characters that fall into cliches, and so I think what we can do with devices, like using ghosts of the past, is we can create a space where the writer, the author — quote-unquote me — doesn't have to teach a lesson. Instead, it's about us, a community, thinking about those of our family members and our friends who we've already lost to this thing, and allow their haunting to be the thing that creates our psyche and our conscience.

On the clichés and misconceptions Reynolds wanted to avoid

Code Switch

'all american boys': a young adult book about a police beating and a hard choice.

Thinking Of Leaving Home? Here's A Bit Of Advice From Young Adult Authors

One, that young people who engage in this, especially the back and forth, the revenge, that there is a fearlessness, that these young people are sort of without feelings, without emotion, that they're cold as ice, right? The truth is that everyone who's ever been around anyone who has been in these environments knows that the people who pull the triggers are terrified.

On his own experience of pain and revenge

I was 19, I got a phone call at two o'clock in the morning from one of my best friends, who informed me that another one of our best friends was murdered ... the news hit like a Mack truck. I'll never forget the next day, being at his mom's house, overrun with anger and having to admit to myself that in that moment, I was fully aware that we could all leave that house, go in search for whoever we think may have done this, and end their lives. And that I would have been able to go home that night and sleep like a baby. Because what happens is when you feel that kind of pain, time suspends itself, and you believe that you'll be 19 forever, you believe that the way you feel in this moment will last forever. And I remember his mother standing in front of us and telling us that no other mother needs to feel what she feels in that moment, and because of respect for her, all of us sort of standing down.

On why the book is written as poetry

I need my young brothers who are living in these environments, I need the kids who are not living in these environments to have no excuses not to read the book. The truth of the matter is that I recognize that I write prose, and I love prose, and I want everybody to read prose, but I'm also not — I would never, sort of, deny the fact that like, literacy in America is not the highest, especially amongst young men, especially amongst young men of color. It's something that we've all been working very hard on, and my job is not to sort of critique or judge that. My job is to do something to help that, and to know you can finish this in 45 minutes means the world to me, so that we can get more young people reading it and thinking and having discussion about what this book is actually about.

This story was edited for radio by Justin Richmond and Jacob Conrad, and adapted for the Web by Sydnee Monday and Petra Mayer.

Long Way Down

By jason reynolds, long way down irony, have a nice day bag (situational irony).

When recounting the sight of his brother lying dead on the ground, Will notes Shawn was holding a plastic convenience store bag that features the phrases "Thank You" and "Have a Nice Day." In this instance of situational irony, the cheerful phrases on the bag create a jarring contrast with the grim and brutal turn that Shawn's day took. Indifferent to Will's reality, the face blithely broadcasts its message.

Ain't Never Done This Before (Situational Irony)

After an assailant shoots Shawn in public, the police arrive on the scene. A young officer comes over to question witnesses about what they saw. Will says, "He looked honest, like he ain’t never done this before. You can always tell a newbie. They always ask questions like they really expect answers." In this instance of situational irony, Will realizes that he, despite being a fifteen-year-old kid, has more experience with gang murders than a cop does. What Will understands and the cop has yet to learn is that no one is going to give useful answers to the police because people in his neighborhood live by a code of ethics that requires them to never snitch on a criminal to the police, no matter how serious the crime.

Kids Would Play Mummy With It (Dramatic Irony)

After police and coroners remove Shawn's body from the shooting scene, they leave up yellow caution tape to keep the public out. However, Will observes that the children in his neighborhood use the tape the next day to "play mummy with," wrapping the yellow plastic around their bodies as though mummified in bandages. In this instance of dramatic irony, the children innocently and ignorantly treat the tape that marks off Shawn's murder scene as a tool for make-believe while Will understands it as the police's quickly abandoned effort to appear as though they are investigating the killing.

Will Used to Know Dani (Situational Irony)

When a young woman steps into the elevator Will is taking down to the lobby, he is taken aback by her attractiveness. He leans back to get a glimpse of her chest down her shirt, and he is excited when she engages with him and flirts back. However, in an instance of situational irony, Will discovers that the fifteen-year-old woman is actually the ghost of Dani, a girl he used to play with. Instead of meeting a fellow teenager, he could start a romance with, he faces the haunting presence of a girl he once watched die after being hit by a stray bullet in another gang shooting.

Long Way Down Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Long Way Down is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Study Guide for Long Way Down

Long Way Down study guide contains a biography of Jason Reynolds, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Long Way Down
• Long Way Down Summary
• Character List

Analysis of "Long Way Down" by Jason Reynolds

In Jason Reynolds’ anti-gun novel, Long Way Down, written in verse, he explicitly emphasizes the effects of the acts of revenge in Will’s society to evoke the adverse consequences of a gun violence.

Reynolds uses connotation to reveal the grievance of Will after going through the loss of a loved one. When Will sees Shawn crying, his tears also comes “bursting free”. The tears come into the scene as it “burst[ing] free”, as something that is forbidden and was trapped by Will’s follow of the rules. Though the rule clearly states no crying, Will can no longer hold in his grief. Something that burst free is generally unmanageable. Will’s loss of control of his emotions expose his true character. He is innocent and is only a kid. Even though Will tries to take actions that the people he looks up to will do, Reynolds implied how Will’s character is unsuitable to do such a brutal act, kill Rig to revenge.

Jason Reynolds also warns about the rightfulness of killing a person by the use of repetition in portraying the questioning of the revenge in Will’s confession to Shawn. In Will’s explanation, he states that he “knew it was Rig” to “thought it was Rig” and back to “knew it was Rig”. This fluctuation demonstrates the insecure in Will himself and displays the development of doubt in Will’s heart over whether the plan of the revenge is truly and spiritually the right thing for him to follow. If a person “knew” something, this is to be a fact. However, if a person “thought” something, this is only a thought that could be inaccurate. By using the inconsistent words, Reynolds exposes the instability within Will. Throughout the explanation, Will simply wants a reassurance from Shawn that he is doing the right thing. The author triggers the question, should he also blindly pursue the rules that the past generations have pursued that ultimately resulted in the reoccurring of the violence?

The author uses symbols to further explores the possible consequence that will supervene a gun violence. Reynolds uses the cigarettes to symbolize a revenge acted for a died. While everyone else has a cigarette, Shawn’s cigarette was “burning in [Will’s] stomach” and thus fills him with “stinging fire”. Smoking cigarettes can cause major health issues. In this case, the cigarette represents the negative effect of what a person’s death has caused. Will has not yet avenged for Shawn, in other words, he has not yet continued on this chain of violence. When one’s stomach is being burned by “stinging fire”, one suffers from extreme pain. Will, however, does not suffer from the physical pain, but the mental and emotional tortures. He is torn between whether he should continue this endless chain of revenge or remain calm and reconsider the murder. Through Reynolds’ use of representative symbolization, he reflects that an act one takes can conclude in intense outcomes that may affect another’s life miserable.

In the fast-paced novel, by using a variety of poetic devices and figurative languages including connotation, repetition, and symbolism, Jason Reynolds is able to explore the feelings of the broken, warn them about the miseries that may be the aftermath of an impulsive act, and guide them out of the darkness. At the end of the book, the author closes with “you coming?” to affirm that if you choose to do something, you have to be prepared for the consequences of your own actions.

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Long Way Down

Jason reynolds, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions, william (will) holloman quotes in long way down.

gets passed down like name-brand T-shirts around here. Always too big. Never ironed out.

gets inherited like a trunk of fool’s gold or a treasure map leading to nowhere.

ANOTHER THING ABOUT THE RULES

They weren’t meant to be broken. They were meant for the broken

NO. 1.1: SURVIVAL TACTICS (made plain)

Get down with some body

get beat down by some body.

I WRAPPED MY FINGERS

around the grip, placing them over Shawn’s prints like little brother holding big brother’s hand again,

walking me to the store, teaching me how to do a Penny Drop.

[...] I thought about this when the man with the gold chains got on and checked to see if the L button was already glowing. I wondered if he knew that in me and Shawn’s world, I’d already chosen to be

Then the bus-stop lean back to get a glimpse

of the world.

But the metal barrel dug into my back, making me wince, making me obvious

SHE BRUSHED HER HAND AGAINST MINE

to get my attention, which on any other occasion would’ve been the perfect open for me to flirt or at least try to do my best impression of Shawn,

which was his best impression of Buck.

WHEN THEY SAID

you were gone, I cried all night,

I confessed.

And the next morning, over hard-boiled eggs and sugar cereal, Shawn taught me Rule Number One—

I stood in the shower the next morning after Shawn taught me the first rule, no crying, feeling like I wanted to scratch my skin off scratch my eyes out punch through something, a wall, a face, anything, so something else could have a hole.

So I explained them to her so she wouldn’t think less of me for following them

So that she knew I had purpose

and that this was about family

and had I known The Rules when we were kids I would’ve done the same thing

Fly. Like Shawn. Foreshadowing the flash.

BUT TO EXPLAIN MYSELF

The Rules are the rules.

He knew them like I knew them.

Passed to him. Passed them to his little brother. Passed to my older brother. Passed to me.

The Rules have always ruled.

past present future forever.

it was like the word came out and at the same time time went in.

Went down into me and chewed on everything inside as if I had somehow swallowed my own teeth and they were sharper than I’d ever known.

he murmured, looking at Buck, motioning for a light.

It’s never the end,

Uncle Mark said, all chuckle, chuckle. He leaned toward Buck.

I was only three. And I don’t remember that. I’ve always wanted to,

but I don’t.

I so don’t.

A BROKEN HEART

killed my dad. That’s what my mother always said.

And as a kid I always figured his heart was forreal broken like an arm or a toy

or the middle drawer.

WHAT YOU THINK YOU SHOULD DO?

Follow the Rules,

I said just like I told everybody else.

Just like you did.

BUT YOU DID WHAT YOU HAD TO DO,

I said, after listening to my father admit what I had already known,

I didn’t know he wasn’t the right guy,

Pop said, a tremble in his throat.

I was sure that was Mark’s killer.

A DUMB THING TO SAY

would’ve been to tell Buck how important that soap was

that it stopped Mom from scraping loose a river of wounds.

But instead I just said,

about the drawer, the gun,

that I did like he told me, like Buck told him, like our grandfather told our uncle, like our uncle told our dad.

I followed The Rules. At least the first two.

AND EVEN THOUGH

his face was wet with tears he wasn’t supposed to cry when he was alive,

I couldn’t see him as anything less than my brother,

my favorite, my only.