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Have you read Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds? It’s a powerful novel in verse about the causes, consequences, and mindset connected to street violence – and the whole story takes place in 60 seconds!
I’ve been hearing teachers rave about it for a few years, but I had my doubts about it at first. Was it another one of those books that work for public school classrooms but is too harsh, too violent … something that my rural, homeschooled kids couldn’t relate to?
Then I read it.
It is harsh. It is violent – it needs to be, because street violence is just that, and it’s hard, because the lifestyle and culture that surrounds this issue is hard; but that doesn’t mean that only inner-city kids should read it. And the violence is primarily off the page, never happening in real time, so you’re experiencing it differently than the characters do themselves.
Instead, I found it a fantastic story for prompting deep discussion – so much so that I decided to use it with my teen book club. We were able to talk about the mindset of these communities. Of what it must be like, feel like, to live there. To grow up watching friend after friend and relative after relative die. To have it ingrained in you to duck, to hide, to wait, when you hear gunshots, and then to look around to see who survived.
The police chief of our town, the sheriff of our county, a lieutenant/SWAT leader, and a pastor/youth program director came to meet with us. We held an open forum and invited the community, where each of the above leaders introduced themselves and then talked about their experience with the issues in Long Way Down. It was sobering to realize just how prevalent it is here – it’s not just an inner-city problem. After that, we asked questions and talked about these issues peacefully and openly.
When the community members had left, and my book clubbers had shared their reflections about our community discussion, I broke out the hexagons. It had been a while since we did one of these, and after reviewing the basics, the kids quickly dove in, grabbing hexagons, sharing what they meant to them personally, and then talking about how they thought they fit – or didn’t – as they tried to fit them together. They pieced them one way, had several straggling pieces with few connections, and so I challenged them to try to make tighter relationships with those.
After they did that, they swirled the hexagons and started over – this time purposely choosing the hexagon that they felt named the most important thing to this story. They built hexagonal connections around this one, discussing story elements as they did so, and it was fun to see just how engaged they were throughout this activity!
I love seeing my book clubbers dig deeply into something, especially these hard, emotional topics. That’s why I want to make this resource available to you. I’ve put together all of the hexagons that we used, in two sizes, plus blanks so you can add your own, and more hexagonal thinking activities for you in one product. This can be used before reading, after reading, for cooperative learning like book clubs or small discussion groups, or even for assessment.
Hexagonal thinking is great because it helps to make abstract concepts more concrete. For students who struggle with putting themes and emotions into words, these hexagons solidify the structures and help to scaffold them towards deeper analysis.
If you’re using Long Way Down with your students, give this a try! It’s an excellent book for this type of analysis.
Have you used Long Way Down with students? What was their reaction?
