383: Bleeds, Ghosts, & Flash Verse: A Lesson For Long Way Down The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast

Content provided by Betsy Potash and Betsy Potash: ELA. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Betsy Potash and Betsy Potash: ELA or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA »
383: Bleeds, Ghosts, & Flash Verse: A Lesson for Long Way Down

3d ago 23:52

MP3•Episode home

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.

Grab the free Long Way Down lesson plan curriculum set here: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/1Eq309

Go Further:

Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.

Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit.

Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook.

Come hang out on Instagram.

Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

374 episodes

#English #Higher Education #Betsy Potash #Teaching Trends #Teaching #Betsy Potash: ELA #Podcasting Education #Engage #Strategy #Teachers