Long Way Down

Use these activities to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity. 

ACTIVITY: “Anagrams”

Will uses anagrams throughout the novel to understand and rearrange his life: ALIVE becomes A VEIL as he thinks about what he doesn’t know; FEEL becomes FLEE when he talks about his vulnerability; CINEMA becomes ICEMAN as he tells the story of his uncle moving into the drug trade; etc. One of the key elements of poetry is learning how manipulating language can be a form of meaning-making, so it’s fitting that Will tries to work with words to make sense of the chaos around him.

Take 5 minutes to brainstorm words that define you; try to come up with at least 10 words that you see as important to your sense of self. Think about things you like to do, character traits you have, things that matter to you, etc. Then see how you can rearrange them (if you have trouble with this, there are many websites that will give you every possible rearrangement of a word). Pick out a new word among your rearrangements that conveys a related or contrasting meaning to the original, and then write a brief explanation of why that new word might also be meaningful in its own way.