1. Mary Beth Cancienne, Ph.D. James Madison University
Using Reader Response to Understand Theme in “Slam, Dunk, and Hook” by Yusef Komunyakaa: An Inductive Strategy
Mary Beth Cancienne, Ph.D.
James Madison University

2. Reader Response (Rosenblatt, 1978) attempts to connect the students’ personal experiences with the text. Instead of the teacher asking questions about the text, the teacher acts as a guide and brings out the meaning of the text for the reader using an inductive approach to learning.
Today you are going to learn a reader response strategy called Focal Judgments: The Most Important Word adapted from Milner, Milner, & Mitchell (2012), Bridging English. Rosenblatt, L. M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

3. What is the relationship between diction (word choice) and theme?
Essential Question

4. Objectives: Identify the most important word in a line
Objectives: Identify the most important word in a line. (Understanding) Explain and discuss the meaning of the poem. (Understanding) Interpret the poem. (Applying) Search for patterns among important words and hypothesize the message of the poem/the central idea/the theme. (Analysis) Compare and contrast the inductive and the deductive approach to teaching. (Analyzing)

5. Slam, Dunk, and Hook Yusef Komunyakaa (Brief Biography)
Born April 29th, 1947 in Bogalusa, LA
Enlisted in the US Army after high school and served in the Vietnam war ( ) as a correspondent for and editor of the Southern Cross, a military magazine
Received M.F.A. in 1980 at Univ. of Calif. at Irvine
He is the Distinguished Senior Poet at NYU
Published “Slam, Dunk, and Hook” in the Callaloo in 1991
Won the Pulitzer Prize, the Kingsley Tufts Award, William Faulkner Award and many other awards
Slam, Dunk, and Hook

6. Slam, Dunk, and Hook Read the poem several times.
In groups discuss the plot of the poem.
Slam, Dunk, and Hook

7. Slam, Dunk, and Hook Underline the most important word of each line.
Please note that each person will decide the most important word in the line. There is no one right answer.
Slam, Dunk, and Hook

8. Slam, Dunk, and Hook There are 40 lines in the poem.
Each person will receive a number.
When it is your turn, identify the most important word in the line and explain why you chose this word as the most important.
Write the words on the board.
Slam, Dunk, and Hook

9. Search for a pattern among the words and hypothesize the meaning/central idea/theme of the poem.
Please note that there are several themes.
What is the theme?

10. How is diction (word choice) related to the theme of the poem?
Slam, Dunk, and Hook

11. Induction: Search for Patterns
Focal Judgments: The Most Important Word is an Inductive strategy.
We will now use direct instruction/deduction to understand the relationship between diction (word choice) and theme.
Induction: Search for Patterns

12. What is the relationship between diction and theme?
The small details in the words develop the larger ideas/meanings/themes that we find in the poem.
What is the relationship between diction and theme?

13. Deduction: Drawing conclusions from premises or “top-down” logic.
One central idea or message of this poem (theme) is that playing basketball provides a release for the players both individually and as a group. Using the theme of the poem, underline the most important word in each line that suggests playing basketball as an act (a process) of healing.
Or using your own theme, underline the most important word in each line.
Share in your group the most important word for each line. What words, if any, did you change and why?
Deduction: Drawing conclusions from premises or “top-down” logic.

14. Conclusion How are the two approaches to teaching different?
How are the two approaches the same?
Would you consider using both approaches? If so, explain why?
What other variations of the strategy would you use during instruction? Explain.
Share in small groups.
Share as a class.
Any questions?
Final thoughts…
Conclusion

15. After teaching these strategies, ask other formal analysis questions (i.e., style, tone, symbol).
Show film (if there is time).
Slam, Dunk, and Hook

16. Milner, J. O., Milner, L. M., & Mitchell, J. F. (2012). Bridging
English (4th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill/Prentice
Hall.
Rosenblatt, L. M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Yomunyakaa, Y. (2001). “Slam, dunk, and hook” retrieved
from PoetryFoundation.org
References

17. Thank You! Mary Beth Cancienne, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Thank You!