Unit 4

Reading

Slam by Dean Walter Meyers

Chapter One

Vocabulary

prima donnas – temperamental, vain, or arrogant people

1. Why does Slam believe that the only time in his life that he is “being for real” is when

he is playing basketball? (Pg. 1)

2. How does Slam feel when Mr. Tate calls his mother into the office for a conference?

3. Briefly describe each of the following characters introduced in this chapter. Include Slam’s feelings about each character.

Mr. Harris:

Derek:

Moms:

4. Find an example of humor in this chapter.

5. What compromise does Slam agree to, after talking to his mother about his grades?

6. For what reason(s) does Slam make a poor impression on the coach, Mr. Nipper,during the basketball try out?

7. How does Slam rate the playing abilities of the following boys?

Ducky:

Jimmy Ellis:

Nick:

8. “Local color writing” refers to a kind of fiction that is devoted to capturing the unique customs, manners, speech, folklore, and other qualities, of a particular regional community, usually in humorous short stories. To what extent is this chapter an example of local color writing?

9. Find a passage in the story that illustrates the author’s use of sensory images to describe Slam’s community. Sensory images are descriptive text, using details from the five senses to help describe the subject.

10. Slang is highly informal speech, outside of conventional or standard usage, and consists both of coined words and phrases. Slam! is told in a first person narration by the protagonist. He tells the story in his own language, using many slang expressions. Based on the context clues in the story, define each of the following slang expressions or words.

tag –

turned out –

scoping –

fly –

throw it down on you –

diss –