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
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.

What is the relationship between
diction (word choice) and theme?
Essential Question
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)

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 (1969-1970) 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


Read the poem several times.
In groups discuss the plot of the poem.
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




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


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?
How is diction (word choice) related to the theme
of the poem?
Slam, Dunk, and Hook


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

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?



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.








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


After teaching these strategies, ask other formal
analysis questions (i.e., style, tone, symbol).
Show film (if there is time).
Slam, Dunk, and Hook



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



Mary Beth Cancienne, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
[email protected]
Thank You!