Slam!

 Coretta Scott King Award

book talk author study classroom connections list of related books web activity links

“Slam!” is about a seventeen-year old boy, Greg “Slam” Harris, growing up in an urban atmosphere, relying on his basketball skills to get out.  The book deals with the problems Slam has when he is switched into a magnet school.

This book, by Walter Dean Myers, is wonderfully written with realistic descriptions of the struggles and hardships that a lot of young people face while growing up.  Although this book focused on a young boy growing up in an urban atmosphere, the book is easy to relate to by many young people growing up in today’s world.

The author deals with drugs, prejudice, family problems, struggles with relationships, as well as many other issues.  Although the problems range in depth of severity, the author treats each with equal importance, emphasizing the teen’s feelings on each. This is a great book for high school aged students and adults as well, showing that there are very rarely easy solutions to difficult problems.

Author Study

Born in Marinsburg, West Virginia in 1937, Walter Dean Myers is a premier author of children’s and young adult literature.  His mother died when he was very young which led to experiences that later influenced him to start writing.  It was difficult for Myers’ father to raise eight children alone, so a nearby couple, Herbert and Florence Dean, took in the three-year-old and moved to Harlem, New York.

As a child, Myers regularly attended Bible school in his neighborhood.  Suffering with a speech impediment, he cultivated a habit of writing poetry and acquired an early love for reading.  However, living in the city was no walk in the park for Myers.  He often found himself in fights, defending himself against kids who taunted him.  In 1954, he quit high school and enlisted in the army.

Myers has held many positions with various agencies including the New York State Department of Labor, the post office, a rehabilitation center, and a transformer company.  All during this time, Myers was writing for various magazines and periodicals.  It seems that one of Myers’ greatest struggles was to understand what type of writer he wanted to be.  As the years passed and his books became more and more popular, Walter Dean Myers came to believe that his work filled a void for African-American youths who yearned for positive reading experiences and role models.

Myers graduated from Empire State College in 1984 and now lives with his second wife and four children in Jersey City, New Jersey.  Myers has won a variety of awards including the Newbery Honor Award, the Coretta Scott King Award and the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award to name a few.

Discussions

Have a class discussion to see if students think athletes should be given special treatment by their teachers.  Have students explain why athletes should or should not be treated differently from regular students.

Have students discuss whether or not they have moved to a new school and what that experience was like.  Was it hard to make new friends?  What kinds of issues did you have to deal with?  Can you relate to Slam and his predicament of being torn between two worlds?

Discuss what it is like to be on a school team and the pressures that go along with it.  If students are not on a school team, ask what other activities they do such as band or clubs.  Can any of the students relate to the conflicts that Slam has with his coach?

Writing

Have students write in their journals about their best friend and why that person is so important to him or her.  Make sure to relate the entry to the friendship of Slam and Ice.  What are some similarities and differences?  What would you do about your friend’s drug problems if you were in Slam’s position?

Art

Have students design their school basketball team’s logo and uniforms.  Write a page detailing why they chose to design them that way.

In Slam! by Walter Dean Myers, Greg is faced with decisions concerning drug use as well as his future as a basketball player.  Students can relate to this book by visiting websites about high school drug use, as well as breaking down the grade levels and various drugs students are experimenting with.  Two websites to visit that have information on drug use are:

Put together graphs, pies, or charts that display the statistics you find on these websites.
Once you have the statistics put together, you can relate the rest of the project to your English class by writing a report about one of the drugs you have gotten information on and include those statistics, charts, pies, and graphs as an additional part of your project.

More Books by Walter Dean Myers
Fallen Angels
One More River to Cross: An African American Photo Album
Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom
The Glory Field
Hoops
Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary
Motown and Didi: A Love Story
Scorpions
Monster

Sports
Off the Rim                                                         by: Fred Bowen
Rimshots: Basketball Pity Rolls and Rhythms         by: Charles K. Smith
Full Court Fever                                                   by: Fred Bowen
Playoff Dreams                                                    by: Fred Bowen
Rookie of the Year                                               by: John R. Tunis
The Sluggers Club                                                by: Paul Robert Walker
Baseball Brothers                                                 by: Jean Margolle