Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and stuff : Friendship

1. Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and stuff: Friendship Presented By: Robyn Blanks and Brooke Ramey

2. Friendship Comparing the characteristics of friendship from poems to specific passages out of your mentor text Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff.

3. Selection from Page. 34 “Hey, Sam, you can make a guy feel good when you want to.” Clyde looked at Sam and gave him a little rap on his arm. They were so close to each other that I really wished I wasn’t there. “Look, you think I can make a college program?” “Yeah, I think so. And even if you can’t, I think you can scare the daylights out of it if you don’t get it.” “I guess I’ll have to give it that big try. My mother would dig it, my father would have liked it, too.” “You’ll dig it, too,” I added. I was surprised to hear my own voice. “Hey, little brother. Hey, Stuff. Maybe I will.” Clyde reached over and got Sam’s hand and mine, and we all clasped our right hands together. I got so worked up I started crying and everything, and I would have died, I mean really died, except that I saw Clyde and Sam were crying, too. And then I got a funny feeling that being a man wasn’t everything I thought it was. Because I wasn’t ashamed of crying with these guys. “Crying is feeling, baby ain’t nothing wrong with that.” Sam had seen me trying to hold back the tears. “Ain’t nothing wrong with that at all. Are you hip?” “I’m hip,” I sniffled, and we all slapped hands.

4. Thought Provoking Questions • What is happening in the passage? • What are the details that assist you in determining what is occurring in the passage? • From the passage, how is friendship displayed? • What qualities of friendship are similar and different in some of the poems you read earlier?

5. Excerpt from Page. 26 and 27 Now for some people that’s really not too important, I guess. At least I never heard anybody else running around talking about knowing how people felt. But to me it was pretty important. You know why? I really wanted to know if they felt like me. Sometimes I thought that some of the kids I knew, or kinda knew, didn’t feel the same way about things that I did. I don’t mean they didn’t like the Mets or anything like that, but they didn’t feel sad about things that made me feel terrible. And things that made me happy sometimes didn’t make other kids happy.

6. Thought Provoking Questions • What is the narrator describing in the passage? • What are the details that aid you determining what is occurring in the passage? • From the passage, do you think it is important for a friend to feel everything their friend(s) feel? • What qualities of friendship are similar and different in this passage that reflects the representation of friendship in some of the poems you read earlier?

7. Selection from Page. 80 “Yeah, I think so,” Gloria said, smiling through her tears. “that’s what makes it not so bad. He’s okay for a cat that’s not too heavy.” “I think he’ll be back,” BB said. “BB, you’ll always think the right thing as long as you live, girl,” Gloria said, sniffling a little. “You got a big heart for a young girl. I really mean that, too.” “Hey Gloria! Sam. “What you want, main man?” “ How come you decided to come out to the stoop with us?” “Heard there was a jive club down here called the 116th Street Good People. Figured I’d check them out.” Then we started in to laughing and playing around. If somebody came around and looked at us they’d probably think we were just being stupid, but the real thing was that we felt good. We had something real close and we were glad about it. It filled me up with so much gladness that laughing and crying were almost the same thing. It was a good night, maybe one of my best nights ever.

8. Thought Provoking Questions • What is happening in the passage? • What are the details that aid you determining what is occurring in the passage? • From the passage, how is friendship displayed? • While discussing each selection of text, we have established what elements that helps you to create a story? For example: we established who the narrator was in one passage.

9. It’s Your Turn! Taking out a sheet of paper, you will write one-single paragraph inserting yourself into the story Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff. Maybe you want to use one of the passages we used in class today, or scheme through your novel to get ideas. Remember to use specific details and your idea is fully focused and developed. Take a moment to reflect on personal experiences you have encountered with your own friends to support you and your place in the story. This is like a puzzle, where do you fit in? Which event from the story did you most connect to? On a separate sheet of paper, list the page number and passage details of where you are inserting yourself.

10. One Paragraph Example After a while, we all became restless. Quietly reflecting on our day, and watching the stars look down upon us. We counted them, when I got tired, someone else took over the counting, and by the end of the night, we counted up to 1,000 beaming white stars, but I'm sure there were so many more. Before we knew it, we were all asleep on the stoop, cuddled tightly together, warming each other with every breath we took. Yet, the chills of the night seem to get colder, so we all went home. • I inserted myself after the passage on page 80 that we reviewed today in class. I thought about how my best friend and I used to count stars at night together. It was something we enjoyed doing.

11. Work Cited • Myers, Walter Dean. Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff. New York: Puffin, 1988. Print.