1. Superman and Me
Activities

2. Activity 1: Getting Ready to Read
What are your first memories of books? Of being read to? Of reading?
Think about your relationship to reading today. What sorts of things do you read? Do you read for enjoyment? Do you read as often as you think you should?
What are the benefits of reading?

3. Activity 2: Key Concepts
Concept: “Dangerous person”
Example Sentence:
Synonyms: Contexts:
Examples: Non-examples:
Concept: “Doing something to save [one’s] life”
Example Sentence:
Synonyms: Contexts:
Examples: Non-examples:

4. Activity 3: Surveying the Text
Identify the author. Where did this essay first get published?
Count the number of paragraphs in the text.
Skim the first and last paragraphs. What is the main idea of the first paragraph? The last paragraph?

5. Activity 4: Predicting Why do you think Alexie wrote this essay?
Who do you think is the intended audience?
Do you think Alexie’s situation—i.e., growing up on an Indian reservation—will make his words apply less, more or equally to your own life situation? Explain.

6. Activity 5: Vocabulary For each word, identify: Words Part of speech
Definition
Connotations (positive or negative)
Synonyms
Antonyms
putter trauma trickle
prodigy subverted submissively
reservation dangerous surplus
monosyllabic devotion modest