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What changes can be made

in the classroom by the teacher

to support boys' literacy?

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What programs can be implemented in the school

to support boys' literacy?

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What do parents see as their

son's reading preferences?

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What are boys choosing to read

in the library or online?

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Reflection

The literature review gave me the opportunity to dive into an issue that directly influences my teaching everyday as a fourth grade Language Arts teacher, boys’ literacy.  The research from the reviewed articles contributed to the knowledge of boys’ literacy by helping me identify the main points and issues of boys’ literacy.  It will help guide my further research of this topic by helping me narrow down my ideas for data collection and research questions.  It also gave me some ideas for effective practices I might use in the future to improve boys’ literacy.  I am already making changes in my classroom after what I have learned from this research.  The research is making me more aware of my current teaching practices and how I can improve them.  If I can find ways to engage my boys’ in literacy, then they will show growth.

Summary

Through my research on reasons why boys are behind and not engaged in reading, and identifying effective practices to improve boys’ literacy skills, I hope to show student growth.  I have discovered that boys need positive reading role models, choices of texts, and active experiences with those texts.  The key seems to be to find ways to reach and connect with boys through literacy.

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The third reoccurring theme in my pursuit of supporting boys’ literacy I found was that we must understand a boy’s learning style.  Jon Scieszka (2011) in his You Tube video discusses  “the male way of learning, which tends to be action oriented and competitive, works against boys in many classrooms.”  Boys take longer to read than girls do.  They struggle to sit still and stay on task.  Boys have a need for activity and a structured learning environment (“Tackling the Challenge of Boys’ Literacy Gap,” 2015; Haaf, 2013; Garrett, 2011).  We need to harness this need for activity and put it into our literacy lessons.  According to a national survey conducted by the Young Ad “boys were willing to “do” literacy in active, public ways (such as debating, drama, public speaking)” (“Read Me? And How!,” 2009).  Research found that boys were motivated by the use of the arts, active learning experiences, competitions, games, literature circles, debates, contests, and group activities (Ortiz, Ferrell, Anderson, Cain, Fluty, Sturzenbecker, Matlock, 2014; “Read Me? And How!,” 2009). Connecting these activities to real life is also a way to hook boys into reading. (“TLDSB Communications,” 2012; “Tackling the Challenge of Boys’ Literacy Gap,” 2005; White, 2012; “Read Me? And How!,” 2009).  We have to foster a boy’s love of reading using any method that connects with them.  Finding what they connect with is key.

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So boys can be successful and feel engaged, we must redefine literacy (“Tackling the Challenge of Boys’ Literacy Gap,” 2005; Glavin, n.d.; “Read Me? And How!,” 2009).  Educators need to adjust their definition of literacy and expand literacy to include other types of text and digital media.  Research showed that boys are drawn towards different types of texts than girls (Haaf, 2013).  Boys have a strong interest in graphic novels and technology (Garrett, 2011; “Boys’ Reading Commission,” 2012; “Read Me? And How!,” 2009). Current research reports that boys are engaged by texts that include sports topics, magazines, graphic novels, newspapers, hobbies, comic books, amazing facts, humor, adventure, scary stories, mysteries, instructional manuals, and internet reading (“TLDSB Communications,” 2012; “Tackling the Challenge of Boys’ Literacy Gap,” 2005;  Haaf, 2013; Jon Scieszka, 2011; Glavin, n.d.; Ortiz, Ferrell, Anderson, Cain, Fluty, Sturzenbecker, Matlock, 2014; “Read Me? And How!,” 2009).  They tend to resist slow moving plots that explore feelings and emotions mostly found in fiction (“TLDSB Communications,” 2012; “Guys Read,” 2015; “Tackling the Challenge of Boys’ Literacy Gap,” 2005).  Research also found that boys tend to collect things and like to collect series of books or books by the same author (“TLDSB Communications,” 2012; Jon Scieszka, 2011; “Read Me? And How!,” 2009).  If you can get them hooked on a series or author then their literacy skills will continue to grow.  Boys lean towards informational text and like to have choices in their reading selections. Glavin (n.d.) states that “The most important factors in engaging boys to read is letting them have choices of literature and giving them time to read” (p.1). It is all about finding the right text and making it fun!

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One reoccurring theme in the pursuit of supporting boys’ literacy is the lack of male reading role models.  This especially hits home because I am a female, fourth grade language arts teacher.  Brozo (2012) states that “something like 94 percent of elementary teachers are female” (as cited in White, 2012, para.15).  There is a lack of male staff modeling positive reading attitudes in the primary schools. This may make boys perceive reading as a female past time, and then they don’t see it as a masculine activity (“Guys Read,” 2015; Garrett, 2011; “Boys’ Reading Commission,” 2012; Ortiz, Ferrell, Anderson, Cain, Fluty, Sturzenbecker, Matlock, 2014; “Read Me? And How!,” 2009). Since most of the elementary teachers are woman, we are also choosing the books.  We need to be aware of what boys need to be successful, so we can promote texts that appeal to boys and not just girls (Haaf, 2013; White, 2012; “Boys’ Reading Commission,” 2012).  Female teachers and mothers are the ones who are buying books for boys (White, 2012).  Positive male reading attitudes should also be promoted at home.  Wendy Haaf  (2013) tells us that “In addition to reading to their sons, dads should make a point of letting him see you scanning stories in the newspaper or on your iPad during breakfast, reading reports for work, using an instruction manual, or reviewing the rules of a new game” to model positive reading (para. 10).

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My proposed study will explore the reasons why boys are behind and not engaged in reading, and identify effective practices to improve boys’ literacy skills.  Current research suggests that a significant number of boys do not enjoy reading and are not performing well in literacy skills (“Boys’ Reading Commission,” 2011; Glavin, n.d.; Ortiz, Ferrell, Anderson, Cain, Fluty, Sturzenbecker, Matlock, 2014; “Read Me? And How!,” 2009).  Girls are outperforming boys on standardized achievement tests and are more engaged in reading (“Tackling the Challenge of Boys’ Literacy Gap,” 2005; Haaf, 2013; White, 2012; Jon Scieszka, 2011; Garrett, 2011; “Boys’ Reading Commission,” 2011). According to “The U.S. Department of Education reading tests for the last 30 years show boys scoring worse than girls in every age group, every year” (“Guys Read,” 2015, p.1).  According to the Boys’ Reading Commission, this is a major concern in many schools today (2012).  The top three themes to understanding how to support boys literacy that I have identified from my literature review include; the lack of male reading role models, the need to redefine literacy, and understanding how boys learn.

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7.Jon Scieszka. (2011, April 20). Retrieved January 21, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_01tjGp-KU

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Jon Scieszka (which rhymes with Fresca) is the playful and cheeky author behind "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales". In these exclusive audio and video interviews with Reading Rockets, Jon Scieszka talks about his "weird" style and his concern about boys and reading.

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IDEAS:

“practical ways for parents, teachers and mentors

to encourage the young men in their lives to engage with books.”(7)

“Provide resources for parents, such as parent–child reading kits

and information sessions on how to support their children’s literacy learning.”13

“Establish boys’ literature circles and book clubs”13

Male reading role models

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Literature Review & summary

Note Cards 1-5

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What are the students' reading

practices at home and

how can it be supported?

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how boys learn

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11.Teacher Research on Boys' Literacy in One Elementary School

Ortiz, A., Ferrell, D., Anderson, J., Cain, L., Fluty, N., Sturzenbecker, S., & Matlock, T. (2014, June 1). Teacher Research on Boys' Literacy in One Elementary School. Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/images/voices/9_Ortiz v9-1.pdf

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Wendy Haaf

5. Literacy: New study on boys and reading. (2013, September 24). Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://www.todaysparent.com/family/education/boys-and-reading/

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You may have heard about the phenomenon some have labelled the "boys' crisis in education" - the disparity between girls' and boys' achievement levels. A new Canadian study hints that this gap may actually begin at home, when children are preschool age and younger, and can be linked to how we're unintentionally parenting our kids based on their sex. The project, which examined national survey data measuring reading habits of first-born children, found moms and dads consistently spent more time on literacy-related activities, like reading, singing and going to the library, with their daughters than their sons. What's more, the researchers suspect these differences could account for as much as one-third of the gap between boys' and girls' average reading test scores.
Read more: Traditional gender roles: Boys will be boys>
"Even at school entry, there's a test score gap in favour of girls," notes Kevin Milligan, co-author of the study and an associate professor of economics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. By the time Canadian kids are 15 years old, there's a spread of 32 points between the genders, as measured by the Program for International Student Assessment test.

These results surprised even the researchers. Initially, the economists had set out to determine whether the two sexes received equal treatment in countries without a strong cultural preference for sons. (In places where sons are commonly prized over daughters, boys tend to receive more overall "investment," like more time spent breastfeeding.) But what about in Canada, the US and the UK?

"We picked three countries where we had data on all sorts of 'inputs,' and started looking at things that are important to children's development," explains Milligan's co-author, Michael Baker, a professor of economics at the University of Toronto. Interestingly, parents spent roughly the same amount of overall time with first-born kids of both sexes - the gap only emerged when researchers zeroed in on literacy-linked activities.

Of course, studies like this one - which re-crunch existing population data rather than conducting new, direct experiments, and rely on people reporting their own behaviour - have limitations. For starters, human beings are prone to lie a little when self-reporting, in order to make ourselves look better. But the findings were compelling. Not only was the trend favouring girls consistent across all three countries, it also held true when the investigators dug deeper into the data and looked specifically at families with sets of boy-girl twins.
Read more: Top 100 children's books>
Milligan and Baker are still trying to figure out why parents might spend more time teaching letters and reading books with their daughters than with their sons. It's possible, for example, that as western parents, we've become so hyper-aware of giving our girls an equal start in life that we've overcompensated. Another theory is that reading to boys may simply require more effort, on average. Boys may struggle to sit still and pay attention, or they may catch on more slowly, prompting some parents to keep sessions shorter. That girl/boy difference is something Baker observed in his family. "My son didn't take to reading as quickly as my daughter," he says.

Rebecca Rogers of Toronto, mom to six-year-old twins named Emily and Ben, reports the same thing. "The difference between my two is stunning," she says. "Emily will sit with proper posture, pointing to the words. It's so enjoyable to practise her reading with her, whereas we're not quite at the enjoyable part with Ben. He will half-stand, jump up and down, and sing the entire book because he's just being goofy." (Mind you, both Baker and Rogers reacted by spending more time reading with their sons. Today, at 13, Baker's son is an enthusiastic, proficient reader. And while Rogers's little guy hasn't yet mastered reading, he's enthralled by listening to stories - even his sister's chapter books about fairies.)

The good news? Some simple strategies can make literacy-building activities and reading more fun - both for you and the boy in your life - and boost his chances of growing into a confident, competent student.

SEE DAD READ
At least three recent studies have found that boys who viewed reading as a feminine activity were less motivated to read. In a 2003 Canadian study, 24 percent of second-grade boys said that reading was "a girl thing."

"It's very important, I think, for kids to see their dads read, for a variety of purposes - for work and for pleasure," stresses Charles Ungerleider, a professor emeritus of the sociology of education at UBC. "Often, dads do read, but their kids don't see it." In addition to reading to their sons, dads should make a point of letting him see you scanning stories in the newspaper or on your iPad during breakfast, reading reports for work, using an instruction manual, or reviewing the rules of a new game.
Read more: Jim Carrey's new children's book about life and death>
THINK BEYOND BOOKS
Telling stories, singing songs, repeating nursery rhymes and playing word games are just a few of the activities that build a child's vocabulary as soon as he starts learning language skills, and these activities don't require sitting still. Have your toddler tell you a story while on a walk. Or, once your preschooler starts learning letters, ask him to spot letters in signs, or point out objects with names that begin with a particular sound - on car trips, at the park or on grocery-store runs. Beginners can also learn to recognize the words on a game board. Rogers's twins love listening to audio chapter books in the car, which will likely expand their vocabulary and pique their interest in reading.

RELAX READING RULES
Some beginning readers don't respond well to correction or by-the-book reading rules. Rogers discovered her son does better when practising his reading with his dad, who ignores the teacher's recommendation to point to each word. Some libraries offer programs where kids read aloud to the ultimate non-judgemental audience - a trained therapy dog. "It makes some kids more comfortable reading aloud and gives them confidence," says Frances Cutt, the literacy facilitator at the London Public Library in London, Ont.

FIND BOY-FRIENDLY BOOKS
Sure, we love The Paper Bag Princess and strive to be gender-neutral parents who send daughters to hockey and sons to dance class. But there is evidence boys are drawn to different types of reading material than their female peers. At least two studies have found that boys tend to prefer non-fiction, magazines, scary stories and comic books. A third study, by the (now-disbanded) Council on Learning, revealed that boys who had regular access to comic books reported higher levels of reading enjoyment and were more likely to read other material.

Kate Sanagan, a Toronto mom of two, has noticed that the early-reader graphic novels called ToonBooks have made a major difference with her five-year-old son, Henry. "He wasn't interested in other 'learn-to-read' books," she says. "But we found this book called Benjamin Bear, and he loved it. It's funny, jokey stuff, and the pictures seem to speak to him somehow." (Humorous books - like Captain Underpants - are also popular with boys.) Cutt sums it up this way: "It's all about finding the right material, and making it fun."
MIND THE GAP In general, boys...
* take longer to learn to read than girls do
* read less often than girls
* rate their reading ability lower than girls
* express less enthusiasm for reading
* have less interest in leisure reading and more interest in "utilitarian" reading
* tend to be better at information retrieval and work-related reading tasks than girls

Source: Me Read? No Way! A Practical Guide to Improving Boys' Literacy Skills,by the Ontario Ministry of Education
A version of this article appeared in our October 2013 issue with the headline "Boys and books," pp. 60-2.

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You may have heard about the phenomenon some have labelled the "boys' crisis in education" - the disparity between girls' and boys' achievement levels. A new Canadian study hints that this gap may actually begin at home, when children are preschool age and younger, and can be linked to how we're unintentionally parenting our kids based on their sex.

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Active learning , connect with text

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Boys preference towards

informational text

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Boys need choice of types of books.

Expand the meaning of literature to

include digital media

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2You Tube Video

Boys Literacy-Engaging Boys in Reading

TLDSB Communications (Producers). (2012). Boys Literacy-Engaging Boys in Reading (You Tube video). Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtYafTNst_g

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Boys Literacy - Engaging Boys in Reading

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Need for more male role models.

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How will I document

the effectiveness of

new strategies?

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10.Good topic ideas

Boys' Literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://www.k12academics.com/education-issues/boys-literacy#.VLsmm0fF_T8

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12This website has a list of possible resources.

Read Me? And How! (2009, January 1). Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesLIT/BoysLiteracy/MeReadandHow.pdf

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Notes/Topics

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How will I protect students confidentiality

and keep them from the potential harm

( including emotional distress)?

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Most elementary teachers are

woman and we are choosing

the books for all students. We

must be aware of how boys learn

to meet their needs.

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What do boys like to

read and write about.

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8.Gender Gap: Why Can't Boys Keep Up?

Great questions!

Garrett poses the questions if lack of recess, male role models, less competition, and lack of structure hurt boys in the classroom (2011).

Garrett, R. (2011, January 5). Gender Gap: Why Boys Can't Keep Up. Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://www.education.com/magazine/article/the-gender-gap/

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Gender Gap: Why Boys Can't Keep Up | Education.com

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Boys are falling behind girls in school performance. What's behind the boy crisis, and how can parents and teachers help?

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Graphs

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9. Boys' Reading Commission. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0001/4056/Boys_Commission_Report.pdf

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6.Excellent graphs! Good statistics.

“To put those numbers in perspective," a 32-point difference means that boys are a year and a half behind girls in reading skills" (Brozo, 2012).

William Brozo, professor of literacy at George Mason University's Graduate School of Education

White, M. (2012, July 28). Why boys' literacy skills lag behind girls' and how to bridge the reading gap. Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765592913/Many-working-to-bridge-wide-gender-reading-gap-in-the-US.html?pg=all

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Janae and Joseph Wise's Washington state home is a shrine to their passion for reading.

"We have books everywhere," said Janae, a professional blogger, fitness instructor and mother of four young children. As young parents, the Wises built up an impressive home library. Exposing children to books, they assumed, would naturally lead them to love reading. It hasn't quite worked out that way.

"My boys just aren't that interested in reading," Janae Wise said. Her 7-year-old son Hyrum in particular has a difficult time sitting still long enough to finish a story. "I kept asking myself, 'Why doesn't he love reading?' I have to fight this urge I have to force him to read."

The Wises' experience is more than just an anecdotal narrative.

"Parents come into the library every day concerned that their boys aren't reading," said Linda Brilz, youth services supervisor at Boise Public Library in Idaho. But the problem is bigger than "not reading." Across the country and around the world studies show that young men lag behind their female peers in literacy skills by significant margins.

"There is a huge disparity in performance," said William Brozo, professor of literacy at George Mason University's Graduate School of Education.

How serious is the problem? Some of the most compelling data on the topic comes from the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment, an exam given to 15-year olds in 65 countries. On the 2000 PISA exam, girls outperformed boys in reading by an average of 32 points. By 2009, the gap had increased to 39 points.

"To put those numbers in perspective," said Brozo "a 32-point difference means that boys are a year and a half behind girls in reading skills."

The gaps are especially pronounced in some of the highest performing countries, Brozo said. Girls in Finland, for example, outscored their male counterparts by 55 points on the reading section of PISA, he said. In the United States girls outscored boys by about 25 points, he said.

Subpar literacy skills may account for growing gaps in men's and women's educational attainment. In every demographic group women are significantly more likely to earn college degrees, according to the 2011 U.S. Census and the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth.

Gender imbalances in educational attainment trigger unhealthy and expensive social trends, said Richard Whitmire, author of the book "Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That's Leaving Them Behind." For example, he links soaring out-of-wedlock birthrates to the fact that college-educated women are having difficulty finding "marriageable mates."

While the scope of the problem is considerable, public policy concern over these gaps is limited. The U.S. Department of Education has yet to conduct a study on gendered reading gaps, according to Whitmire.

"The issue needs immediate attention given the dramatic consequences gender gaps have for men's earning potential, marital possibilities, the share of children raised in single-parent families and the fiscal outlook for the nation," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

Explaining the Gap

While no one disputes the existence of the gender gap in reading, scholars hotly debate its cause. One set of explanations hinges on biology. Brain-imaging studies show that women have more connections between their left and right brain. These extra connections may allow them to process language better. Body chemistry may also be a factor. Boys have a need for activity and movement that is fed by the testosterone in their bodies. This can make it hard to master reading, which requires longer periods of concentration than elementary mathematics.

Janae Wise has noticed this dynamic with her children. Whether it is biology or personality she can't be sure. But she has noticed her sons have a need to run and climb that her daughters do not. Her 4-year-old-daughter Mali, who doesn't read on her own yet, pulls out books and can sit for hours looking at pictures and making up stories.

Other scholars reject the notion that biology is destiny. They argue sociological factors better explain the reading gap. Reading is portrayed as feminine both in the home and at school, according to Nola Alloway, a professor at James Cook University in Australia.

"Something like 94 percent of elementary school teachers are female," said Brozo. "For a lot of boys, the people they see trying to get them to read are women."

In the home, children are more likely to see their mothers reading for pleasure. Alloway found that fathers tend to identify themselves as non-readers. She suggests that young boys may come to see this as part of a masculine identity, "Not reading comes to be a way some boys demonstrate their understanding of what it is to be a male," she noted in a report prepared for the Australian Council on Excellence in Education.

It may also be true that boys don't read because they have fewer options available to them. There is a gap in the book market, said Chris Shoemaker, a librarian with New York City Public Library. At a presentation of soon-to-be-released titles by a well-known publishing house, he noticed the majority of books featured storylines that appeal more to girls: stories of "frenemies," vampire romance and first love. The average boy just doesn't want to read a story about "bullying between female best friends," he said.

Why are publishers catering to girls? Because girls buy books. "Sales statistics show that it is girls and women who buy books," said Brozo. "Even when creating books for a specifically male audience, publishers try to appeal to the sensibilities of the mother because it is likely going to be the mother who buys the book."

Bridging the Gap

Focusing on the reasons for the gendered reading gap, while important, can actually hurt boys, said Brozo. "We can use some of these explanations as cop outs," he said, "to set lower expectations for boys as readers and learners."

For his part Brozo prefers to focus on solutions: practical ways for parents, teachers and mentors to encourage the young men in their lives to engage with books.

One of the best things a parent can to do encourage their son to read is to just have books in the house, Brozo said. He notes a study of third- and fourth-grade students which showed that loss of reading skills over the summer - called summer slide in academic literature - can actually be stopped and in some cases reversed just by having books in the home. "It drives home the point that good material in the home makes a difference," he said.

Brozo emphasizes the importance of finding books that match boys' interests. "You've got to find out what they like to do," he said. Brozo uses a technique he calls "My Bag" to get a sense of students interests.

"I give each of the kids a paper bag and tell them to take it home and put items in it that are emblematic of who they are and what they do," he said. "The kids bring the bags to school and share the contents in a show-and-tell format. When teachers know what kids are into they are in a better position to find them books that are congruent with their interests," he said.

Brozo recalled learning of one male student's fascination with World Wrestling Entertainment.

"It's something I find very distasteful," Brozo said. But since the student was interested Brozo found him a book on professional wrestling. The boy, who had been classified as a reluctant reader, devoured the book. He came back wanting more. As the boy became more knowledgeable about the WWE his interests expanded to include books on the steroid use behind the physique of many of the athletes he admired. "He developed a pretty nuanced understanding of the issues," said Brozo.

The experience reminded Brozo that when it comes to reluctant readers, "having experiences with print should trump any other concern," he said. Books that parents might consider unsavory or one dimensional can be jumping off points for deeper engagement. "We've got to nurture boys' love of reading in anyway we can." he said.

For older boys who are reluctant to read, Shoemaker suggests "graphic novels." A graphic novel is a long form comic book. "They are an outstanding way to get teens into literature," he said. "They are stories that deal with complex characters and themes," he said. "I think graphic novels are appealing to teens in part because of the visual culture they grow up in. The combination of words and pictures with a complex narrative really speaks to teens today."

The argument can also be made that graphic novels teach emotional intelligence better than traditional novels. "The authors have to find ways to express emotions, a tear or a sly glance through pictures," he said. "The reader picks up on those visual cues and can transfer that learning into their life. Traditional novels can do this too - but graphic novels do it in more obvious ways," he said.

Reading with and to boys is Brozo's final piece of advice. Boys need to have positive role models for reading. Countless studies show the positive impact of male mentorship. Dads, grandpas, uncles and older brothers can have a huge impact on boys by reading with them. Through positive examples, "they'll see that being a man and being an active reader are not incompatible," he said.
email:mwhite@desnews.com

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Why boys' literacy skills lag behind girls' and how to bridge the reading gap

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Some of the most compelling data on the topic comes from the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment, an exam given to 15-year olds in 65 countries. On the 2000 PISA exam, girls outperformed boys in reading by an average of 32 points. By 2009, the gap had increased to 39 points.

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Does the student's socioeconomic

status influence their attitude

towards literacy? What is

the percentage of free 7

reduced lunch kids?

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Can I get parental approval

for all the boys?

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Interesting how many boys think reading is boring or nerdy.

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Why boys' literacy skills lag behind girls' and how to bridge the reading gap.

By Mercedes White, Deseret News

Published: Saturday, July 28 2012 1:00 p.m. MDT

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3.a web-based literacy program for boys founded by author Jon Scieszka

Guys Read. (2015, January 1). Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://www.guysread.com/

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1.Opinions on boys' reading. Possible question ideas.

Brozo, D. (2011, April 7). The Achievement Gap in Reading: Exploring the Gender Literacy Connection in Boys. Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://www.niu.edu/cea/research/InvitedSpeakers/BrozoNIU-Research_Presentation_Seminar.pdf

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4.Discusses the urgent problem of boys falling behind in literacy.

Tackling the Challenge of Boys’ Literacy Gap (The Council Chronicle, Sept. 05). (2005, September 1). Retrieved January 17, 2015, from http://www.ncte.org/magazine/archives/122024

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Educators Call for an Expanded Definition of Literacy

When Doug Pusey prepares his Earth Systems students at Canyon View Jr. High School in Orem, Utah, for a study of "the genetic relationships between lizards," he starts with something his students know well: The Simpsons.

As he describes in a commentary for The Science Teacher (December 2002), Pusey asks students for the first names of Bart Simpson's immediate family and grandparents to create a family tree that will later serve as a model for lining out lizard relationships.

Next he shows students a species of lizard that inhabits the Canary Islands before posing this question: "How could lizards travel from one island to another if they can't swim?" Creativity increases as the answers pour forth.

Finally, Pusey passes out the lesson's reading and an assignment. The approach is called "frontloading," which he explains as the teacher's conscious effort "to lay the foundation for the lesson at hand." He's found it successful in reaching students, both boys and girls, and capable of unlocking something in boys.

"My junior high boys seem to be particularly in need of getting the right mind-set or frame-of-reference before they can make connections in a mental way. It seems that boys are particularly resistant to learning if they are missing frontloading, or the 'painted scenery of the educational pathway.'"

An Urgent Problem

Finding ways to reach boys in school has taken on increased urgency in light of reports that show they are falling behind. For example, girls bested boys in reading in the 22 countries that took the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), according to research by Stephen Gorard of Cardiff University, who also found this gap has existed since the mid-1970s when testing began ( Education Daily, March 17, 2005). And according to the U.S. Department of Education's Trends in Educational Equity of Girls & Women: 2004, "early childhood education experiences are similar for girls and boys. In elementary and secondary education, however, girls consistently outpace boys in reading and writing in all grades" ( School Reform News, The Heartland Institute, March 1, 2005).

Jeffrey Wilhelm, a well-known researcher on boys' literacy and an associate professor at Boise State University, Idaho, says he's worked with many teachers, including Pusey, who are hungry for ideas about an inquiry approach to teaching.

Describing his work as director of a national demonstration site in adolescent literacy, Wilhelm explains: "We ask teachers to bring in a unit that kids have trouble with and we have them reframe it as inquiry. So instead of teaching Romeo and Juliet, you teach what makes a good relationship. . . . You start with where kids are and [with] a problem they have that is also a problem in the culture that you don't know the answer to and use the text as a way to interrogate that issue. Shakespeare didn't write Romeo and Juliet to torture ninth or tenth graders, he wrote it to explore a human problem. The reason that we still read that play, make movies of it, and perform it, is that problem is still alive."

Wilhelm has found that this form of connecting, or making literacy more like life, is a way to hook boys into reading and writing. Wilhelm and Michael Smith wrote about their research shadowing 52 students for a year in "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys": Literacy in the Lives of Young Men and in a follow-up study being published this fall, Going with the Flow: Making School Literacy More Like Life.

Wilhelm says that all the boys in the study could find literacy that appealed to them-literacy that had a clear purpose, provided immediate feedback, imparted a sense of competence or control, instilled a feeling of improvement, and allowed them to be in the moment and be part of a social network.

School literacy, he says, usually didn't hold this appeal. Wilhelm says the boys often felt that teachers broke a "social contract to care. They felt teachers assigned stuff and evaluated them but never helped them. They wanted teachers to be passionate about what they were teaching. One kid said, 'the teacher doesn't even bring her game to school; the teacher wouldn't even do this crap.' We heard this over and over again."

Wilhelm thinks changing teaching to reach more students is both simple and complex. "I think it's simple because all you have to do is reframe what is already in the curriculum. [However], it goes against the salience of American education and the pressure to teach how you were taught.

"I would argue that we need a wider view of literacy and literate practices, and to find ways to bridge the literacies from boys' lives with the literacies we would like them to practice, valuing both equally."

Article Offers Insight

Jane Braunger, chair of NCTE's Commission on Reading, echoes this perspective. "I think the issue of choice is very important; boys and girls both need to know that the literacy practices and interests they pursue outside of school-for example, computers, the Internet-are valued and can be built on in school literacy."

To consider the issue of a boys' literacy gap, she turns to Donna Lester Taylor's "'Not Just Boring Stories': Reconsidering the Gender Gap for Boys" ( Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, December 04/January 05), which rounds up recent research about boys and literacy.

Braunger summarizes some of the article's recommendations as honoring preferences for informational texts; teaching ways to read and discuss narrative such as engaging students in think-alouds; and offering support for challenging texts so readers can expect to be successful.

"Don't Give Up on Boys"

Expanding the definition of "what counts" as literacy and encountering teachers who don't give up on boys are two things that Thomas Newkirk, English professor at the University of New Hampshire, thinks would go a long way toward helping boys with reading and writing.

The author of "Misreading Masculinity: Speculations on the Great Gender Gap in Writing" (Language Arts, March 2000), Newkirk believes there are enduring cultural messages about novel reading as something for women. "To the extent schools define 'reading' with novel reading, I think boys can check out.

"I think teachers need to be more open to forms of popular culture that boys love-humor, parody, adventure, amazing facts, suspense, sports. It's hard for some teachers because these cultural attractions may not have been part of their childhood or their literacy. I think boys resist some slow-moving plots that focus on character development-as one boy put it 'fifty pages about the next five minutes of your life.'

"I also think that teachers need to be careful that they don't give up on boys. Boys may say, 'I hate reading,' but that may just mean they don't feel successful at it. I'm particularly worried at half-baked 'brain research' claims about this difficulty coming from boys' hardwiring. I think that's just as pernicious as people claiming that girls are not 'naturally' good at math-because girls are certainly disproving that.

"I think that boys may disengage from the kind of novel reading stressed in schools. But I suspect that other kinds of reading continue outside of school-magazines, newspapers, news on the Internet, instant messaging. Sometimes I meet men who say they are not 'readers.' I ask them, "Do you read the paper?"

"Yes."

"Do you read for your job?"

"Yes."

"Do you have hobbies you read about?"

"Yes."

"Then I want to ask: 'Then who the hell convinced you you weren't a reader?'"

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Tackling the Challenge of Boys' Literacy Gap (The Council Chronicle, Sept. 05)

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When Doug Pusey prepares his Earth Systems students at Canyon View Jr. High School in Orem, Utah, for a study of "the genetic relationships between lizards," he starts with something his students know well: The Simpsons.

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