Did you know facts... (An excerpt from To Read and to Write?: That's a Boy's Question)
Michigan Reading Association Presentation, March 2011
My colleague, Sherry Griesinger, and I presented at the Michigan Reading Association Conferences in 2010 and 2011 about using Literacy Kits centered on Boys' literacy. The following is an excerpt of some of the facts and data that captured our attention on this topic. ~Myla Lee
My colleague, Sherry Griesinger, and I presented at the Michigan Reading Association Conferences in 2010 and 2011 about using Literacy Kits centered on Boys' literacy. The following is an excerpt of some of the facts and data that captured our attention on this topic. ~Myla Lee
“The data from our study of boys and reading in fact, challenge us to rethink our answers to the most fundamental questions we ask as teachers: Why do we teach? What do we teach? How do we teach?”
— Michael W. Smith and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys
What teachers need to know
One of the first questions we have to ask, aside from the matter of teacher perception, is “Does a real problem exist?” After all, every teacher knows boys who love to read, who perform well in English class, who might even consider majoring in English and perhaps teaching it one day. While we must always be wary of statistics and generalizations, evidence of a problem does exist. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, teen females have outperformed teen males on reading assessments at a relatively constant rate from 1971 to 1999. The reading scores for 19 year-old males (and females) have stayed “about the same” during these years, while the scores of minority and other groups have risen, making the gender gap the most immovable discrepancy in literacy proficiency. (See “Trends in the Reading Performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-Year-Olds.”)
In their intensive study of boys literacy lives in and out of school, Smith and Wilhelm summarized gender and literacy research, including the following observations:
Socially, boys have few male reading role models at home or school. Most librarians and teachers are women; mothers read to children more frequently than fathers. Boys often express distaste for reading as a passive, even feminine activity. Peer pressure may discourage boys from reading as well as prevent them from responding openly to questions that reveal their interest in reading and/or emotions and characters. “If reading or other literate activities are perceived as feminized, then boys will go to great lengths to avoid them. This is particularly true if the activities involve effort and the chance of failure, for incompetence and expending effort are also seen as unmasculine.” (Smith and Wilhelm, 2002, p. 13)
Through instruction, teachers can create or reinforce connections that Wilhelm (2002) describes. Boys who see the relationship between the text read and their current lives are more likely to be engaged and to respond to the text. (Wilhelm, 2002) English teachers take for granted that by studying literature, we are studying life. However, boys are more likely than girls to connect literature with television or movies rather than with other written text or with life. (Pirie, 2002) Think-alouds, front-loading or pre-reading strategies, inquiry projects, and socializing activities are ways that teachers can encourage boys to see connections between literature and life.
Wilhelm (1997, 2002) encourages teachers to use strategies that help students “see” the text through art and drama. In symbolic story representation, for example, students create cut-outs of characters and backdrops and “walk” their peers through the story, adding their responses as they tell the plot. Drama activities give students opportunities to be physically active and to deflect their responses by taking on the persona of the character. Through this deflection, boys are more comfortable exploring characters and feelings. (Pirie, 46-48) Possible drama activities include enacting scenes from plays and other texts, forming living statues or tableaux, writing and performing vignettes for missing parts of the story or for related conflicts, and role-playing. (Wilhelm, 2002, Pirie, 2002)
Excerpt taken from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/676
What teachers need to know
- A real literacy gender gap does exist.
- Understanding boys and their interests should influence text selection and curriculum development.
- A literacy program should encourage and support self-selected reading in addition to teacher-assigned reading.
- Helping boys make connections with text through activities such as front-loading, drama, inquiry, and small group discussions can support their reading comprehension and analysis skills.
One of the first questions we have to ask, aside from the matter of teacher perception, is “Does a real problem exist?” After all, every teacher knows boys who love to read, who perform well in English class, who might even consider majoring in English and perhaps teaching it one day. While we must always be wary of statistics and generalizations, evidence of a problem does exist. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, teen females have outperformed teen males on reading assessments at a relatively constant rate from 1971 to 1999. The reading scores for 19 year-old males (and females) have stayed “about the same” during these years, while the scores of minority and other groups have risen, making the gender gap the most immovable discrepancy in literacy proficiency. (See “Trends in the Reading Performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-Year-Olds.”)
In their intensive study of boys literacy lives in and out of school, Smith and Wilhelm summarized gender and literacy research, including the following observations:
- Boys take longer to learn to read than girls do.
- Boys read less than girls read.
- Boys generally provide lower estimations of their reading abilities than girls do.
- Boys value reading as an activity less than girls do.
- Boys have much less interest in leisure reading and are far more likely to read for utilitarian purposes than girls are.
- Significantly more boys than girls declare themselves “nonreaders.”
- Boys spend less time reading and express less enthusiasm for reading than girls do.
- Boys increasingly consider themselves to be “nonreaders’ as they get older; very few designate themselves as such early in their schooling, but nearly 50 percent make that designation by high school.
- Boys and girls express interest in reading different things, and they do read different things.
- Boys are less likely to talk about or overtly respond to their reading than girls are.
- Boys prefer active responses to reading in which they physically act our responses, do or make something. (Smith and Wilhelm 2002, pp. 1-12)
Socially, boys have few male reading role models at home or school. Most librarians and teachers are women; mothers read to children more frequently than fathers. Boys often express distaste for reading as a passive, even feminine activity. Peer pressure may discourage boys from reading as well as prevent them from responding openly to questions that reveal their interest in reading and/or emotions and characters. “If reading or other literate activities are perceived as feminized, then boys will go to great lengths to avoid them. This is particularly true if the activities involve effort and the chance of failure, for incompetence and expending effort are also seen as unmasculine.” (Smith and Wilhelm, 2002, p. 13)
Through instruction, teachers can create or reinforce connections that Wilhelm (2002) describes. Boys who see the relationship between the text read and their current lives are more likely to be engaged and to respond to the text. (Wilhelm, 2002) English teachers take for granted that by studying literature, we are studying life. However, boys are more likely than girls to connect literature with television or movies rather than with other written text or with life. (Pirie, 2002) Think-alouds, front-loading or pre-reading strategies, inquiry projects, and socializing activities are ways that teachers can encourage boys to see connections between literature and life.
Wilhelm (1997, 2002) encourages teachers to use strategies that help students “see” the text through art and drama. In symbolic story representation, for example, students create cut-outs of characters and backdrops and “walk” their peers through the story, adding their responses as they tell the plot. Drama activities give students opportunities to be physically active and to deflect their responses by taking on the persona of the character. Through this deflection, boys are more comfortable exploring characters and feelings. (Pirie, 46-48) Possible drama activities include enacting scenes from plays and other texts, forming living statues or tableaux, writing and performing vignettes for missing parts of the story or for related conflicts, and role-playing. (Wilhelm, 2002, Pirie, 2002)
Excerpt taken from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/676
Boy Trouble
Click the photo to read the article
"Boy Trouble" by Peg Tyre.
"Boy Trouble" by Peg Tyre.
Educators Differ on Why Boys Lag in Reading Gap Stokes Debate Over Teaching Approaches, Curricula
Me Read? No Way! |
Boys and Reading:
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