Boys and reading engagement in academic contexts

Boys and Reading

Boys with reading problems do not always get the attention they need and deserve to help them. It is possible that boys are stuck in a rigid classification as underachievers and they can't escape from that classification. It seems that many educational professionals have the view that girls are simply better readers than boys - and it is a verifiable fact that girls do read more books than boys. Teachers notice this dynamic from Kindergarten on that girls not only mature faster and develop intellectual interests sooner, but their reading skills far outpace the reading skills of boys. This paper reviews some of the solutions teachers come up with.

An article in the journal Reading (Moss, 2000) points out however that educational professionals are being urged to intervene and pay more attention to the development of boys' reading and writing skills - and by implication, boys' skills in comprehension and cognition. And while there may be more attention paid to boys' reading problems, and what teachers should be attempting to do about those issues, there is also recently in the mix, the Fact and Fiction Project which has been undertaken as a two-year study into these issues.

This project began with the assumption that because boys as a generalized pattern preferred reading non-fiction - which can be a bit more challenging than pure fiction narrative in terms of linguistics - that the boys were failing more than girls. But the Fact and Fiction Project proved that supposition to be incorrect. Meanwhile, what the project did was to place boys and girls in three categories for the research; one, those who can and do read well; two, those who can read but don't read freely; and three, those can't read well and don't read.

The project's research revealed several things; one, teachers didn't always keep records of which readers were can read but don't as contrasted with those who can read and do read, which creates a problem in identifying boys who truly need help; two, there are boys who carry books around but treat them as objects, something to be seen with, and not as things to read and learn from; three, in order to break through to the boys to get them more interested in reading teachers need to become conversant with the boys' peer group culture; four, boys and girls both need the flexibility to read what they enjoy and yet be given structured changes to talk about what they read and share that knowledge in an open classroom discussion. But without good leadership from teachers and administrators, boys may well lag behind for the foreseeable future.

An article in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (Taylor, 2004) brings to light how teachers can look more closely into their own styles of teaching to see if there is any bias vis-a-vis pro-girls. Teacher Donna Lester Taylor, the author, has a son who struggled with literacy issues. The boy (Gabe) had problems with handwriting, and his mother knew that, but she didn't realize how bad his literacy in school was until high school. Taylor has subsequently learned through her research that typically when boys don't do well in literacy, they suffer the consequences in terms of their confidence, they are more apt to get into trouble in school and moreover, they tend to drop out of school.

So Taylor's theme in this article is that things are bad for boys, that female students are far outscoring boys in reading and literacy testing, but in order to make boys better, several things need to happen. One, the definition of literacy needs to be expanded so that reading isn't just connected to books assigned in school, but also includes computer literacy and workplace literacy. Two, it seems language teachers tend to select texts and fiction that are not as interesting to boys as they are to girls, and that cries out for a remedy. Three, innovation in teaching methods needs to be implemented so that boys' interests are met (and boys tend to see reading as a way to build upon their present interests, not as a way to expand their interests). Four, it may be practical and helpful to have boys-only reading clubs (and a girls-only club), so boys can become more relaxed around books rather than be in competition with girls in the class.

In the end, Taylor's son Gabe reads a great deal, but the reading is informational and related to technology, which fascinates him. His mother wishes that he would get into reading fiction, since as a teacher she is always encouraging students to see literature as a window onto the world and all its activities and characters. But she is grateful that Gabe is doing well, and she knows that a lot of boys who struggled with reading issues in school are not doing as well as her son is.

Middle school teacher Victoria Folks has heard boys get discouraged and even give up when it comes to reading in school and getting good grades. Folks writes in California English publication (Folks, 2004) that because boys have an attitude that is negative towards reading, and because they want to seem cool in their peer group, getting them to participate in a reading program is not an easy task. She set out with a goal to persuade students to read in a relaxed and unstructured environment. Even that is a challenge for boys, she writes, because boys are basically trained through their socialization and institutional processes to be involved in activities, and so, asking them to sit quietly and read is not an easy task.

Nevertheless, Victory Folks has attempted in her middle school class to stray from the traditional structure of most teachers, who see everything students do as a possibility to give them a grade. So she decided to allow students (especially boys) to read whatever they wanted to read. It may be that a boy wants to read a skateboarding book, or a comic strip, so what, she says in effect. The boys she has in her classroom will not ever feel like they are capable to making their own decisions unless they get started in middle school. Reading without getting a grade for reading seemed to work for her. She spent a lot of time in the article explaining that trying to get boys to open up in a classroom setting about something they read (anything, even surfing or skateboarding) was asking them to go against the grain of the social structure they live in at school; that is, it's not cool to open up and show emotion about personal things you read or think about. Now, she has a system in which she asks students (all students) to write in a notebook as to their responses to whatever it is they read. And Folks takes the time to write back to each and every entry by students. By responding in writing to each entry by all students (even though it's not possible to do it every day when a teacher has five 7th grade classes per day), has proved to be effective. Students enjoy feedback, and since boys need that extra encouragement, they tend to open up and communicate more when they are sure someone is reading and listening to what they have to say. Getting them to respond at all, or even read at all, is a major challenge; so a teacher who sets up a program in which boys can carry on a conversation with their teacher (even a written one) is doing a great job opening up the door to a boys' learning and literacy potential.