Research has shown that boys across the nation are lagging behind in every level of education. In elementary schools, boys are twice as likely to be diagnosed with a learning disability. Furthermore, statistics are continuing to confirm that the number of male undergraduates on college campuses is dropping rapidly. Boys often start with lower literacy skills than girls and are less encouraged to read. How can we help solve this “boy literacy crisis”? Educators are fighting to find new ways to help boys succeed. Because boys are biologically, developmentally, and psychologically different from girls, teachers must learn how to meet individual needs. Although it has been demonstrated that family background and environment play a big role in a child’s success, a majority of his or her experiences occur inside the classroom. Due to this amount of classroom time, a child is vulnerable to the attitudes and efforts shown by teachers.
The aim of this Action Research Project is to enable teacher researchers to identify aspects of the educational process that they wish to enhance, to develop skills for implementing the change and scientifically investigating the results of the change, and to communicate the process to an informed audience. With this project we fulfilled two major goals: 1) To learn an important professional development tool, and 2) to find ways to support elementary age boys in literacy learning.
Primary Research Question:
What types of teaching methods support boys’ engagement with reading?
Secondary Research Questions:
How does the layout of the text effect a boy’s engagement with reading?
How does the level of activity in a book’s introduction effect engagement with reading?
How does the manipulation of a three dimensional object effect engagement with reading?
How does correlating full-body movement effect engagement with reading?
How does male role model involvement in the home effect engagement with reading?
What are the common perceptions teachers have regarding boys with reading difficulties which potentially effect their teaching practices?
Findings
1. Boys reading engagement is influenced by social interaction.
2. Boy’s reading engagement is influenced by authentic purpose.
3. Boy’s reading engagement is influenced by their natural inclination.
4. Boys’ reading engagement is interest driven.
5. Boys' reading engagement is positively influenced by differentiated instruction.
Preliminary Conclusions
1. Boys need to be able to socially interact, both verbally and physically, with their peers and male family members as they read and respond to books.
2. Boys need to have a clear purpose for reading that connects to their immediate needs and orientations. Intermediate skill or strategy purposes are not sufficiently engaging.
3. The topic, theme, and overall subject matter is of primary importance to engaging male readers. Interest and natural inclination must be considered when selecting reading material.
4. Teachers are aware of the underachievement in boys' reading, but due to lack of knowledge, experience, or confidence, many have remained unwilling to take responsibility for adjusting their practice to better meet the needs of boys.
2 comments:
This article presents very valuable information. It is interesting to read the research about how young boys are beginning to lag behind in schools when it comes to reading. I think that it is sad that boys are losing interest in reading and are slowly starting to trail behind girls academically. I hope that this research will cause educators to make some necessary changes in how they deal with young boys and literature. Books that spark the interest of boys are continuing to be written if a teacher takes the time to find them. Several good choices for teachers were shown above. Hopefully, now that the problem is being addressed, a remedy can be made to this problem.
After reading this kind of information, it is almost unbelievable to think about how many years have gone by without a focus on the male gender in literature and curriculum. Because there are so many women teachers, I think that they tend to choose things that they find are "cute" or "sweet", all the while forgetting what students they have sitting in their classroom! It is definitely time for a renovation of thinking as we come into the education world, we really need to introduce into our curriculum things that will meet the individual needs of both boys and girls. With this said, we cannot even group "boys" together as one chunk because there are individuals within that group, who have varying interests and differences of opinions just as we all do. Therefore, as teachers, not only do we need to cater to "boys" and "girls" but we must cater to "bobby" and "jimmy" and "sarah" etc. These are the students whom we are teaching.
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