Boys and School

Below are two article summaries.

The first follows last week's summary on boys in schools. 

This one focuses on suggestions for getting boys more interested in reading. 

(I still remember when my dad gave me a short story collection of Roald Dahl's "adult" stories. I am not talking about James and Giant Peach and BFG, although Dahl's twisted view of the world comes through in these kids books too. These were gruesome stories with very adult themes and contexts. I was about 15 or 16. No story was too long, and I found myself finishing one and going right to the next. "Lamb to the Slaughter" and "The Landlady" remain favorite stories of mine, right next to Robert Sheckley's The Tenth Victim.) 

The second supports what we all know: it takes more than knowledge in one's discipline to be a good teacher.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe

Supporting Boys As Readers:

·       There are many reasons for boys’ chronic underachievement in reading:

o    On average, boys spend less time reading than girls

o    Boys may have few male readers in their lives to emulate

o    The things boys like to read are often not allowed in school

o    Boys are generally less concerned with reading to please the teacher

o    About 90% of elementary school teachers are women and may relate less well to boy readers

o    Boys are often more physically active than girls and less willing to read for extended periods of time

·       Research shows that boys are drawn to books with the following characteristics:

o    Focused on plot, not drama and emotions

o    Visually appealing, for example, magazines and graphic novels

o    Practical, with information boys can use

o    Main characters boys can easily relate to

o    Funny, with elements of mischief and slapstick

·       Other suggestions:

o    Support browsing: Walking a boy thorough a library can give him a sense of what’s there that he wasn’t aware of. Book talks are also important; the bets one begins, “If you liked that book, you will enjoy this one as well.” There are a number of websites to steer boys toward the right book, including www.guysread.com, www.readkiddoread.com, www.gettingboystoread.com

o    Reduce the focus on after-reading activities: This includes quizzes, worksheets, book reports, dioramas, and other “enrichment” activities. Sharing one’s noticings and interpretations in whole-class and small-group discussions should be the primary way of responding to texts. Re-reading favorites, selecting texts that are connected to what has been read, and offering recommendations for other readers are things lifelong readers say they do on their own.

o    View reading as a social activity: Many boys don’t enjoy reading as a solitary activity; they want to talk to their friends about what they’re reading.

o    Invite male readers into the classroom: Role models can debunk the notion that real mean don’t read. The more boys can connect to other literate males, the better then chance they will come to see themselves as readers.

o    Develop boys’ identity as readers: All the access to books in the world will not make boys pick up a book if being a reader is not something they aspire to become or isn’t an identity their peers would approve of. In other words, we have to find ways to make reading cool both in and out of school.

The Influences of Teachers’ Knowledge on Student Learning

·       Everybody wants teachers to be knowledgeable yet there is little agreement on exactly what kinds of knowledge are more important for teachers to possess.

·       To find out, we tested the knowledge of 181 middle school physical science teachers and the learning of their 9500 students.

·       The teacher’s subject-matter knowledge is an important predictor of student learning.

·       That effective teachers must know the concepts they teach maysound like a truism; however, this kind of knowledge goes only so far: Teachers who are able to predict students’ misconceptions and wrong answers are more effective than teachers who can’t.

·       A teacher knowing only scientific truth appears to have limited effectiveness. It is better if a teacher also has a model of how students tend to learn a particular concept, particularly if there is a common belief tat may make acceptance of the scientific view or model difficult. This may allow teachers to construct experiences, demonstrations, experiments, or discussions that may make students commit to and then test their own ideas.