Apr 30 2008
After Tom Newkirk’s visit…
I found myself remembering little moments from Tom’s visit yesterday as I drove home. The graph of worldwide gender differences in literacy in 4th grade was an amazing collection of statistics. Why don’t we honor the natural development of boys in literacy, which clearly is not at the same pace as girls? No wonder boys sometimes feel that reading and writing are just not for them… no one wants to keep trying something that is too difficult or frustrating.I also thought about Tom’s statement that the math gap between boys and girls has been shrunk to 3 points on the NAEP assessment since we identified it in the ’60’s. The writing gap is 40 points. It seems like that ought to get a little attention in this world. Did you know in 30 hours of televised debates between candidates this political cycle education has received just 21 minutes of that time?And lastly, I am still thinking about volume. How do we increase the amount students are reading? What gets in the way?I look forward to your responses.Penny
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I also thought about his visit, presentation, and discussions with colleagues after the fact yesterday. I keep swirling the idea of identity around. If boys have a perceived identity that they are not readers,and I get them when they are 17 or 18, what am I to do in order to be most effective? How do I move toward a place of reading regularly, daily is what I mean, for these non-reading boys? I thought of the word volume, which came forth clearly from Tom as a means for solution, and it’s time in class for reading on a daily basis, certainly, it’s having a classroom library that appeals to boy non-readers with comic books, magazines, newspapers, graphic novels, more reading on-line, these kinds of things, but what seems most important is to re-shape, and this is a very long, piece by piece, psycho-emotional-educational process, that is to re-shape identity as a learner. How do we do that with students, for students, and coax them, invite them, hand hold them into this “house of reading literacy” that Tom described during his presentation. A piece that also strikes me, and will be central to the focus of my writing project for this course, is that in re-shaping an identity for kids, I think we are often asking them to be the opposite of the identities of the adult models in their home life. I am asking junior to read every day, when dad at home doesn’t, hasn’t, won’t, and actually bashes education or literacy in a self-defense shameful cover-up of his own inadequacies or illiteracies. By trying to shape readers out of non-readers, we may be asking for students to move away and perhaps abandon an identity of self, but also one that runs deep into family identities, adult male models, and generations beyond. Stop being who you are, and stop being like your father, and be more like me, the teacher who reads every day. That is asking a 17 or 18 year old teen to take a big turn. I want to explore further the concepts of how we develop identities, and therefore learn better how I might improve my efforts and effectiveness for helping boys become more literate.
Today in class I did a brain storming/writing activity with Pop Fiction reluctant reader seniors, asking students to respond to questions I had about who they were, their identity. I thought about how I really get to know people in life, how do I find out who people are, and I asked some things like what they do with free time, where they spend their money, what they eat, what they listen to, where they visit, how they play, what types of print media do they read, not read, what authors(s) could they note as likable, these kinds of things. I wanted to do the famous, who is your favorite Beatle personality test, but resisted that “Boomer” temptation. We will discuss what people wrote about themselves tomorrow, target significant features of who they are, and look to “match make” with authors who write about things that they identify in their life as pursuits and happinesses. I want to teach them more about who they are, and who’s out there for writers, and how they might meet up with one another, and perhaps, make a match with some people who are writers with people who could be readers, if the “match” is right.
So, who knows, but adding self-knowledge, and adding search skills and finding results that may include authors who are connected somehow to areas that students identify as meaningful or interesting or fun parts of their lives, well we might knock down a barrier or two to literacy in the process, especially for the boys. We’ll see.
I think Tom’s point is a good one. A few years ago it started becoming more noticeable that boys were in serious trouble. They were earning the majority of Ds and Fs, and they were diagnosed with ADD and learning disabilities more often. They were in legal trouble more often and dropped out more often. Yet I believe that little attention is given to many of those statistics. Add to those Tom’s statistics from yesterday demonstrating how quickly boys are falling behind in terms of literacy and it paints a bleak picture.
Since I first read Tom’s articles, I’ve been paying more attention to who is actually reading in my classes. I find it difficult to draw any inferences because I deal with a slightly different population than others. I can say that I rarely encounter a student with a reading disaiblity who likes to read, however, I also have more male students with reading disabilities than female (in my two reading labs its a ratio of 7:1). As I begin work on my project (note the blatant reference to finally beginning the project, Penny) I am hoping to find out more about this topic. Like Ed, I also hope to discover what are those few things that will motivate people to read.
I was so glad to hear Tom talk about how we need to expand our definition of reading. I feel like I’ve engaged in this reading battle for so long – especially when it comes to SSR. I am a proponent of totally open choice when it comes to reading – if there are words and someone is able to read them and create meaning, then it’s reading.
Like Ed, I also liked the idea of volume. When I was preparing to take over a student this year, I asked his reading teacher what I should be doing. I thought maybe she’d have special books or a recommended program, but her advice to me was two words: “Just Read.” She felt the most important component to being a good reader was just to read as much as you possibly could. Tom’s notion of volume struck me as a compatible idea.
I guess the main lessons I’ve learned are that some people may never love reading the way I do. What is important is that they can do it well enough to be happy, self-supportive, informed citizens. In order to be good readers, it really doesn’t matter what they read, just that they’re doing it.
Suzanne and Ed, I admire how you immediately put this literacy struggle into context and adapt your classrooms. You both try new things, you start with the learner, and Ed, I predict amazing hurdles for your readers in pop-fiction with your most recent activity. YOU validate who they are NOW, not what these kids are supposed to “become,” not what they are supposed to be “doing” and “not doing.”
Validating these kids as individuals is so important, and if we can validate their reading interests, maybe we’ll catch some more in the final hours of their high school career. Is it ever too late? No way Ed, keep slugging. No way Sue Sue, keep trying new things.
Wilhelm and Smith preach finding the “Flow” as psychologists have discovered. Finding the flow is to act, to respond, to construct, to grapple with. Opportunities for reluctant readers must start with action, and they will only act if the text is appropriate, right on Ed Dawg! Newkirk really challenged me to pay attention to popular culture that KIDS are into, not my paddling magazines and Gray’s Sporting Journal! I need to be more observant about the truck magazines and motor-cross lot’s of my boys are into.
Perhaps the identity denial becomes less sharp if boys are DOING and ACTING as a natural part of curiosity and the classroom structure. So how do we do this? I’ll share some of what I learned from Wilhelm: ALL ACTION BABY!
a) 20 second book or magazine talks — protagonist, conflict, topic, what the readers is learning. What the reader is struggling with?
b) book pass: everyone peruses a book for 20 seconds each classmate is reading. All students sit in a circle.
c) Opening Moment: someone makes a connection to the class from any text they have encountered: newspapers, comics, children’s books, passages, website. This happens at the start of each class, 20 seconds too.
d) Get the kids to think aloud in a conference about their book — they need to be shown how to do this, prediction, puzzles, connections with characters, extending the story world, etc.
Here are some activities I have come up with I used a lot with 8th graders but could use anywhere:
a) Book commercials: sell the book you like or warn consumers to stay away. This is fun if you get an fake Hollywood “action” thingy used on sets. Also, humor is highly valued in this activity.
b) Defend your favorite read this semester, why is it better than other classmates’ texts?
c) Act out the original ending, then make your own, improved ending.
d) Jerry Springer character interviews (this occurs with a common, short read typically). I play Jerry and have lots of fun with this. The audience can participate in a variety of ways as well!
e) Movie reviews that are based on novels. Does the producer sell out or stick to the truth? One student used the term “truth or suck.” Be careful with this one.
e) What books should the president read?
OK, I think you get the idea. The big deal is to ACT and RESPOND. Happy teaching fine fellows!
Wow! I have to respond quickly before it becomes too much information for my little Irish brain! You guys are too awesome…and you are each where you need to be, er, or where our kids need you to be; they are lucky to have you. This class experience is beyond spectacular. I suggest we have an ongoing summer blog…check in once a month (as we are in school through June, that’s only twice), otherwise I’ll miss you…
I, too, was astounded by the graphs. Coupled by the “Education Pays” piece, it behooves us to focus on encouraging our kids to read more. The “voluminously” comment by Tom really struck me. I feel guilty that my own children aren’t reading twice as much as they are currently.
The other comment Tom made that stuck with me was, “a difficulty becomes an identity.” That’s something we have to identify and rectify in so many of our students…and Ed is correct: a lot (not all) of that comes from the home. I have a student who was told at the beginning of the year by mom that she will never be able to be a teacher…because she cannot spell. Yesterday, she said her dad was suspicious of her weekend activities because she stayed in her room too much…reading Picoult’s ‘Nineteen Minutes’. He simply did not understand why she was reading a book that was not required for any class assignment. To read a book by choice, for pleasure, was incomprehensible. By the way, she will be an extraordinary teacher (has a special gift with young children), graduate from Kennett with 3 college credits, and mom and dad will be very proud come June 2009…they don’t know it yet…).
Another thought: when have we last had a male valedictorian or salutatorian? Need I say more? (I know last year was close, but close doesn’t count; I have been paying attention for many years…)
Penny (God bless you!!!) asked, “How are we going to increase the amount students are reading?” My first response is: the blog. I am going to resurrect my blog and ask the kids to simply read and respond; no grade; check mark; no red pencil. Next year, it might be weekly. I found kids loved it…especially if you make it controversial…and no response is incorrect. I love Ryan’s “Book Pass” and “What Should the President Read?” Wow! Active exciting reading and responding?! (I secretly want to be born again as an English teacher! Suggestion: bring Carrie Costello into your classroom as a guest speaker…concerning the writing rubric and the importance of writing.
Another thought is…crank down the delivery. While I was flying (for USAirways, in case you are wondering…), I did a unit on Shakespeare for my Masters. You don’t have to jump into the actual Shakespearian text. I would like to offer anyone my 17 copies of the Wishbone (PBS doggie) series of classics. (Jason, your AP students are a little beyond this!). They range from Romeo and Juliette, Ivanhoe, Oliver Twist, Robin Hood, The Odyssey (maybe I should keep that one so I can understand it!), to Tom Sawyer, Frankenstein, Journey to the Center of the Earth (boy stuff, Ed and Ryan), Red Badge of Courage, and Joan of Arc…well, you get the picture. They’re written pretty low-level, but that’s a place to start…following up with a movie cinches it! They’re hooked! Someone could probably coax me out of my “Shakespeare Stealer” and sequel, if you promised it would be put to good use…
Controversial question: Ed asks about “re-shaping the identity of the learner”. This is very important. I ask, “Do we need to re-shape the identity of grading/assessment?” (I hope that struck a chord with someone…)I have very, very bright, compassionate, tolerant, ethical students…who are barely passing. They are absorbing…everything…facts, concepts, ethics…what is right and wrong…they think deeply…; however, they have poor fine motor skills. Perhaps, they even have an “output problem.” Can we grade them in the way we grade the traditional excellent student? Hmmm….(Howard Gardner…)
Finally: (the great thing about a blog is that you can ignore someone like me and I’ll never know…) Tom Newkirk (ahhh…Penny…,) has introduced us to a concept we have ignored (known, but didn’t get the hammer-over-the-head), and now we are charged with moving forward (we have a state-of-the-art- building…let’s not be afraid of having a state-of-the-art-school…we have the faculty and awesome students…). Mel Levine says that every student leaves the house everyday with one thing in mind…to avoid humiliation. What are we going to do to ensure that that goal is met? Avoidance of humiliation?….love y’all….if we have a building full of Mercedes engines…but varying fuel tanks, how do we, as teacher, adjust…?
First a comment on Tom – great to hear him talk, he comes across as very down to earth and a nice guy. When I talked to him in the cafe – (hurriedly asking him to sign my copy of his book on my way to the dump in between school and the presentation)- he asked what I taught and then his next second was “what’s your secret to getting kids to write.” A great question and I think insight into why is in academia. When I used to do lots of ropes course teambuilding stuff it was amazing at how people picked up tricks and new games or challenges at conferences or from people they met. I think the blog is great – a nice forum to share our “secrets” and pass on the tools in the tool bag. I didn’t think some of Tom’s answers to the questions the audience posed were strong – as far as what to do. I like the idea of volume, and the numbers showing the gap are pretty eyeopening.
I read everything – if there is print out I skim over it. I like to read during my breakfast – preferably not the cereal box. I think back to being a kid – and am frustrated that I cant remember the building of the foundation that made me a reader. I know that my son is read to and reads tons – every day and in two languages. Some times I just dont get why kids dont like to read because there is an amazing buffett with countless tasty dishes to devour.
Reading the blogs left me with a couple thoughts – one – that literacy and what kids read is changing. I think rapid fire, small bits of information are more frequent that deep reading and thinking and chewing on things to come to an understanding. Information is literally at our fingertips and the volume is enormous – so much that no one could even begin to keep up. In the book Future Shock the author refers to this idea of information being created in such volume and so fast that for example the knowledge possessed by a PhD from MIT in engineering for example, would be outdated the day of graduation. Kids are way more literate that I am with texting, instant messaging, and there is literacy in tags and graffitti that most adults can’t access because we/they dont know the code. So I think the types of literacy are changing – and maybe kids just arent as literate in reading books, and writing the types of text we are asking them to read. The other part of this is filtering, look at the amount of evaluating and filtering the constant bombardment of information our culture rains down on kids. Mass media – look at CNN for example – ticker tape along the bottom, changing photos and headlines, interviews and live feeds – count the amount of moving text or symbols on the news – its overwhelming and our kids are growing up hardwired to negotiate this maelstrom of sensory input. All of the cutting and pasting that goes into projects – I wonder if this is evidence of a new type of literacy – meeting the demands of the classroom by strategically mining the huge pile of information – and books are just too much damn work. Our current students are maybe incapable of the diligence and strategies for doing “old-fashioned” research. I wonder what the long term impacts on academia may be – or will the best students simply figure it out when they need to dig deeper to gain understanding for higher level study. We are after all – the fast food, pop-a-pill, quick fix culture. There are social ecologists who have been asking the question “at what cost” for years. Maybe this is a part of it – that the demands of the world (the world of the individual student) are best met by shallow reading and cut and paste. The connection to boys – is probably a developmental one, what are the advantages to being literate to a boy vs. the advantages to developing other skills? Is a boy that reads more likely to find a suitable mate – than a boy with a sweet car or who is too cool to read? No answer there – but I wonder if there are any anthropologists/educators studying the social motivations for being a reading vs a nonreading male. Are there benefits to it that we are unaware of.
I like what he said about graphic novels – there are several kids in my classes that are way into manga – discussing them, and its a big deal to fall behind in the book it seems because they are somewhat excluded from the conversation, and the other kids, in a playful way – a peer pressure to keep reading. They are violent – some of them more violent that I like. I enjoy violent movies – “b” movies in particular – I think I like Jean Claude Von Dam, or Steven Seagal for example because they are unbeleivable. I guess a person “could” fall off a cliff -crash through a tree, cut themselves badly and then cautarize the wound with gunpowder from a rifle cartridge before going to kick the ass of the entire national guard because they are a badass from Nam, and Rambo did – but its not likely. The movies like Saw – I only saw the first and that was plenty – although it was genius from a creative standpoint – is way too horribly graphic for me, as well as the whole scary movie genre. Too graphic and at times too believable.
Ok, burned through half of my planning period – gotta go. Hope it wasnt too much… if you got this far – thanks, and what you dont have anything better to do
-D
oh yeah – one more – Suzanne – I like at the end of yours the point about “happy, self supporting, and informed citizens.” We the people are disempowered enough in our “democracy” – add to that widespread illitracy, in tandem with apathy – and we are sheep that will be led to a place very different that what the country was founded on. The fact that the current adminsitration was able to shove the war and several other policies down the throat of the American public – some supported by blatant lies – is evidence of this that scares the hell out of me.
oh yeah – one more – Suzanne – I like at the end of yours the point about “happy, self supporting, and informed citizens.” We the people are disempowered enough in our “democracy” – add to that widespread illiteracy, in tandem with apathy – and we are sheep that will be led to a place very different that what the country was founded on. The fact that the current adminsitration was able to shove the war and several other policies down the throat of the American public – some supported by blatant lies – is evidence of this that scares the hell out of me.
This number might interest you; I have 52 Advanced American Lit. students, but I only have 16 boys.
I am about to start reading groups with these students. I am asking them to pick a book from the Eng. Department’s collection and giving them time every Friday to meet for discussion. This is the first time they will be reading something independently since September. The first time around things didn’t go well, and I felt as though most of the students did not do the reading. This time I am taking some advice from Daniels’ book on literature circles, and I expect that I will be able to monitor more effectively who is actually reading.
Next year I’d like the book clubs would meet throughout the year. It seems like a good way to encourage and maintain reading at the appropriate level. In our book the idea of keeping one page of notes per student was brought up and it coincides with what Ed wrote about making matches between authors and students. As we get to know our students’ interests and needs, we can make the suggestions that both appeal to them while advancing their skills.
Does anyone have any advice on running book clubs?
OK here’s a ‘baby-blog’:
Ryan – loved the reading ideas! I’ve copied them to save!
Edward – great questions and immediate response/attempt to rectify the inequity.
Kathryn – I’m kinda curious as to the numbers of males percentage-wise that you have in your ECE classes. Since the courses are self-selected, do you see the same issues that Mr. Newkirk brought up?
Darron – some interesting and, I believe pertinent/accurate observations of our society. Does education need to change based upon the ‘new’ youth?
‘Got more to say with no time to say it – manana!
Dave…sweet baby blog! Here’s one back to ya…I estimate that I might be at 50% boys in my first level courses. My best written responses are from the gals, which I would like to change; however, the boys want to get the paperwork completed quickly…so they can go over and “play” with the kids in the preschool. The boys are less inhibited, it seems. In general, the boys stare at me blankly when they have to write a response paper. If it’s done well, it’s minimal…no elaborating..just the facts, m’am, just the facts. I do think the boys bring an entirely different energy into the preschool, and I think it’s terrific for the little one’s to have that balance. Today, Robert Bray took the kids on a field trip based on a lesson plan he wrote. He took the kids to Mr. Harrington’s auto shop! It was terrific…just a different flavor than those presented by the females. By the way, I changed the name of the course from Early Childhood to Foundations of Education specifically to attract the males and all who might want to pursue a career in the field of teaching. Next Friday, I meet with ECE teachers from across the state. When we last met, I told them what I did, and they have this discussion point on our agenda, as they are considering doing the same name change. Linda King has had many occaisions where Lego’s and benign vegetables become weapons of mass destruction, despite her best efforts. I think Tom’s points will help me understand their aggressive manner of “connecting” with each other…Bring some of your students down to view them…even on a regualr basis, and see if they notice a pattern. It would be a nice study. I also have a John Stossel video tape, “Men and Women and the Sex Differences” which focuses on such. We’ll talk.
Alright – back for another ‘baby-b’…
Kathryn – I’m coming down today for a chat.
What I didn’t have time to say yesterday was a response to Colleen’s entry. As a sixth grade teacher I used to teach social studies through literature. I would offer 3-4 books to my classes covering the range of reading abilities – basic to advanced readers. Initially it was a challenge to find the right books topically, with the right mix of male/female protagonists and level of action vs. drama, but once the selections were made, it was a very successful method of getting kids to ‘feel’ the historical/cultural events. We would meet to share our discoveries, discuss the events and how they linked to the bigger picture. Back then I used dialogue journals where the kids had to write to me at least once a week about their books, how it made them feel, what facts they learned/surprised them, etc. I would write back, and, though it was quite time-consuming, it was a wonderfully effetive method of individualizing instruction.
Enough reminiscing – Random Suggestions:
-Have students write to each other about their books and respond. You could simply monitor these interactions or perhaps assess them.
-Once a week run a “Write-around” (Thanks Smokey)where students write about their books or possibly a specific element (ex. character development) and pass their written thoughts on to the next student who then responds to the writing. Continue to pass around with each subsequent student able to respond to any/all of the previous entries.
-See Ryan-the Man’s excellent ideas above.
I thought about reasons for the gender gap in literacy after Newkirk’s presentation, basically what causes it. Like Sue Lee, as special education teachers we see more boys than girls having reading disorders. Darron wondered anthropological reasons. I minored in anthropology in college, with my major in education. I never thought of a connection of the two but I now do. I do feel like Jane Goodall sometimes, as obsevation is one of the ways of evaluating students. It is part of a re-evaluation for students with learning disabilities.
In terms of evolution, we are not far from the hunter/gathering era of male/female role models. Just 50 years ago it was the June Clever mom that normally stayed home while the husband went out to earn the money,( hunting and gathering..) Dr.Sally E.Shaywitz, a behavioral scientist at Yale University of Medicine investigated this theory. The study was focused on what areas of the brain were engaged by normal readers. To their astonishment, they discovered that men use a minute area in the left side of the brain while women use areas in both sides of the brain. (I have saved this study in my Favorites if you want to read it.)So there seems to be biological reasons for the gap.
I agree with Newkirk and with this biology of the brain added in, the only way to get better at something is to do it more. So engage, engage, engage.
I heard Newkirk say that we need to offer more choices and boys choices are often time about violence and blood. Who determines and to what level and context violence is appropriate? What about the kid that just got back to school from a suspension for threatening a teacher. Do we want him writing or reading about violence? That could open up a whole can of worms.
In Newkirk’s article on Misreading Masculinity, when he quotes Millard (1997) that school curricula was enjoyed almost exclusively by women it was not for lack of male interests. The canon of elementary, middle school and high school literature is male based characters; Call of the Wild; Teasure Island; Moby Dick; Lord of the Flies; Hatchet; Red Badge of Courage; The Hobbit; Of Mice and Men; Huck Finn.
There are choices for boys and we need to offer it to them, but as Ed said by the time they get to us at the high school their MO is set. The window is closing. The interest needs to be aroused in the early years. Is it too late? I don’t think so, as I would not be able to teach if I thought so, but it takes more energy and creativity to do so.
boy – it’s hard to come up with original ideas if you don’t get in here right away – but, like the others, I really enjoyed listening to Newkirk’s presentation – I will not argue with his data – I think that it’s obvious that females enjoy reading more than boys – but one thing I feel strongly about – when we do SSR in our classroome, we need to be more accepting of what we allow – including comic books, magazines, etc.
although I have less opportunities to encourage reading because of the nature of my classroom, I started putting in sports and driving magazines on the shelves – thank you Jim Harrington and Mark Ross – as a result, sometimes my “boys” might pick up a magazine to read instead of immediately going to a computer in their spare time
- another way that I encourage reading in my classroom is to take advantage of those spontaneous “teachable” moments – as an example, the other day a student was talking about a news report on squids that he had seen on TV – I encouraged him to go on line and find more information – he did so, and then we read the internet text together as we went from site to site to find more information on the subject – it might not have been information from a “printed source” but I had a student reading and doing research onhis own – I think, we need to seize every moment that we can – who knows, maybe someday he will go to the library and look for a book on the subject!!
To be honest, I attempted to blog a week ago, but felt intimidated by some of the responses. What brilliant people we have here on staff! This class has been an eye-opener for me. Not following the typical process to becoming a teacher, I unfortunately missed out on some opportunities, but have many real world business experiences to bring to the classroom.
Newkirk’s findings are alarming and it is about time educators and parents take notice. How can we give students more time to read? I think there are lots of opportunities within our school day that we are not taking advantage of. For one, the 15 minute advisory period at the start of each day. I have a senior homeroom that is only interested in “catching up with their peers”. Could that time be put to better use? How about study halls, internal, detention, etc? How about a place during lunch? I have observed students nestled in a corner reading, loners who do not want to go to the cafe or library. Maybe a quiet reading room with comfy chairs.
Penny and I chatted briefly last week about the stats on male reading levels. I asked at what point do the males surpass females? After all, the males are filling the top level management positions in companies all over the world. Something to ponder….
And one more puzzling thought….my first child was a son; I spent countless hours reading to him. He talked early and read at an early age. My daughter, born 3 years later, did not benefit from as much individual reading time with mom. But today she is the avid reader, always a book in hand, where as my son is not. Hmmmmm….
Lori is also one of the “brilliant ones” (my mentor!)! She brought up a point that got me to thinking…I have some interesting experiences lately which make me want to hear from the boys… Like Lori, I’m ‘late-to-the-field’ and have been trying to catch-up by taking lots of courses (trying to get-smart-quick in order to understand our vulnerable clients!)…I have had many male classmates…Interestingly, they beg to cut the class time…arrive late…leave early…ask me not to raise my hand…expose that they take course simply to move up the ladder… (seriously; an unnamed male peer exposed that I am a ‘faculty-meeting-hand-raiser’; I wasn’t aware that was a bad-thing!),…I know you guys are not insensitive; quite the contrary! However, long ago there was a book entitled “Brain Sex” which I must revisit. It spoke to neurological differences in the brain, giving evidence to distinct differences which even account for being gay. That being said, I wonder…are there are distinct differences in our ability/desire to embrace certain genres/deliveries/lengths of delivery of information? Face it y’all; we’re different. Revisit “Men are from Mars/Women are from Venus”. Gray speaks to distinct differences: men are solution finders; women want to drag out the scene…oh, boy…am I offending anyone? Anyway, do we need to intro reading material to different people (a wide audience) in a plethora of mediums in order to engage everyone…this is public education. Read “Popular Education and It’s Discontents”, by Lawrence Cremin (I have two copies; I’ll lend). It speaks to the wide audience we have to engage and the resultant challenges…oy! What an endless task we’ve undertaken…
I think Ed touched on something that all teachers struggle with, and I often think that we struggle with it more here in the Valley that oher educators elsewhere. What I am addressing here is what a recent contributor to Teletalk decribed as the “provincial” attitude that many people in the valley reserve for our school system–the scorn resevred for intellectualism, for inquiry and thinking that does not serve a practical purpose, but instead a mor intrinsic outcome. Ed’s right on target when he says that one of the things that we have to deal with is students for whom reading is not a part of their identity, their social identity (as Darron pointed out), or their family identity. One of the things that we need to work on is helping kids realize that–yes–reading is socially acceptable (imagine that…). Creating a community of readers (or what Ed calls the house of reading), is essential in getting more kids to read. How do we get there…?
I liked the bit in Subject Matters about reading out loud. There was a time in my career–not to sound too long in the tooth, or anything–when I would have though of this as “too elementary school”, but I have seen the benefits in high school for both struggling and advanced readers. When I taught English III with Su, we would read the text out loud in class. It was much more than the teacher reading to the students, too: Su or I would be the “narrator’s”–we would read descriptions, action, dense prose, while students took up roles/characters. This offered a high level of engagement in a classroom where there would be no engagements if students were asked to read the same text independently. We could identify weak spots, we could even identify students whos fluency was better than what their IEPs and testing indicated, and kids would call each other out if they weren’t following along and reading their “line” when they were supposed to. Colleen does this with her advanced American lit class, too, and it allows for related discussion that is immediate to the reading. I like what Daniels has to say about the merit of reading out loud, how it speaks to dome latent desire to tell and listen to stories, but I also think that it’s a good teaching tool for struggling readers because it helps develop fluency and here what a fluent reader sounds like when they read.
Last year I introduced Socratic discussion in my American Lit classrooms. For me, this was a fantastic solution to a lack of engagement during discussion. It also placed more accountability on students for doing the reading, as it was 100% student-directed (I would like to acknowledge that several students still “fake read” for discussion, which is infinitely frustrating). Reading became more than a read-the-chapter-and-answer-the-study-guide-questions-for-the-teacher activity. They had to form their own questions and help each other answer them. It was a collaborative effort, and I think it did help, in some small way, to get the kids more engaged and actually do the reading.
Prolific reading helps, too. I liked what Newkirk said about the relationship between breadth of reading and building fluency. At the same time, this was also one of the sticking points for me during his presentation. Penny gave me a nice little article by Carol Jago about a month ago listing the bad habits of highly effective readers, citing students who would read, read, read in the genres that interested them and treat class reads (and we do have some good books that deserve attention) dismissively. Bob Probst writes about the rare opportunity that English teachers have (one book and 25 students) that often doesn’t occur in the world of “real reading”. Too often, he claims, do people read a book, put it down and move onto the next one without giving their thinking, their response, a more definite form. This is where depth of reading comes in–figuring what the author is trying to say, how they say it (sometimes they do use symbolism), and deciding whether or not we agree with them.
Choice is important, and I don’t do enough of it in American Lit. What I’m thinking about next year is alternating beween class reads and independent reads to strike a balance that I feel doesn’t currently exist. So we’d read Huck Finn, focus on it intently for 2–3 weeks, then switch over to independent reading for three weeks while we worked on developing writing or research skills.
The Goliath to my David is the internet (or is it the mongoose to my snake?). Recently, I busted two AP students for plagiarizing from Spark Notes. I liked Darron’s comment about information being available too readily and too easily, and kids are good at finding shortcuts around their work, no matter how hard we work at trying to make it engaging for them. There are even websites that cater to people who don’t want to work. One of the gems that I came accross this year was a site called Plagiarism.com (with the gut-wrenching slogan: “it’s not cheating, it’s collaboration”), which offers students essays at a premium cost in all subject areas, for all grade levels (even master’s and doctoral theses), for virtually any topic that you can think of–they even offer a selection of college admissions essays for a range of topics suggested by the gamut of admissions boards. I keep thinking about Faber in Farenheit 451, who says that people need leisure time to read and process information. Kids need to see that reading takes time, and if that means dedicating more class time to just reading (silent, out loud, independent, or assigned), then I’m for it.
I had a student the other day tell me that only girls and old people read and though back to what Newkirk discussed the other week. This was disturbing as we are fighting this battle the obviously comes from somewhere. If this is all they hear from 14 years, can we change this? Needless to say this idea of the gender gap became painfully real to me as I usually see girls reading (or carrying) books, but many of the boys do not. The tough guy attitude I am seeing (when mixed with 9th grade hormones) is lethal and has obviously grown and matured to what Ed, Jason, and others are seeing. Since I have not been around life for a real long time, has it always been this way in education? What have people’s experience been in trends that are observable?
I understand the point that Mr. Newkirk was making but it seems like there will always be an inequity between the genders in something. There is still on going discussion about the lack of women in the sciences. Significant progress has been made in that area but now it seems like now the herd is running to address boys and literacy. I understand the stats but what I am seeing in my classes doesn’t support it. I see about the same number of boys reading books as girls. I have boys that it is all I can do to get them to stop reading for a brief moment to fit in some science. I am thrilled to see them reading as I am glad any of my students read.
I also feel worn out at times by all that is expected of us to address. There has been talk about an all male English class – great – what about an all female science class? Research indicates girls do much better in that setting. How do we balance the current trends with the past ones that haven’t been conquered and leave room for the next trend we don’t even know about yet?
Although many of you thought about his presentation after the fact, I have to say that I unfortunately did not. IN all honesty, I was sort of disappointed with his presentation. I have heard Tom Newkirk speak before with the National Writing Project that I did and I was impressed then with the statistics and reality of why boys are not reading. I walked away with many of the thoughts that all of you had and began to read some of his books and research into this gender gap that we have. But, when I began teaching Language Arts I feel I was at battle with the students(males) and needed some strategies to solve the gender gap problem. In going to the presentation I was excited because I thought Tom would enlighten us with strategies and teaching tools to use in the classroom in order to decrease this gender gap we are having. Instead, I saw the same statistics and information I saw about 3 years ago and learned what I had already known. So, I guess my questions is: if we know about this gap, then why are we not doing something about it? Why are there not strategies out there to help males? In reading his books, I have not found anything that will work in the classroom with them yet. Any ideas or help???
I must admit that for me a lot of these posts are overwhelming for me and I’m not always sure how to respond to them. I have never been formally trained to teach anything other than music and dance, and theater. I also don’t work with students on a daily basis in reading and writing. I feel at a loss with ideas or opinions because I’m not directly involved in the reading process like many of you. All I know is that males I have worked with like to read and write about what they like or you need to find a way to connect something they like to something you want them to read and be really creative. I think the more they can read about stuff they like the more likely they may be to start reading something out of their interest. I feel that a lot of males feel forced to always read something they aren’t interested and that maybe they wouldn’t be so reluctant if they knew they could also read things that interest them. Males are very active and I think the more they can move and interact with their reading the more they will like it. Scripts or acting scenes form books really get the guys going for some reason. Even when they don’t like the topic they like to act it out and for another odd reason they love acting the girl parts!!! I really don’t know what they solutions are to the gap issue I just try to make learning as funa nd interactive as possible.
Julie, I thought that I was the only one who felt that way about Newkirk’s presentation. I was excited when I found out that his main focus was on boys and reading. I expected that he was going to show us different ways to present reading material that got boys’ attention. When slides of statistics started showing up and continued, my attention wained. It did not catch my attention like Smokey Daniels had. After seeing both authors, I can understand the philosophy behind switching activities every twenty minutes or so to keep students’ attention. Smokey did that and kept my attention unlike Newkirk who did not. When I look for readings, I am going to make sure that they are less than twenty minutes with activities that follow based on the reading. The readings selected will be based on students’ interests so that hopefully it was capture their attention.