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Encouraging Guys to Read
Extend the ideas mentioned
by Jon
Scieszka in his "Guys Read" interview on NPR by tapping
the strategies outlined in these resources.
Explore how boys' literacy skills
change as they read in different situations and encounter different texts
in the Language
Arts article "Morphing
Literacy: Boys Reshaping Their School-Based Literacy Practices" (E).
In "It’s
a Guy Thing" (M) from Voices from the Middle, Jeff
Wilhelm identifies
text features that tend to engage boys and describes boys' desire to use literacy
to share and socialize. Finds that boys were more different than alike, and
that very particular conditions in the social context were more important than
preexisting interests.
Check out "When
Reading Is Stupid: The Why, How, and What to Do about It" (M),
chapter
One from
A
Middle Mosaic: A Celebration of Reading, Writing, and Reflective Practice at
the Middle Level, for more details on how to overcome the resistance of male
readers by encouraging them to see reading as a personally relevant and socially
significant
pursuit.
To read more, check out the NCTE Selects title “Reading
Don’t Fix No Chevys”: Literacy in the Lives
of Young Men (M-S), also by Jeff Wilhelm.
The English Journal article
"Seeing through the Lenses
of Gender: Beyond Male/Female
Polarization" (S) describes how the
metaphor of "lenses" helps students learn to see through
the eyes of another and come to understand their experiences, ultimately
reducing their resistance to other viewpoints.
Read the Teaching English in the Two-Year College article "Rumblings
from the Back Row: Do We Have to Read Another
Victim Story?" (C) for strategies teachers used to reduce male
resistance to multicultural literature by foregrounding the “class”
component of “race, class, gender.”
NOTE: Free access to journal articles mentioned in this Inbox is provided
for 21 days. After this free access period expires, articles are available
to journal subscribers only. This Inbox Idea was published 05-17-2005.
Initials in annotations indicate academic level of the resource (E=Elementary,
M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College, G=General).
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