Reading for Boys (and Girls)

There has been so many great resources and ideas discussed in our class in the past few weeks. I think by far the most interesting and widely applicable resource has been popcorn maker. There are so many different activities you could do with popcorn maker within the classroom. For presentations, students could use it in many different ways (i.e. ignite talks, digital stories, movies, etc.). I was also really grateful for the presentation last week about identity and the discussions they prompted about girls and boys and reading. I thought it was very smart of them to do their own case study based on the research they had read in their assigned articles. I definitely agree that the literacy skills and types of tasks that students are interested in is the result of the society and culture that we live in. Their suggestions on how to get boys more involved in the literate activities of the classroom were also really useful. At first I was discouraged at the thought of our young male students having issues with different literacy activities because they find it difficult to relate to specific skills or activities (i.e. poetry and poetry writing). However, the presenters did a great job of giving us useful ways to get boys (and girls) more involved in these activities in the classroom. I think allowing students to choose their own readings is of course the most basic step we can take towards getting our students more involved in the classroom. Also, asking students to try and relate the content of their readings to their own lives is another way to get students more involved. I was also a little discouraged because of the research on the lack of male role models in the classroom and how that affects boys’ motivation and even their literate abilities. However, I realized that if your a female instructor, it would be helpful to have male (and female) experts in the classroom to inspire the students to try out new activities using their literate abilities.