Getting Boys to Read

One of the things that drives me to become a better literacy teacher is the gender gap in literacy abilities.  You can see it in the U.S. through National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores,

Retrieved from http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_math_g12_2015/#reading/gaps

and you can see it internationally through Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores.

Retrieved from https://data.oecd.org/pisa/reading-performance-pisa.htm

There has been a lot of attention paid to increasing female achievement in STEM subjects, and I'm fully in favor of that, but there doesn't seem to be anywhere near that level of attention and funding for helping males succeed in reading and other literacy activities.  The math efforts are helping to close the gender gap,

Retrieved from https://data.oecd.org/pisa/mathematics-performance-pisa.htm#indicator-chart

so it seems logical that heightened efforts can help close the reading gap as well.  It is especially important to focus on the reading gap, because, unlike the math gap which is at the higher level (ex. fewer girls in advanced math and science classes), the reading gap is largest at the basic proficiency level.  That means that the largest difference is in whether or not male students can effectively read and understand text.  Sure, there are more girls than boys in creative writing electives, and it would be great to get more male voices in there, but what I find truly alarming is the gap in basic literacy skills needed to be a productive citizen.  

I spent several years teaching "remedial" reading classes, and every year my class was disproportionately minority students and disproportionately male.  Obviously racial gaps are important, but why aren't more people talking about the gender gap in reading?  The gender gap feels especially pressing when looking at the PISA data.  This is data from countries all over the world, with all different kinds of racial demographics.  While the math data has a few countries that have closed the gender gap, every single country has a sizable reading gender gap.

So what do we do?  We try to implement strategies that will benefit all learners, but can hopefully reach male students better than current practices.  

In Australia, Jann Carroll approached the problem of getting adolescent boys more engaged in literacy by looking at what they're already engaged in, video games.  Her article describes her work with 27 middle school boys to see how gaming practices can be applied to literacy learning.  What I really appreciate is Carroll's emphasis on literacy as a social activity that has to be relevant in order to be truly engaging.  This matches with what Gregory and Kaufeldt said are the needs of our seeking brains in The Motivated Brain.  They talked about the importance of interaction and play, as well as students' needs for projects and problems that are challenging and require 21st century skills to solve.

Carroll included this table at the end of her article:

These suggestions fit really well with Pink and Deci and Ryan's models that I outlined in my last post.

Ali Carr-Chellman is also concerned about how boys are doing in school and thinks that video games could potentially provide some solutions.  I've included her TED talk below.  I don't necessarily agree with everything she says, but her presentation of the problem is thought provoking.

There's also this fascinating TED talk by Daphne Bavelier on potential positive effects that video games can have on the brain.

I love how she concludes with comparing the brain science to broccoli and the entertainment of video games to chocolate.  She points out that no one wants to eat chocolate covered broccoli.  The current challenge is designing a game that is the equivalent of brownies with pureed vegetables in them, so that they taste awesome but are still good for you.  I'm not completely sold yet, but I think it's an interesting path forward.