Being a male I have always struggled when educators would say about a boy in their room, “well he is just a boy, and you know how they are.” That frustrated me to think we were just accepting his behavior because of gender. I realize there are differences between genders, but I don’t think those should be used as excuses as to why someone is not succeeding in class. Boys can be more active and aggressive as we read in chapter 5, but I took away more than just acceptance of behavior differences. I realized that Jake was active, and yes he was a boy, BUT he did have literacy skills that went unnoticed. Did this happen because his teachers looked at him and said, well he is a boy and you know how they are? He had interests, thoughts to be expressed, and a beginning literacy base to work with. It puzzles me that he wasn’t more successful at school. But then again, that goes back to building relationships with your students. Maybe the teacher had categorized him as an active boy that needs to focus more. His passion for NASCAR and building was a perfect opportunity for the teacher to engage him in school work. I know we need to expose children to a wide variety of text and learning opportunities, but in doing so we are not meeting the students where they are at. We are expecting them to jump to where WE want them to be immediately, rather than support them along the way. Jake struggled tremendously navigating between the two discourses of his life. I relate to Jake a lot in his thinking. He would attend to a task if it had merit and allowed some element of choice. As a student had many of the same thoughts as Jake did. I can remember asking in class “Why do we need to do this?” I don’t think my teachers appreciated it, but when they would give me an answer that seemed to make sense, I paid attention. The times when they ignored me, or punished me, I tuned out and self engaged. Jakes father provided a literacy model. Many children do not see their fathers reading and form of text, much less informational books. Jake internalized that and valued that. As he continues to grow up and reach upper grades, I am sure the engagement will increase since the content will mirror more of what he sees at home. However, will it be too late? Will he have developed reading skills that will allow him to read at those levels? Assessments are necessary and give us a wealth of knowledge, but for someone like Jake, his abilities weren’t allowed to shine though. The assessments currently being completed n most early primary rooms require students to demonstrate knowledge of phonics, phonemic awareness and a list of other reading subtests. For Jake, he was a “big picture” thinker. He understood it all in context, but grew bored and frustrated when items were asked to be analyzed to a greater depth. He didn’t see the purpose. This did not fit in with is discourse at home. A common theme I saw between Laurie and Jake was the change in lesson delivery. Kindergarten allowed the students to chose activities and work at their pace. While the time was structured and the teacher had planned certain objectives to work on, they were still allowed to bring their home discourse into the task. As they moved into first and second grade, their options were being taken away. Again, just because we show the children the classroom expectations, it doesn’t mean that they won’t struggle throughout the year navigating the two discourses. The lives our students lead at home drastically impact who they are at school. I believed that prior to this course. However, I used to think well, tell them that may be the way they act home, but this is the expectation here at school. I just expected them to get on board with life in our classroom. I never thought about how conflicted they must have been each day. Literacy practices at home define how the students attend to school tasks. While it is difficult, building relationships that foster support and acceptance will help all the students succeed.
Michael Lemke
Comments (8)
Michael, It was so refreshing to hear you say that you , too, were frustrated when you heard people explain behavior or perfomance in school away as just being a boy, especially since you are male yourself. I ,too ,feel that we are shortchanging the males in out classes by doing that. They have so much potential and when we don't push them to their fullest we are doing them such an injustice. Many times I have seen extremely intelligent young boys basically ignored and not put to task for not living up to the expectations of the school setting. Yes, Boys may be boys but they are so much more and we need to expect them to be all they can be. Thanks for your post!
Posted by Linda Bohland | June 26, 2010 4:51 PM
Posted on June 26, 2010 16:51
Michael,
I agree with you. We shouldn't categorize all boys into one group of "boys will be boys." Yes, some boys are wild, loud, and sometimes out of control, but they are not all like that! Every year, I have one or two "wild" boys, but for the most part, my boys have been hard workers and try their best. We have girls that could fit into this "boys will be boys" statement as well. I understand how Jake (and you) needed a purpose for what they were doing in class. Many of my boys are like that. They like to know what they are doing and why they are doing it. I was just the opposite in school (much like Laurie). I just accepted and never questioned what my teachers asked me to do in fear of "getting in trouble." I think one of the most important things we can take from this book is that boys and girls do learn differently, and it is our job as teachers to meet the needs of both genders.
~Jamie Brackett
Posted by Jamie Brackett | June 27, 2010 1:10 AM
Posted on June 27, 2010 01:10
Michael,
I am so glad to hear another male teacher comment on this issue. Like you, I absolutely hate hearing someone say, "Well, boys will be boys." I almost feel like many people use that statement as sort of an excuse for what they see boys doing. I also find it interesting that you don't hear the statement "Girls will be girls" nearly as often. It almost seems as if girls' actions are seen as more malleable and not as set as the actions of boys.
For the class with Dr. Robin Groce that I'm currently taking, each student had to find a research article to share with his/her group of other teachers from a similar grade level. The article I found by Patricia Steinhaus ("Nurturing Phonemic Awareness and Alphabetic Knowledge in Pre-Kindergartners") talked about the importance of dialogue with preschool kids to find out what they are interested in as a way to "hook" them into the school curriculum. I thought that fit in nicely with what we had been blogging about here in this class.
Clyde Rice
Posted by Clyde Rice | June 27, 2010 2:52 PM
Posted on June 27, 2010 14:52
Michael,
You made an excellent point in that too often teachers accept certain behaviors from boys, because they are boys. I agree that many times a boy's literacy abilities are overlooked because they don't want to sit down at the reading center or because they would rather go outside rather than writing. I think it is important for all of us to remember that whether wer are dealing with boys or girls, we need to dig to find the strength and interest of the student and capitalize on that as a way of furthering their learning.
Posted by Katie Templeton | June 27, 2010 7:11 PM
Posted on June 27, 2010 19:11
I don't think "being a boy" should be a reason for any child's behavior. An educator who uses those words apparently is giving different rules to the boys than to the girls. True, it is important to understand each child in the classroom, I don't think "being a boy" has much to do with the quality of learning that child can receive. It bothers me as well when I hear other educators talking about a student in this way, as if that excuses his behavior. I hope that in my classroom, I teach each student fairly based on his or her independent needs, not based on their gender.
Posted by Sarah Hutson | June 27, 2010 10:36 PM
Posted on June 27, 2010 22:36
Michael,
"Why do we have to do this?" As teachers, we hear this question nearly every day. Often times it is tempting to respond, "Because I said So!". However, we must stop and know that this is a valid question from students. We must know the reason/purpose behind what we are teaching. Reflecting on your post, I think it would be important to consider the child that ask the question, and challenge myself to answer in making a connection in how the lesson applies to that particular student in order to engage the student. I know as teachers, it is frustrating when we are asked to do an "assessment" or "lesson", and ask "Why do we have to do that?" Unfortunately, we do not always get an answer to our question.
Posted by Katie Johnson | June 28, 2010 5:45 PM
Posted on June 28, 2010 17:45
I agree that too often teachers label learning issues in their classrooms as being "just a boy". When I taught first grade there was a kindergarten teacher that would come to me every year, look at my list of students, and tell me well you might as well put that one on a computer because he won't learn. It always made me so angry and I would work twice as hard to make sure that student showed success and growth. I can't say that child ever grew to the top of my class but he made progress because I took the time to care. It bothers me so much to hear teachers make excuses to "not teach" the children in their rooms.
Posted by Erin Whisnant | June 29, 2010 7:50 AM
Posted on June 29, 2010 07:50
I am glad you brought up the point about teachers often saying "boys will be boys" because I too here that expression often. In fact in my post I wrote about how boys were overrepresented in Special Education because of their behaviors at school and teachers just thought they were too rowdy. I know that this may not be the case anymore because of RTI, but I did a research project on this in my undergrad program. You are right when you say we must meet the kids halfway and give them expectations that are reasonable, but support them along the way. If we completely understand the child's background then we will realize that their expectations may be different from other children in the classroom. What ever happened to scaffolding instruction for kids? It seems that some teachers do it but it is just not as important to others and this is where we have kids fall behind and decide "school is not for them". It breaks my heart!! I think all students going into education should be forced to take a class that addresses all of these things!
Katy Dellinger
Posted by Katy Dellinger | June 29, 2010 6:08 PM
Posted on June 29, 2010 18:08