RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2010)

Boys will read when…

What could be more frustrating for a teacher than to finally get a boy into a regular recreational reading habit as the school year winds down only to discover at the start of the next year he didn’t read a single book, article, or page of print during the entire summer? (Brozo, Bill, pg. 7). As I was concluding Chapter 5 & 6 of Hick’s book, I came across the article, Boys will read when their interest is piqued, in “Reading Today”. The question above caught my eye. I was intrigued to read the article. In summary, the article discussed the constant battle for parents to have their children read during the summer when there are so many distractions and other activities, like playing basketball, swimming, and playing video games. The article suggests that parents should capitalize on their interests. (I stopped to wonder if Hicks had written this article; we have read of this importance throughout the course). Furthermore, the article discussed examples of ways to linking text to the things they like such as a boy who loves to play baseball, should be reading about his favorite team in the newspaper, or a boy who loves to go camping should be offered opportunities to read park pamphlets, field guides and safety guides. The article highlighted that the goal is to make reading seem an important and useful activity for boys who are not willing to read during the summer just because their teachers and parents say so (Brozo, Bill, pg. 7). As teachers, how do we work to accomplish this goal?
In connection to the article read in “Reading Today”, Hicks discovered that Jack succeeded in school when he was able to connect to the literacy. His excitement to tell his story of racing reflected in part his home discourse and love for racing, influenced from his father. I was interested to read that Jake began to act out this story. I have found that telling a story before writing it is key, or drawing a picture, but haven’t considered the effects of allowing a child act out a story as they are telling it, or before writing it. I think my second graders would love to take the time to act out the story that they are going to tell. Their actions performed would encourage detail writing in the story. Having my students act before writing is something that I hope to implement next year. This will also allow my students to have time to take a “stretch break”, or implement movement for students who need to do so throughout the day.
When reading about students like Jake, as teachers we are often reminded of students that display similar character traits. I had a Jake in my classroom this year, which I have spoken of throughout the course. Tim (pseudonym for my student) joined our class half-way through the school year. Tim dealt with a tough home-life and had experienced more and could talk about it, than I would wish upon any child. He had a difficult time deciphering between his home discourse and school discourse. When Jake began to struggle in Second Grade, and speak that he “hated school; I hate teachers because they boss you around,” I imagined my Tim saying the same words. Tim became distracted by anything in the room, keeping him from paying attention and affecting his learning. He would often separate himself from the class. I struggled with this child because like Mrs. Williams, I often thought that this child was becoming difficult to deal with, especially as he became defiant. Like Jake, he has blown up when I would confiscate something from his desk that he may have been playing with. Now, I wonder, does this child need something to keep him active to help him learn? Or, is he tuning out and being resistant and stubborn? How do we know?
After reading Hick’s work, I feel that it is vital to allow boys time to be active, and make connections to their learning, through literacy. In fact, I think we can take Hick’s research of Jake, and apply it to genders, girls and boys. Even though students have different discourses, we could take advantage of their learning styles in having them teach others in the classroom by sharing connections that they have with literacy. I think it would be fascinating to observe Jake and Laurie in the same classroom, encouraging Jake to teach Laurie about NASCAR through literacy, and Laurie share with Jake her literacy of fantasy with horses, magical places, and fairies.


Katie Johnson