Saturday, March 26, 2011

ASCD Inservice: Give Boys Reading Role Models

ASCD Inservice: Give Boys Reading Role Models

Give Boys Reading Role Models

What with boys and reading?

In "The Boy Factor in Special Education: Overrepresented or Misguided Pedagogy?," one of the early sessions at ASCD's Annual Conference in San Francisco, presenters talked about ways to make instruction more accessible to boys. And really, the strategies discussed--more active learning environments, less emphasis on conformity, more student choice--are tools that work with all genders, and are about the overall goal to make learning more engaging.

The strategy that really stood out relates to the question above--How can we hook more boys into reading? Presenter Gail Choice observed that we need to provide boys with male reading role models.

"Boys don't see reading as a masculine activity," Choice said. She suggested getting male volunteers to come into