Boys and Literacy
I first became aware of the subject of boys and literacy when I took my friend's two sons (who were 12 and 13 at the time) to see the reincarnated version of
Star Wars. You know, the one with all the improved special effects. Since they had only seen these movies on the small screen, they were pretty excited about seeing them as nature (or George Lucas) intended.
Unless you've been raised by wolves, or on Mars (or by raised by wolves on the planet Mars--hey, now there's an idea for a story), you're probably aware that all of the
Star Wars movies start with aqua-colored text that scrolls up and away from the audience. It lasts--what? less than a minute?--and is George Lucas's deft handling of the Gordian knot of backstory. "This is all that you need to know," he's telling us, "and even if it doesn't make sense now, it will by the time this film is over." He knows his audience has a short attention span, and he's making the most of their initial excitement.
Well, look at that, I'm off on a tangent. (Yes, I tend to do that. You'll just have to find it endearing.) But the point is this: George Lucas begins a film aimed at guys by presenting a lot of text. He doesn't show you the schematics for an X-wing fighter or the Death Star, he makes you
read. And this in a movie whose main audience is almost entirely male. Either Mr. Lucas is pretty smart or pretty dumb. (And judging from his checkbook balance, I'm betting on the former.)
Let's jump from the macrocosm to the microcosm. As soon as those aqua-blue letters float off the screen and we see spaceships flying across the screen, Ryan (the younger one) leans over to me and whispers "You know all those words? I didn't read any of them."
Now this surprised me, first because I've always read any text that was thrown in front of my face, and second, because I never knew it was possible to
not read text that was thrown in front of your face. For years, I've always looked at text, and just instantly knew what it said, whether it was a street sign, a billboard, a newspaper, or a box of laundry detergent. Until that point in my life, I simply didn't know that
not interpreting text into meaning was even an option. I was shocked.
But not so shocked that we couldn't enjoy the movie, which we did. But still, that was an amazing revelation for me. It was like being able to shut down a part of your brain, or not even having it turned on in the first place.
At about the same time, there was a fair amount of controversy concerning the "math and science gap" between boys and girls. For a long time, it was assumed that girls didn't do as well as boys in these subjects simply because girls' brains weren't as good at assimilating these kinds of information as boys' brains. Of course, this isn't really true, and once educators started teaching these subjects in more "girl-friendly" ways, the test scores of girls started going up. Now, girls outperform boys in math and science at the high school level (although it's possible that the difference is statistically insignificant).
Flash forward a few years, and now we're concerned about the "literacy gap" between boys and girls. I first became aware of, and interested in, this issue while taking Dr. Karen Vocke's ENGL 4800 Teaching Literature in the Secondary Schools during the Spring 2010 semester. I created a short presentation that gave my fellow students a heads-up about some issues they could expect to run into , ways to manage those issues and, and some other resources they might find helpful. I also prepared a short PowerPoint presentation using images from Gene Luen Yang's
American Born Chinese to show how male brains approach literature and visual images, but since this was only a ten-minute presentation, I didn't have time for it.
I have continued to carry out research in this area and have had the opportunity to give this talk a few times informally, and twice in a professional context. I'll be summarizing the results of my research over the next few months and posting that information here.
Resources related to boys and literacy.
Boys and Literacy Discussion Forum
I have started a discussion forum for those interested in boys and literacy. Join the forum, and share your tips, techniques, what works (and what doesn't), what books your boys are reading, along with any questions or concerns you may have.
Click here to access the forum.
Presentation History
I have given this talk three times, so far, and each time the content varies a bit. If you are looking to catch up on what you have missed, look below.
MCTE Bright Ideas Conference
Saturday, April 10, 2010, at Michigan State University. Sponsored by the Michigan Council of Teachers of English.
English Studies Conference
Friday, November 6, 2009, at Western Michigan University. Sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta.
You can download the
PowerPoint presentation here.
