To be a boy, to be a reader : engaging teen and preteen boys in active literacy

253 Pages·2010·1.98 MB·English

by  William G. Brozo

To Be a Boy,
2
nd
EDITION
To Be a RRReeeaaadddeeerrr
Engaging Teen
and Preteen Boys
in Active Literacy
WILLIAM G. BROZO
N
IRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Patricia A. Edwards, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, President •
Victoria J. Risko, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, President-
elect • Carrice C. Cummins, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, Vice President
• Janice F. Almasi, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky • Rizalina C. Labanda,
Sts. Peter and Paul Early Childhood Center, Laguna, Philippines • Marsha M. Lewis, Duplin
County Schools, Kenansville, North Carolina • Karen Bromley, Binghamton University,
SUNY, Binghamton, New York • Brenda J. Overturf, University of Louisville, Louisville,
Kentucky • Terrell A. Young, Washington State University, Richland, Washington • Jay S.
Blanchard, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona • Kathy Headley, Clemson University,
Clemson, South Carolina • Joyce G. Hinman, Bismarck Public Schools, Bismarck, North
Dakota • William B. Harvey, Executive Director
The International Reading Association attempts, through its publications, to provide a
forum for a wide spectrum of opinions on reading. This policy permits divergent viewpoints
without implying the endorsement of the Association.
Executive Editor, Books Corinne M. Mooney
Developmental Editor Charlene M. Nichols
Developmental Editor Tori Mello Bachman
Developmental Editor Stacey L. Reid
Editorial Production Manager Shannon T. Fortner
Design and Composition Manager Anette Schuetz
Project Editors Tori Mello Bachman and Rebecca A. Stewart
Cover Design Linda Steere
Copyright 2010 by the International Reading Association, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.
The publisher would appreciate notification where errors occur so that they may be
corrected in subsequent printings and/or editions.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brozo, William G.
To be a boy, to be a reader : engaging teen and preteen boys in active literacy / William G.
Brozo. -- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87207-508-5
1. Boys--Education--United States. 2. Reading--United States. 3. Boys--Books and
reading. I. Title.
LC1396.5.B76 2010
428.4071'2--dc22
2010005719
I dedicate this book to the first man I saw reading—my father.

Contents
About the Author vii
Foreword ix
ACknowledgments xiii
IntroduCtIon 1
ChApter 1 11
boys and reading: the Challenges and possibilities
ChApter 2 23
literature and positive male Archetypes
ChApter 3 48
teaching positive male Archetypes with literature
ChApter 4 78
Creating successful literacy experiences for boys
ChApter 5 102
Achieving a language Curriculum for boys: the real men unit
ChApter 6 137
Alternative texts and practices to engage male readers
ChApter 7 160
Community partners in boys’ literacy growth
ChApter 8 183
turning Adolescent boys Into engaged readers: Final lessons
AppendIx 191
literature with positive male Archetypes
reFerenCes 209
Index 229

About the Author
William G. Brozo is a Professor of Literacy in the
Graduate School of Education at George Mason
University in Fairfax, Virginia. He earned his
bachelor’s degree from the University of North
Carolina in Chapel Hill and his master’s and doctorate
from the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
He has taught reading and language arts in the
Carolinas. He is the author of numerous books and
articles on literacy development for children and young adults. He is
also a contributing author to Prentice-Hall Literature, a program for
adolescent readers. He serves on the editorial review board of the Journal
of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. He was the “Strategic Moves” columnist
for the journal Thinking Classroom and currently coauthors the “Content
Literacy” column for The Reading Teacher. He is also a past member of
the International Reading Association’s (IRA) Commission on Adolescent
Literacy, the Adolescent Literacy Committee, and the PISA/PIRLS Task
Force. He was a coinvestigator on a Carnegie Grant team that compiled an
important report on best practice in adolescent literacy.
As an IRA-USAID consultant, he has traveled frequently to the Balkan
countries, where he provided technical support to secondary teachers.
He regularly speaks at professional meetings around the United States
and consults with states and districts on ways of building capacity among
teacher leaders, enriching the literate culture of schools, enhancing the
literate lives of boys, and making teaching more responsive to the needs of
all students.
Bill can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].
vii

Foreword
much has changed in the discussion of gender and education in the
last 30 years.
For most of that time, our concerns revolved around girls; as
a society we rightly saw the need to provide them with equal access to
education. In our schools, in our families, in communities, and at state and
national levels, we applied concerted pressure to help girls do better. We
gave girls better role models and heralded the benefits of higher education
and the financial independence it brings. We surrounded our girls with
support and mentoring. In an effort to improve their outcomes in math
and science, we rewrote curriculum to become more girl-friendly and
demystified the sometimes laborious process of gaining mastery in those
subjects. Using the force of public opinion and the might of the courts, we
waged a battle of hearts and minds over the individuals and institutions
that would limit the dreams of our young females.
The result was nothing short of revolutionary. Girls now make up
nearly 60% of the undergraduates in the United States. And in the wake
of their successes, another conversation about gender and education
has begun. And this one focuses squarely on boys. From preschool to
college, there are signs that boys are not thriving. They are expelled from
preschool at five times the rates of girls, left back in kindergarten and
first grade at twice the rates of girls, and they do less homework and get
more C’s and D’s. With the exception of sports, they have withdrawn from
extracurricular activities; they take fewer college preparatory classes, and
they are more likely to drop out of high school and less likely to attend
college. The implications of boys’ failure to keep up with the progress of
girls will have far-reaching implications in their lives and the lives of their
children.
In order to write The Trouble With Boys: A Surprising Report Card on
Our Sons, Their Problems at School and What Parents & Educators Must Do
(Crown, 2008), I spent years researching the genesis of the boy problem.
My conclusion: Many of the struggles boys face in school originate from
their failure to become fluent readers. Boys come into school speaking
fewer words and having fewer preliteracy experiences (they are read to
less often and attend story hours less frequently). From the very earliest
assessments, their average scores are lower than the average scores for
girls in reading. They are less flexible in how they are taught to read:
They tend to struggle more when they are not given a solid phonics-based
ix
instructional program. When children are required to make the all-
important transition from learning to read to reading to learn, it is boys
overwhelmingly who experience the dreaded “fourth-grade slump.”
By high school, our national reading scores tell the story: The average
sophomore girl reads about as well as the average senior boy.
Who is to blame? It is easy to blame the boys themselves. And plenty of
teachers do. They are harder to instruct, teachers say. They are resistant—
often refusing to engage with the classroom material. Teachers describe
a world in which their adolescent boys dwell—one that is untouched by
words, and poorer for it. The research is clear that failing to become a
fluent reader leads to school failure. The more one reads, the better one
reads. And tragically, the inverse is also true. Unenthusiastic readers
become poor readers. Boys are being left behind.
Boys, however, tell a different story. They will tell you that they like to
read—just not the books that English teachers are assigning them. They
reject “relational” type books that describe, in microscopic precision,
the nuances of a friendship. They reject tales of brave young girls who
endure misfortunes inflicted by evil-doers and, by sheer cleverness or
connection to others, triumph. They don’t like to read about suffering.
They like to read nonfiction and biographies (particularly of heroic men or
sports figures). They like books that have pictures, books that are funny,
with plots and characters that are irreverent. They like to read books that
involve action, swashbuckling, arrows flying, and yes, some decapitation.
Blood is good. They just don’t get the opportunity to bring that energy and
excitement for reading into the classroom.
Teachers often respond to the enthusiasm of boys for this kind of
reading with bewilderment and not a little frustration. Why can’t boys
transfer some of that appreciation to the books on the reading list? Perhaps
these teachers should start with a popular book on middle school reading
lists (and one of the books most universally loathed by boys), The House on
Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.
The chasm between what teachers think boys should be reading and
what boys want to read seems very wide. And our boys are losers for it.
Into this breach steps Bill Brozo with his book To Be a Boy, To Be a Reader.
His approach is fresh but his basic notion about education is evergreen:
Begin to teach literature by teaching children where they are—and that
includes the place where boys are. And then think about where we want
them to be. But Brozo’s book offers more: His Jungian framework and his
discussion of archetypes like Warriors, Pilgrims, and Kings will give some
teachers a tentative framework through which they can expand boys’ view
of literature.
x