Overcoming the Obstacle Course: Teenage boys and Reading

"Overcoming the Obstacle Course: Teenage boys and reading." Patrick Jones & Dawn Cartwright Fiorelli. Teacher Librarian. Volume 30, Number 3, February 2003
http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/tlmag/v_30/v_30_3_feature.html

I read this article tonight and found it full of good information and advice.

"One more statistic: in the United States, one in 32 people is in or has been in the criminal justice system. One in 32 people in the United States according to the Justice Department is currently in jail, in prison, on probation, on parole or has been one of these things. The majority of these people are male. The majority of the male prison population has limited education; many are high school dropouts. The limits of education are almost always related to reading problems. If we want young men to have their hands clutching a graduation diploma rather than the bars of cell, then it is time to start overcoming the obstacles course we've set up in school and public libraries in order to ensure that guys read."

Topics in this article include: What boys see as obstacles, What the Teacher Librarian can do, Building a Guy-Friendly Collection, Twenty great fiction books for Grade 7 boys, and Nonfiction areas of interest to guys, in Dewey order.

Gotcha for Guys! by K. Baxter and M. Kochel

Gotcha for Guys! Nonfiction Books to Get Boys Excited about Reading by Kathleen A. Baxter and Marcia Agness Kochel. Libraries Unlimited. 2007.

Be sure to read the introduction which provides good tips on connecting boys with books. The authors offer topics of interest to boys, most of which are fairly obvious - Prehistoric Creatures, Science, Creepy-Crawly Creatures- and lists of new and not so new titles. Other topics that should really attract boys are All Things Gross, Disasters and Unsolved Mysteries, and Hot Topics: Magic, Riddles, Games, etc. Books cover grades K-12 so you have to sort out those appropriate for your students. Several complete booktalks are included in each chapter with plenty of other titles and short annotations. Some of the chapters include a list of the authors' favorite books to booktalk on that topic. If you are new to the idea of promoting books especially for boys, this book is a good resource to get you started. I would have liked some catchier titles for some of the topics (Animals, Science, American History) that I could have used for display purposes since I'm not very creative.

If you are searching for display topics and catchy titles, look at Chapter 10 in Merchandising Library Materials to Young Adults by Mary Anne Nichols. Although Nichols' lists are not aimed at just boys, there are several that would appeal to the guys in particular, such as "Go to Jail. . .Go Directly to Jail," "Got Guts?", "This is War!" and "And You Think You Have It Bad." She includes a suggested booklist (mainly high school and middle school titles) for each topic.

Student Hobby Survey

This tip from Annie Miers, librarian at Riser Middle School, West Monroe, LA:
Providing an information rich environment with books and magazines about hobbies is another way to get guys and reluctant readers into the library and reading. How current is your hobby collection? Try surveying your students and then use the information to update the school library's hobby collection of magazines and books.

Hobby Survey
Stamp collecting is out- music videos are in. Which hobbies are hot? Which hobbies are not?

Please check all hobbies that interest you.

_____ Digital photography _____ Beads and Beading
_____ Music video _____ NASCAR
_____ Drawing _____ Bicycling_____ Web site design _____ ATVs
_____ Origami _____ Guitars_____ Cooking _____ Scrapbooking and cards _____ Camping _____ Crocheting
_____ Fishing _____ Knitting_____ Hunting _____ Hair styling______Gaming (video/computer) List systems used, such as PS3, Xbox, online, etc.______________________________________________

______Sports – List your favorites (golf, basketball, football, soccer, etc.) _____________________________________________________

______Water Sports – List your favorite (skiing, jet skiing, etc) _____________________________________________________________

______ History - List the time period that interests you, such as WWII, Civil War, etc. ____________________________________________
Please list your favorite hobby (hobbies) if not listed above.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

__________ Girl __________ Boy __________ Grade
Any suggestions about books or magazines you would like to have in our library?

Any suggestions or changes you would like to have made in our library? Why?
Thank you.

This document can be viewed at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcvhpwnm_0g3smhn

Teaching Resources for Stormbreaker from the Alex Ryder Series

The Boys at my middle school love the Alex Ryder series. The series is a great addition to the adventure genre that so many boys enjoy. An Alex Ryder display in your library with the Ryder books displayed along with nonfiction books about spies, secret codes, etc. will be a hit with lots of your students. You could add some of the pictures and downloads available on the movie's web site. http://www.stormbreakerthemovie.com

A visitor to this blog has asked about teaching resources for Stormbreaker. Here is a list of some teaching resources and writing activities that I found this morning on the web. Thanks to our visitor for the comment regarding this blog and Stormbreaker made on an earlier post.

Great Interview with Anthony Horowitz and a wonderful writing suggestion at the end of the interview
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=7245&FullBreadCrumb=%3Ca+href%3D%22%2Fbrowse%2Fsearch.jsp%3Fquery%3Dstormbreaker%26c1%3DCONTENT30%26c2%3Dfalse%22%3EAll+Results+%3C%2Fa%3E

Two week unit on Stormbreaker and another one on Point Blanc from the UK
http://eduwight.iow.gov.uk/curriculum/core/english/transition8to9/transiti.asp

10 Good Resources for Stormbreaker from the UK’s Teachit Site
http://www.teachit.co.uk/index.asp?CurrMenu=17&S=472

Activities for Stormbreaker – Downloads are toward the bottom of the page.
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/all/respub/en_novel

Books for Teen Gamers

UPDATED: I made a big mistake! Kelly hasn't written a book but an article for Booklist titled "Books for Teen Gamers." It was first published in Booklist March 1, 2007. You can go to Booklist Online and get a 30 day free subscription to view the article.

Kelly Czarnecki has a great article out called Books for Teen Gamers. Games are categorized by types, such as Action-Adventure, Sports, Fighting Games, etc. and books are suggested for each category. Colfer's The Lost Colony and Horowitz's Stormbreaker are just two listed under the Action-Adventure Games. Think of what a great book display you could make in the library using this book and the related book lists. I know it would catch the attention of many of my boys.

New GUY-LITERATE books from Libraries Unlimited

Libraries Unlimited www.lu.com has four new GUY-LITERATE resources that sound really good.

• The Guy-Friendly Teen Library- Serving male teens
• Gotcha for Guys! Nonfiction books to get boys excited about reading
• Playing to Learn - Video games in the classroom
• Boys and Literacy - Practical strategies for librarians, teachers, and parents

I received the company's brochure about these books just last week. Gotcha for Guys has received a good review from Booklist. I am definitely considering these for future purchase.

Books for your graphic library collection

Boys in my library are enjoying some of our new Graphic Library books.

Marvel Encyclopedia: Spider-Man, A to Z By Jonathan Couper-Smart. This book covers Spider-Man from the very beginning, the first movie, and to the current
movie.

You can Draw: Marvel Characters by Dan Jurgens. This is a complete drawing guide to master the essential graphic novel look. Areas discussed are action details, drawing muscles, battle scenes, weapons and more.

Comic and Graphic Novels by Richard Spilsburg. Drawing for graphic novels and comic strips is described in detail in this book, as well as ways to make the comics more effective.

These books are flying off of the shelves. Our boys love them!

Annie Miers

Two Inspiring Books for HS Boys

Take a look at the two inspiring books suggested for high school boys on the Kids Learning Stuff blog -http://kidslearningstuff.blogspot.com/search?q=carson
Both books - Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story and A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton would be good considerations for a high school library. Thanks, Mary, for sharing with us.

Michael Sullivan's Books for Boys

Michael Sullivan, author of Connecting Boys with Books, has a great web site that includes this page, Books for Boys. He includes a list of picture books and chapter books ranked by difficulty- low to advanced. . . and the list is updated to include some new (2006) titles. I got lots of new titles to add to my next book order. Check it out at http://www.talestoldtall.com/BooksforBoys.html

Ideas to get boys reading - Other blogs' posts

While surfing the blogsphere tonight, I found several other blog posts of interest about "get Johnny reading":
Blogs:
Arthur Slade: Writing for Young Adults
Boys2Read Post
http://arthurslade.blogspot.com/2006/08/boys2read.html
Rockin’ and Readin’ Literature Post
http://arthurslade.blogspot.com/2006/08/rockin-and-readin-literature.html
Tim Fredrick’s ELA Teaching Blog
http://timfredrick.typepad.com/timfredrick/choice/index.html
“Helping Adolescent Boys Be More Engaged in the ELA Classroom”
BookLust
http://storms.typepad.com/booklust/2006/04/i_got_posted_7.html
boys vs. girls reading – “morphing” literacy

Be sure to post your success stories in "get Johnny reading" here!

Reading List -"Johnny Won't Read"

Here is a list of readings related to "get Johnny reading." You will very likely find, not only interesting statistics, but some ideas to help your male students read more.

**The United States is not alone in this concern about boys' level of reading. Be sure to check out the resources on the National Literacy Trust site from the United Kingdom.

Why Johnny Won’t Read by Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33956-2005Jan24.html
“From 1992 to 2002, the gender gap in reading by young adults widened considerably. In overall book reading, young women slipped from 63 percent to 59 percent, while young men plummeted from 55 percent to 43 percent.”

The Education Gender Gap: Why are boys not making the grade?
http://www.wrrb.org/forum_060519.pdf
What has educational research suggested?
School libraries carry many fewer books of appeal to boys.
Few if any boys’ books have been published in the past 30 years
School librarians/teachers discourage boys from reading the kinds of books that do appeal
to them.

Help Wanted: Boys Reading by Laura Sokal
http://www.ldac-taac.ca/Research/boys_reading-e.asp

Douglass Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado has had enormous success in closing the reading gap: www.douglasselementary.com. More information about Douglass Elementary is available here: www.douglasselementary.com/gendergap.pdf
“Offering some opportunities for single-sex activities within a classroom (i.e. all-boy
literature circle)

National Literacy Trust Research – UK
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/researchindex3.html
Reading Champions – UK based project
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/campaign/Champions/school.html
Reading Champions Toolkit - Great resource, especially page 6 –“What Works-The Twenty First Century Boy”
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/campaign/Champions/RCtoolkit.pdf
Reading for Pleasure – A Research Overview (National Literacy Trust – UK)
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/Reading%20for%20pleasure.pdf