Hook the Boys on Reading!

Introduction

You have learned a lot about your students as readers. Perhaps you have experienced significant challenges engaging some of your boys in reading. You probably are also aware that as boys progress through the grades, they generally lag further behind their female counterparts in literacy skills. Boys bring a whole different mindset to the written page, and they have different expectations of the things they read.

We know, for example, that boys take longer than girls to learn to read and that they typically read less than girls do. Boys often prefer reading-for-information over fiction, and the fiction they read is often about hobbies or sports they might be interested in doing. They prefer action to lengthy descriptions or getting involved in characters' emotions. Boys resist books in which the main character is a girl, and because they enjoy “collecting” things, books in a series are popular with boys.

You can use what we now know about how boys are “wired” to help reluctant male readers be successful. The challenge for you is to hook the boys on reading by providing them with texts they enjoy and deem useful to keep them reading all year long. This feature provides you with resources sure to please even your most reluctant boy readers.

 

 

 

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