The following is a list of nine books that anyone involved in education, interested in boys’ learning, or in any way responsible for influencing the cognitive development of young boys and young men should read. This is in no way an exhaustive list of the resources available; but it certainly provides a good overview of the thinking and practice in this field.
Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture by Thomas Newkirk.
Post-Columbine has been a time when the issues of popular culture and the behavior of boys have generated more heat than light. This complex, contested intersection has led to censorship and worse-alarm, irrationality, and a failure to examine our ways of teaching, particularly teaching literacy to boys. In this book Tom Newkirk takes an up-close and personal look at elementary boys and their relationship to sports, movies, video games, and other venues of popular culture. Unlike the alarmists, he sees these media not as enemiesof literacy, but as resources for literacy.
Through a series of extraordinary interviews, Newkirk listens to young boys, and girls, who describe the pleasure they take in popular culture. They explain the ways in which they use visual narratives in their writing. They even defend their use of violence in their work. Newkirk disproves the simplistic stereotype of boys who are primed to imitate the violence they see. He shows that, rather than mimic, boys most often transform, recombine, and participate in story lines, and resist, mock, and discern the unreality of icons of popular culture.
Using a mixture of memoir, research project, cultural analysis, and critique of published findings, Newkirk encourages schools to ask questions about what counts as literacy in boys and what doesn't, to allow in their literacy programs boys' diverse tastes, values, and learning styles. In other words, if we want boys to join "the literacy club," then we have to invite them in with genres of their own choosing.
Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys by Dan Kindlon and Michael G. Thompson
Boys suffer from a too-narrow definition of masculinity, the authors assert as they expose and discuss the relationship between vulnerability and developing sexuality, the "culture of cruelty" boys live in, the "tyranny of toughness," the disadvantages of being a boy in elementary school, how boys' emotional lives are squelched, and what we, as a society, can do about all this without turning "boys into girls." "Our premise is that boys will be better off if boys are better understood--and if they are encouraged to become more emotionally literate," the authors assert. As a tool for change, Kindlon and Thompsom present the well-developed "What Boys Need," seven points that reach far beyond the ordinary psychobabble checklist and slogan list. Kindlon (researcher and psychology professor at Harvard and practicing psychotherapist specializing in boys) and Thompson (child psychologist, workshop leader, and staff psychologist of an all-boys school) have created a chilling portrait of male adolescence in America. Through personal stories and theoretical discussion, this well-needed book plumbs the well of sadness, anger, and fear in America's teenage sons.
Teaching the Male Brain: How Boys Think, Feel, and Learn in School by Abigail Norfleet James.
This practical guide to teaching boys combines classic and cutting-edge research to show you why males learn differently and, more important, how you can differentiate teaching strategies to help them succeed in the classroom.
The author's qualitative and quantitative research presents the cognitive, sensory, physical, social, and emotional differences between genders. James draws from years of classroom experience to offer strategies that have been tested, refined, and used successfully in the field. This easy-to-use handbook provides helpful examples, case studies, and troubleshooting sections illustrating how to handle the concerns that can arise when teaching boys.
Teaching the Male Brain shows you how to recognize sociological and neurobiological foundations of cognitive gender differences as they relate to education look critically at curricula and teaching practices, evaluate how well they work with boys, and uncover areas where changes can be made develop educational approaches based on research and classroom practice to provide a climate responsive to the learning differences of both boys and girls
Learn to use this brain-based research to provide appropriate and positive learning experiences for students in your classroom!
Boy Writers: Reclaiming their Voices by Ralph Fletcher
Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices begins with a the author's moment of realization that boys were turned off, checked out, disengaged, and disenfranchised when it came to writing. This book is a response to that realization, and it attempts to provide readers with a relevant introduction to the topic of boys' literacy, classroom strategies for engaging and valuing boys' perspectives, and useful anecdotes about boys' writing. Fletcher begins by relating the results of a survey he put together that addressed '"teacher's perceptions of the boy writers with whom they work.” He received seventy-one responses to his survey, and the findings showed that the teachers saw the girls in their classrooms engaged and enjoying writing much more than boys. Fletcher corroborates his survey's findings with other relevant data, as well as first-hand anecdotes from writing teachers. Boy Writers covers a broad range of topics relevant to boys' literacy, including student choice, violent writing, language issues, humor, student/teacher interactions during writing conferences, and even handwriting.
The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do by Peg Tyre.
In a spinoff from her 2006 cover story for Newsweek, “The Boy Crisis,” Tyre delivers a cogent, reasoned overview of the current national debate about why boys are falling behind girls' achievement in school and not attending college in the same numbers. While the education emphasis in the 1990s was on helping girls succeed, especially in areas of math and science, boys are lagging behind, particularly in reading and writing; parents and educators, meanwhile, are scrambling to address the problems, from questioning teaching methods in preschool to rethinking single-sex schools. Tyre neatly sums up the information for palatable parental consumption: although boys tend to be active and noisy, and come to verbal skills later than girls, early-education teachers, mostly female, have little tolerance for the way boys express themselves. The accelerated curriculum and de-emphasis on recess do not render the classroom boy friendly, and already set boys up for failure that grows more entrenched with each grade. Tyre touches on important concerns about the lack of male role models in many boys' lives, the perils of video-game obsession and the slippery dialogue over boys' brains versus girls' brains. Tyre treads carefully, offering a terrifically useful synthesis of information.
Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Dr. Leonard Sax.
Something scary is happening to boys today. From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically. While Emily is working hard at school and getting A’s, her brother Justin is goofing off. He’s more concerned about getting to the next level in his videogame than about finishing his homework. Now, Dr. Leonard Sax delves into the scientific literature and draws on more than twenty years of clinical experience to explain why boys and young men are failing in school and disengaged at home. He shows how social, cultural, and biological factors have created an environment that is literally toxic to boys. He also presents practical solutions, sharing strategies which educators have found effective in re-engaging these boys at school, as well as handy tips for parents about everything from homework, to videogames, to medication.
The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons from Falling Behind in School and in Life by Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens.
Gurian and Stevens investigate the "male learning style" that is so often at odds with current educational practices, leaving the mistaken impression that boys are difficult to manage and teach. The authors begin by detailing the crisis faced by boys--lower grades, greater discipline problems, higher dropout rates. They then explore research on the differences between the male and the female brain that account for their differences in conforming to current teaching methods. Throughout the book, Gurian and Stevens offer advice to parents and teachers on how to encourage learning based on the particular strengths of boys, from bursts of attention and physical play with infant boys to appropriate discipline as they grow older to developing a more boy-friendly curriculum at schools. The authors emphasize that their strategies are aimed at boosting the learning and academic performance of boys without disadvantaging girls in any way. Parents and teachers concerned about teaching and disciplining boys will appreciate this thought-provoking perspective.
Boys and Girls Learn Differently!:A Guide for Teachers and Parents by Michael Gurian.
Despite feminism and efforts to desexualize teaching, boys and girls persistently exhibit different learning styles. Based on two decades of research in 30 cultures around the world and the observations made at the Michael Gurian Institute at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, this book explores the reasons for those differences in processing information and learning. Part 1 examines research on the brain that indicates physical differences, such as male brains being larger and female brains maturing earlier. Part 2 offers practical, grade-level-appropriate advice for developing learning environments that accommodate boys' and girls' differing learning styles. The book notes the fundamental differences--boys are more active and physical, girls more verbal and social--but cautions against stereotyping children and neglecting the individuality of specific kids. It outlines the components of the "ultimate classroom," one that supports both sexes in learning, and illustrates with actual classroom experiences. Helpful tables outline different strategies, and the book encourages teaching teachers to "mentor both aggression and empathy." Useful for parents and teachers alike.
Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood by William Pollack.
In a lucidly written primer for parents, Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor Pollack dismantles what he terms "the Boy Code"— society's image of boys as tough, cool, rambunctious and obsessed with sports, cars and sex. These stereotypes, he argues, thwart creativity and originality in boys. Linking clinical insights to practical suggestions, Pollack advises caregivers how to help boys repair their fragile self-esteem, develop empathy and explore their sensitive sides. Drawing on his clinical experience as well as an ongoing Harvard research project, he offers advice on "attention deficit disorder"—which, he maintains, is often a misdiagnosis for normal high-energy behavior—recognizing signs of depression, discouraging violence and helping boys cope with their parents' divorce. In discussing homosexuality, he notes that many of the assumptions of the psychiatric profession have been shown to be incorrect, such as that homosexuality was abnormal, a psychological disorder. Pollack's glorification of sports as an arena for self-transformation and emotional openness is counterbalanced by his recognition that athletics often encourages brutal competitiveness. His proposal that schools adopt curricula "on traditionally 'male' and 'female' topics" to spark separately the interests of boys and girls seems at odds with his own imperative to break through gender stereotypes. On balance, though, his manual is enlightening and stimulating.
If you are interested in adolescent cognitive development in general, I also suggest the following titles.
- Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences by Dr. Leonard Sax
- Nurture the Nature: Understanding and Supporting Your Child's Unique Core Personality by Michael Gurian
- Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps—And What We Can Do About It by Lise Eliot.
- The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell Us about Our Kids by Barbara Strauch
- Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain by David Walsh.
- Teen Brain, Teen Mind: What Parents Need to Know to Survive the Adolescent Years by Dr. Ron Clavier.
- Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men by Michael Kimmel.
My classroom is a TRIBES classroom, and my school is a TRIBES school. As such, the first week of school is spent reinforcing the four TRIBES agreements: (1) Mutual Respect; (2) Attentive Listening; (3) No Put Downs; and (4) the Right to Pass.
Like many teachers, I take the first week of school to play a number of cooperative games with my students, as well as have them complete different initiative tasks. In fact, these activities span the entire first month of school. Over the first week, they will participate in at least 2 such activities every day. The goal of the cooperative games and initiative tasks is to foster team work, build trust, and exercise problem-solving skills. Among other activities, my favourites are:
