Boys and Reading

Boys and Reading by Joan Hamilton

According to a new compilation of data, released by the National Endowment for the Arts, reading is becoming an endangered activity. In recent children's literature review magazines, there has been a great deal of concern about boys becoming non-readers. See School Library Journal article, "Is there Really a Boy Problem?" (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6472361.html)

The solutions put forth are often to give boys more non-fiction, comic books, and game catalogs and manuals. That seems to be what they want to read, so provide more of it. I would like to respectfully disagree with this solution, espousing instead the ideas and recommendations of Michelle Landsberg in her book Reading for the Love of It (Prentice Hall, 1987). Landsberg agrees that boys as early as kindergarten, first and second grade prefer non-fiction over fiction and are therefore in danger of becoming non-readers. Her solution is not to give them more of what they want to read, but more of what they don't choose to read--fiction. "Read aloud to your boys tons and tons of fiction," she advises. For in order to become a "reader", one must get caught in the "grip of narrative." The most reluctant reader of fiction eventually will succumb to the rewards of good storytelling introduced through routine daily read-alouds. Eventually reading fiction becomes its own reward. Fortunately there is help for the parent or teacher wanting to choose good fiction for boys. Try Jon Scieszka's Web site, Guys Read (http://www.guysread.com/), or ask your school librarian.

Keyboarding

Keyboarding is a skill I liken to knowing math facts. Students sometimes question why they need to be fluent (and not use just index fingers to type or calculate 8 x 9 on paper). I recently worked with 8th grade students using Excel in math - and it was painful to watch some students enter data. That experience brought keyboarding back to the forefront of my attention.

Just like math facts, keyboarding can be laborious to practice; our school keyboarding program, UltraKey, isn't all that fun. From a teaching standpoint, it does, however, track the keys that students have learned and show progress. We use it regularly in 4th grade. Many kids should continue to practice their fluency - and it hasn't been included it in the curriculum in following grades. Maybe we should... let me know your thoughts.

I have found some good web sites where students can practice their keyboarding skills at school and at home. If you know about other fun sites, please share them. We often provide lists of practice web sites to parents when we think students would benefit from extra practice - especially those students who struggle with handwriting.

Here are those sites:
Computer Circus
Room 108 Typing Tutor Game
Dance Mat Typing
Typer Shark

In an upcoming blog, I'll share web sites which might make students want to practice their math facts.

Welcome to our Blog!

Welcome to the first edition of the Pierce School Educational Technology & Library Blog! Joan and I will be alternately writing and co-authoring articles for this blog. Our goal is to provide information and resources to our faculty and students as well as model the use of blogs.

We were inspired to begin this adventure when we attended the New Hampshire Christa McAuliffe Technology conference last week. The keynote speaker, Dr. Tim Tyson, is a former middle school principal (http://mabryonline.org/) who used blogs extensively in his practice.

Let us know if you have ideas for our blog or want to use one in your own classroom.
Joan and Sandy