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| Encouraging Boys' Reading
Man the hunter? Woman the nest builder? Man, the one who needs to be active and out and about? Woman, the one who can more readily sit and occupy herself? Is this why boys are generally more reluctant to sit and read than girls! It's worth thinking about. We are encouraged to treat girls and boys the same, otherwise we are accused of sexual discrimination...but if boys are generally way behind girls on the learning to read efficiently scale, maybe we had better start treating girls and boys differently, by changing our methods of encouraging reading development in boys. That too is worth thinking about.
So what can we do to accelerate reading progress in boys? In the classroom: Early reading books are so often about the home, the family, shopping for food, all those nest building themes, which are probably more appealing to girls than boys. I wonder if the reading scheme publishers have thought of this. (Bring back such schemes as The Three Pirates reading scheme of many years ago.) 
Teachers need to be aware that it is best if the reading books they are trying to promote are subject suitable to most boys such as: transport.................. and dinosaurs,........ ..........castles and battles 
Classroom reading material not only needs to be displayed in an area where boys can happily and comfortably get lost in the pages of a book, but the materials there need to be more than just story books. Many boys prefer non-fiction..and the teacher who says to a boy, "Why not try a nice story book now!" needs to question whether this comment is encouraging or discouraging his reading! Book Corners need to have magazines and comics, newspapers, tourist brochures, mail order shopping catalogues, companies advertising flyers, anything that will encourage a wide variety of reading material to inspire those readers who prefer non-fiction. Teachers need to know the content of the reading material available, so they can recommend books that have a good chance of being well received. The teacher would need to match up the characteristics of the boy to the subject and reading level appeal of the book. Teachers can also get other children to recommend books they have read to particular pupils in the class. "Now I have finished this book Miss, I think Joe will really enjoy reading it next!" Boys need somewhere to stretch out to read, somewhere where they can forget where they are. And if they fidget whilst reading, as long as they are reading and not distracting others, why worry? 
In the School Library. 
Head teachers and classroom teachers need to ask themselves a few questions when considering making the School Library more inviting for boys. 1) Is the School Library more like a shop? In many Dominican School Libraries the books are spread out in unrelated stacks with no categorisation and with a feel of "don't touch this pile or it will topple and you will get it back in the wrong order". The room has nowhere for boys to sit or stretch out comfortably in a nook where they can get lost in their reading. The room seems to say "If you come in don't stay long and certainly don't sit down! Well there is no space for you to do so anyway, as every surface is piled with books..... or piles of this and that!" 2) Is the School Library like a old, rarely used warehouse? Are the shelves arranged anyhow and with things hidden in long ago opened boxes? Do the teachers dash in to plonk something on the nearest space, piles of half sets of old text books just in case they might be useful one day. Do they add, here and there, their own old, page weary teacher manuals, some standing up, some falling down. In this warehouse style library, it is hard to tell where the children's books are, if you can see them that is, under the thick dust that has settled over the years. 3) Is the School Library like a museum? Are there antique collections of books completely unsuitable for the reading ages of the library users, books that have stood in rows untouched for years, which are quickly becoming less and less appealing in content as well as in condition? They might as well be rows of empty and disguised cornflakes boxes on a stage set! And anyway, too many books do not encourage choosing a book and choosing a book is a difficult enough skill in itself. Too many books in a library gives a feeling that you can't see the wood for the trees. 4) Is the School Library like a supermarket with no one on the check out? Is the borrowing system so arduous and clumsy, it is too bothersome to hang about to try to borrow a book, especially if you are a reluctant reader anyway. Do children have to leave the room to find someone to sign the book out for them? Would you bother to hang about like this in a supermarket, or would you just put down what you had selected and walk out? 5) Is the School Library like a no-go area, saying "Hey you,this is an adult place!"...Maybe there is a teacher in the corner working with a group and her body language conveys the unwelcoming feeling, "What are you doing here? This is my space now so don't invade it! Go away!" Is the School Library saying "This is the Special Needs Group's place"? 6) Is the School Library silent as a morgue? Many children do not like silence. Many live in noisy surroundings and will eventually have jobs in noisy work places. "Is the silent atmosphere in the School Library going to make people there notice that my shoes squeak?"
In the community. Encourage male members of the family to consider reading with boys, or invite men teachers to read with boys who usually have a lady as their class teacher. The male adult acts as an influential role model. 
My dream library, especially for boys, (though not exclusively for boys, as many boys, at a certain age, actually go to the library to see the girls!) Unlock it! Firstly this dream library designed especially for encouraging boys to read , would not have a locked door! If it really needs to be locked, then I would have a clearly written notice of opening times posted outside the library and details regularly announced in Assembly, to remind children of library opening times. And I would make sure that those times are strictly adhered to, even in Dominica, where time keeping is a big challenge! Visitors should feel welcomed, not locked out! 
Staff it! This dream library, would have the library staffed with volunteers, adults or older children on a rota basis. I would certainly always have the library open at all breaks and lunchtimes and after school. With enough volunteers it would not be difficult to do this. Certainly volunteer librarians would have badges and certificates and a desk name label to show the school that their work is high status and truly appreciated. No Special Needs Groups here! I would not use the library as a teaching area for Special Needs Groups. It gives the other children the wrong message, sadly stigmatising the library, no matter what the teachers do to try not to avoid such a stigma. If the library is successfully used, there is no timetable space for other subsiduary groups in it anyway! Not just shelves of books! This dream library would not be a space for just books on shelves. For example: 1) The library would be light, airy and comfortable.The atmosphere would be one of welcome, so boys feel it is part of their space in their school. There would be slightly private areas to sit or stretch out and forget where you are. I'd avoid the sort of arrangement of only having high backed chairs at dining room sized tables. Many boys have had enough of that in the classroom setting. Boys don't always want to sit on chairs to read. 
2) Because many boys often prefer non-fiction, my dream library for boys would have lots of non-fiction reading material...boxes and boxes of comics to help improve the reading of texts that are entirely in capital letters, and there would be newspapers, mail order catalogues, tourist brochures, company advertising fliers of motorbikes, sports gear, charts and posters, scanning style books where there is no text, but where the reader has to find something in a very full illustration ("Where's Wally" books). 3) There would be frequently changing displays, which would include interesting things alongside subject appropriate books or comics. (See Spiderman below, a display which made boys flock to the library to read every breaktime) LIbrary Display Corner at St Luke's School, Pointe Michel Dominica. Hooks from the ceiling were used to hang a strung-up coathanger for the spiderman suit, and also the sheet of styrofoam (polystyrene) in an old pillowcase with the Spiderman notice on. The shelf back has been covered with an old beach mat. (The School has a tub of these for children to take and set up under the mango tree where they can read and read and read!) The spiderman fabric was in a fabric box in the School. Thanks to a young Dominican who loaned his now outgrown Spiderman suit. This display was set up near the LIbrary entrance so it was easily seen by passers by who came in and stayed to read the comics. Model cars and trucks beside books on transport, fish in a bowl beside books on fishing or on pets; I think these non-book objects in a library display catch the attention of the reluctant boy reader, who, if there were just books, would probably not notice the display in the first place! I'd include subject appropriate jigsaws too, so there might be a jigsaw of the ocean with books on Oceanography. I have seen boys rush to the Library to try to put in the next piece and jigsaws encourage shape awareness and shape awareness helps reading skills. 4) The shelves would be clearly labeled so they were easily recognised for the subjects or the reading ages they held, so it would be quick to find what the boys were looking for. Think of a supermarket promoting their goods. Customers hate a big change-round because they then can't find what they need, but conversely they like a regularly changing new display to alert them to a new idea or a "Special this week!" Librarians are promoting books and can use similar supermarket techniques to "sell" reading! 5) The silence stress felt by some people would be avoided by playing light, background music in my dream library. 6)Special events would happen in my dream library: The Library Week for Boys only. The girls would need to be compensated for this arrangement of course, but it worked brilliantly at my last school, with displays of reading material specially collected and selected over the previous weeks for boys and with other items on display to subject compliment the reading materials. The total number of boy visitors that week far exceded the total number of boy visitors of any previous months. Library Competitions with a prize for a girl and a prize for a boy, and a big announcement and publicity to advertise the event in the first place and to announce the winners at the end, as well as to tell the date for the next competition. The questions could be about the lay out of the library, the authors of certain books, the date a certain book was published etc. It would also include a question, "How can we improve the School Library so that more students use it?" We need to do more customer research if we want things to work! Visiting speakers or authors (male as well as female) to talk about their personally selected books from the School Library, making sure that the arrangements for a good percentage of such activities cater specifically for the interests of boys. Class events, where a child is invited to be an expert at his chosen subject and uses the library resources to give a talk and to have a book box ready for book borrowing, or answer questions on his improved expertise. 7) Computers would be in the library for reading research. It seems that computers are too often used only in computer classes, and so boys are often limited when they want to follow their own interests. Boys who do not like reading books, often feel differently about reading computer screens! (Along with this, of course, my dream library would have technicians to keep the library computers in full time operation! Well it is a dream library after all!) 
ALL THIS IS MIGHT BE DIFFICULT FOR SOME SCHOOLS TO ACHIEVE, BUT AT LEAST SOME OF THE LIST COULD, WITH WORK AND IMAGINATION, BE PUT INTO PRACTICE. CERTAINLY, IT WOULD NOT ONLY ENCOURAGE BOYS TO LOOK AT BOOKS, IT WOULD ALSO ENCOURAGE THEM TO WANT TO READ THEM. MY DREAM LIST, BUT DREAMS CAN SOMETIMES COME TRUE! | |
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