"Girls and Boys as Readers and Writers" (Barrs, Huot & Lynne)
For volume thirty-three of Orbit (OISE/UT's Magazine for Schools) Myra Barrs contributed an article called "Girls and Boys as Readers and Writers". http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/orbit/struggling_readers_sample.html This article supports much of what we've discussed thus far about gender differences and reading/writing; it also brings to light a few new thoughts. Barrs considers the fact that because girls are usually more proficient readers, their experience with words allows them to feel more free to write, and that boys and girls gain much of their gender identity from what they read. This little tidbit I thought could be useful in choosing texts for our classrooms. If we could find poems, short stories etc that show boys as writers or boys who are comfortable with expressing themselves, or even boys who struggle with being a student, writing or self expression, perhaps the boys in our classrooms could identify with this.
"To understand the world and make a difference to it we need to attend to reality, not to statistical abstractions, to real individual cases and their peculiarities, not to national averages. This is where teachers have to start" (Barrs). I've read Huot and Lynne, and I hear what they are saying about theory and such, but I'm just not getting the point. To me, teaching is a task that requires individualization. How on earth could one theory encompass the whole lot? Lynne wrote on page 83, "...he (Huot) discusses: writing assessment should be "site-based," "locally controlled," ..." - if so, how can he suggest one or two theories could define THE best way to teaching or THE best way to write (or teach writing)? On page 75 Lynne wrote, "We want to be fair to students from diverse backgrounds that are still sensitive to our course and program objectives." What does she mean, "still sensitive"? Her expectation is that students will just get over being who they are and eventually transform into 'the norm'? Not only are boys and girls different, each of our students are different in their needs, goals and ablities. We should strive to meet each need not strive to make them fit a mold.
"To understand the world and make a difference to it we need to attend to reality, not to statistical abstractions, to real individual cases and their peculiarities, not to national averages. This is where teachers have to start" (Barrs). I've read Huot and Lynne, and I hear what they are saying about theory and such, but I'm just not getting the point. To me, teaching is a task that requires individualization. How on earth could one theory encompass the whole lot? Lynne wrote on page 83, "...he (Huot) discusses: writing assessment should be "site-based," "locally controlled," ..." - if so, how can he suggest one or two theories could define THE best way to teaching or THE best way to write (or teach writing)? On page 75 Lynne wrote, "We want to be fair to students from diverse backgrounds that are still sensitive to our course and program objectives." What does she mean, "still sensitive"? Her expectation is that students will just get over being who they are and eventually transform into 'the norm'? Not only are boys and girls different, each of our students are different in their needs, goals and ablities. We should strive to meet each need not strive to make them fit a mold.
posted by Kerstin at 6:41 PM
2 Comments:
I think you really bring out a marvelous point. Our students are not statistics and lab rats. They are human beings with diverse personalities, backgrounds, and experiences. We need to, as teachers, find ways to reach our students through individualization. Yes, that will take more time, but the rewards would just be undeniably fantastic! We need to find texts to which boys can relate, girls can relate, and people of various ethnic backgrounds can relate. The literary canon that we use has remained so solidly entrenched in the past. Yes, they are great works of literature, and yes our students do need to be familiar with them, but they also need to read things that are familiar to them NOW. I think that if we can begin to do that as instructors, we can reach our students and we will feel that we are truly accomplishing something that is meaningful and valuable not only to the gifted few, but to all.
To me, being a good writer, requires first that one becomes a reader, so we definitely need to focus on what we have our students read, and whether or not we develop writing prompts that will appeal to them despite gender differences or any other differences.
This does bring up an interesting point. It would be good to see if students were forced to read Sports Illustrated instead of novels, where the boys' writing would go.
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