BOYS AND GIRLS TALK ABOUT READING

Boys and girls talk about Reading
By: Robin H.Boltz

Who is Robin H.Boltz?
He is a Library media specialist at south Granville high school, Creedmoor, North Carolina; and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

One of the most effective and useful article I have read is that one as it address a critical problem we face with the students; it is reading. Despite the findings we found on boys only and talk about the reading problems among the male audience but that article takes into consideration in surveys to have samples from both makes and females and take other educators in opinions

The article starts with big confirm and conclusion that school boys scores are lower than girls at every level on the standardized test of reading comprehension. When I read the whole article I found that conclusion is 100% right through the surveys and interviews done and the information gathered in many countries like Australia, England and the U.S.A as well. Students in all these countries took the standardized test and boys proved failure in reading or got lower scores. The research found out girls read much more than boys that is; the more one reads the more proficient and fluent one is.

The writer asked “why boys perform less well than girls” I found convinced answers through the statements he mentioned and interviews he made like ; reading at schools does not satisfy the boys interest. Suddenly he put the blame on schools saying “we are failing to make readers of our sons” other reasons were mentioned in the article like the physiological nature of girls make them tend to read more and girls can share interests, emotions and feelings while boys do not do that. That is why we have to understand the nature of each gender and see the suitable reading for each gender moreover, we see reading is given as a forced homework for students who do not like that after a long day at school. From real life; I have a daughter and a son and in general the girl likes reading while the boy finds it as a punishment after school despite he is smart and advanced in math.

I continued to read this wonderful article as it deals from the problem in all sides; the reasons, the proofs, the solutions. From the considerations that the writer mentioned is to make boys read more at school, helping students to choose the books from the library and remedy courses at school for reading problems.
I like the method the writer used in make surveys and interviews as he used open ended questions to give space for the interviewees to tell their ideas and opinions in details. The writer is a very proficient one in handling his research from all sides as he provided the solutions from other researchers. From them the former teacher Jon Scieszka (2003) who said “Reading research shows that young people need high-quality teachers, a wide variety of books and a range of reading activities. They need to hear books read aloud. They need to spend time talking about books. But in order for any of these efforts to be successful, kids need to want to read (2003, 17–18).
Other opinions were taken in considerations to find an outlet of how to make boys read by selecting some texts and stories that are relevant and easily connected to the lives of students; I mean reading should relate to real life situations and more practical for boys.

REFERENCES:

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/slmrcontents/volume10/what_we_want.cfm#review#review

Boys and books, by Jane McFann. (2004, August). Reading Today, 22(1), 20–21/http://www.reading.org/publications/reading_today/samples/RTY-0408-boys.html