School can be an exciting or an incredibly boring experience. Often if has to deal with the reading material for the different subjects. Too often the reading material is outdated and does not relate to the majority of boys.
Boys are not interested in reading two pages on the beautiful location of the story. Boys like to get into the deep of things instantly and will often close the book before the plot begins. It is important to introduce boys to different material than girls because often in elementary and middle school they have vast differences in their reading preferences.
Boys need to be encouraged to read by grabbing their attention not by forcing them to read. Forcing boys to read will not make them lifelong readers rather it will create resistance readers.
Teaching Reading
DEAR Time: Drop Everything and Read is a common program used in different school communities. Each day at the same time all students read silently in the classroom for 15-20 minutes. The purpose of the time is to get students excited about reading. The only drawback of this program is too often boys are not given a broad enough range of reading material. Boys will spend countless time at the classroom library searching for a book that intrigues them.
Boys Book Clubs: Start a male only book club at lunch time or at recess. It is preferable to keep the time limited as boys love being outdoors playing games. Encourage the boys by providing snacks or a pizza party after a set amount of days attending the book club. Some great books in the beginning are sports books to introduce a new game they can enjoy at recess. All students must read the instructions silently and then have a brief discussion before they go outside to participate in the game. As the leader of the club, you can change the books on the boys preferences.
Male Reading Role Models: Often boys see countless women reading but only a handful of men. It is important for boys to see men and other boys get exciting about reading. Create a monthly or weekly club for just dads and sons to read together. It is nice to see sports legends and actors encouraging reading in the media.
Book Environments: Bring boys to book environments such as Bookstores and the Library. Dad or mom can have a special night out at Chapters perusing the books and enjoy a nice beverage as well. It is important for boys to see the multitude of reading material available to them.
Non Fiction: Studies have shown that boys prefer to read non fiction material. Have an assortment of non fiction books in the classroom and school library. Boys love to learn about Greek legends and how to build a Porsche. As well, they are intrigued by fact books such as the Guinness Book or World Records or the Farmers Almanac.
Magazines: Often teachers believe magazines is not real reading but it is. Encourage parents in the school community to donate a multitude of magazines such as sports, cars, and science and technology.
Fiction: Boys love to escape into crazy world where rules are few and gross and disgusting things are frequent. Encourage classic readings but also have more modern fiction such as the Tales of Jack Sparrow or Butt Wars in the classroom library. Boys are usually reading for fun not to learn a lesson.
Comic Books: Graphic novels and the 10 page comic books are great reading material for boys. It gets the boys hooked into reading the next book and the next one as they are all linked. For example, Bones is a series of graphic novels and if you have not read the first one you are lost. Therefore a boy is more willing to read the first novel and continue reading to the last novel.
Short Stories: Boys enjoy reading short books, they like to start and finish at once. Once they are hooked on reading you can introduce longer stories. A great short story book for boys is 'And then it Happened'. These short stories are geared for boys and their thirst for adventure, fun and gross and disgusting things.
Song Lyrics: Reading music lyrics is reading. Boys in the upper grades lose their interest in chapter books as they fixate on music. Encourage the boys to read song lyrics and to write about the song. They can write how the song influences them or the reason the lyrics were made. Boys can also be encouraged to write song lyrics to describe the digestive system.
Boys do get excited about reading they just need the right reading material.
