The statistics are consistent: Young male readers lag behind their female counterparts in literacy skills. This article looks at the social, psychological, and developmental reasons why, and suggests solutions — including the need for more men to become role models for reading.
It's a chilly, rainy day with a wind that rattles the windows. The reader settles deeper into the cushions of the sofa, smiling with satisfaction. What a perfect day to read. "I really can't wait to tell my friend about this book," the reader thinks.
Now the question is, as you imagine the above scenario, what sex is the reader? Is it almost automatic to envision a female? In today's culture, is the image of an enthusiastic reader often a feminine one? Certainly there are many committed male readers, but where are they in the popular culture? And, perhaps more important, what images exist that encourage young boys to read?
The statistics are consistent: Young male readers lag behind their female counterparts. According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in 2001, fourth-grade girls in all of the 30-plus participating countries scored higher in reading literacy than fourth-grade boys by a statistically significant amount. Similar findings show up in the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, as well as in studies in New Zealand, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Searching for "why"
Why does this disparity exist? Theories abound. According to Michael W. Smith and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm in Reading Don't Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men (Heinemann, 2002), research on gender and literacy provides some interesting insights:
- Boys take longer to learn to read than girls do
- Boys read less than girls read
- Girls tend to comprehend narrative texts and most expository texts significantly better than boys do
- Boys value reading as an activity less than girls do
According to a national survey conducted by the Young Adult Library Services Association in 2001, boys of an average age of 14 listed their top obstacles to reading:
- boring/no fun 39.3%
- no time/too busy 29.8%
- like other activities better 11.1%
- can't get into the stories 7.7%
- I'm not good at it 4.3%
Jon Scieszka, author of children's books such as The Stinky Cheese Man and the Time Warp Trio series, believes that boys are slower to develop than girls biologically and therefore often have early struggles with reading and writing skills. On his Guys Read website, he also says that the male way of learning, which tends to be action oriented and competitive, works against boys in many classrooms.
Serious subject, sensible solutions
The issue is certainly a serious one, and the solutions must come from a multitude of sources: parents, teachers, librarians, and communities. Michael Irwin, a Massey University, New Zealand, professor, claims that "girls talk more than boys, speaking 30% more words over a day than boys. And they talk more from an early age — to toys and dolls and playing school — so it's natural they are more adept with language."
In this Massey Magazine, Issue 14 article, which appears on the Massey University website, Irwin suggests strategies to help boys read better: clear, structured instruction; short bursts of intense work; specific goals; praise; hands-on learning; and use of humor.
Irwin notes that some New Zealand schools have even experimented with splitting classes into single-sex groups for language subjects and have found some success in this. "Boys are very conscious of what their peers think of them," Irwin says. "Their fear of failure curbs their classroom participation. They don't answer questions because they don't want to risk being wrong, and having their peers laugh. And after puberty there are the hormones to deal with, too. They start to worry about what the girls will think of them."
An area that seems to be critical to stimulating reading success among young male readers is the choice of materials. According to Smith and Wilhelm in Reading Don't Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men, boys differ from girls in the choices they make of reading material:
- Boys are more inclined to read informational texts, magazines, and newspaper articles
- Boys are more inclined to read graphic novels and comic books
- Boys tend to resist reading stories about girls, whereas girls do not tend to resist reading stories about boys
- Boys like to read about hobbies, sports, and things they might do or be interested in doing
- Boys like to collect things and tend to like to collect series of books
- Boys read less fiction than girls
- Boys tend to enjoy escapism and humor, and some boys are passionate about science fiction or fantasy
On his Guys Read website, Jon Scieszka concurs with this research, saying that adults need to "let boys know that nonfiction reading is reading. Magazines, newspapers, websites, biographies, science books, comic books, graphic novels are all reading material."
According to Wendy Schwartz in the ERIC Digest entry Helping Underachieving Boys Read Well and Often, the male perspective needs to be considered in the selection of reading material. "Reading choices made for boys frequently do not reflect their preferences, since girls are clearer and more vocal about what books they want, elementary school teachers are predominantly women, and mothers rather than fathers select reading materials for their children," Schwartz says.
"Further, boys, like all children, want to see characters like themselves sometimes," Schwartz adds. "Therefore, materials should feature people of different ethnicities, races, and backgrounds who live in a variety of types of homes and communities."
According to Schwartz, the boy who reads the sports page or instruction manual needs to be applauded. "The reading that boys do should not be dismissed as inconsequential even though it often does not include the novels and other traditional materials usually read by girls," Schwartz says. "The genres preferred by boys can be equally helpful in their development of reading, thinking, and problem- solving skills, and should be considered key resources in their education."
Teachers who allow boys to see the rich variety of forms that the written word can take may help to create more enthusiastic readers. Librarians also can play a key role in providing male-enticing reading materials.
According to Patrick Jones and Dawn Cartwright Fiorelli in "Overcoming the Obstacle Course: Teenage Boys and Reading," an article in the February 2003 issue of Teacher Librarian magazine, there are immediate steps that librarians can take to improve attitudes toward reading among boys. These include:
- planning programs aimed just at boys
- doing book talks in the classroom that include a lot of nonfiction
- buying American Library Association Read posters that feature males
- encouraging coaches of boys' sports teams to participate in a Guys Read program such as having athletes read to younger children
- increasing the number of periodicals, magazines, comic books, and newspapers in the library
- actively recruiting boys to work in the library
- surveying boys about their reading
- buying books that boys recommend
- putting books where the boys are: next to the computers, copy machines, and study tables
Allowing boys to find reflections of who they are and what they like in a library may encourage a return visit.
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