Reading, Writing, and Gender

Like an increasing number of educators, you recognize that girls and boys approach reading and writing differently, and that boys are lagging behind girls in many assessments of literacy learning. This book does more than describe and explain these differences. It builds on the authors' state of the art research to offer instructional strategies and classroom activities to help both girls and boys develop as readers and writers. This book is for classroom teachers in grades 3 - 8 as well as for reading specialists, instructional leaders and other educators. It provides - detailed descriptions of instructional activities, accompanied by reproducible tools and materials - illustrative examples of student work - concise summaries of state-of-the-art research - ideas for action research projects.The strategies and activities in this book have all been classroom tested with diverse student populations.

Part 1 Boys and girls as readers and writers: what we know; Part 2 Boys and girls as readers: what we can do; Chapter 1 On the Shelf: Inventorying By the Teacher; Chapter 2 Off The Shelf: Inventorying By and With Students; Chapter 3 A Matter of Choice/Choice Matters to Readers; Chapter 4 Reading Across Purposes; Chapter 5 Validating the Negative; Chapter 6 Becoming mapmakers of a new world: rethinking story and character maps; Chapter 7 Between the two of us—author and authority: encouraging interpretive reading; Chapter 8 Exploring Multiple Perspectives; Chapter 9 Understanding the Functions of Text Features; Chapter 10 Linking Reading In the Content Areas to Personal and Prior Knowledge; Part 3 Boys and girls as writers: what we can do; Chapter 11 Enhancing Expressive Writing; Chapter 12 Getting to the point versus guiding readers toward the point when writing to inform; Chapter 13 Assertion and negotiation: helping students “make a case” when writing to persuade; Chapter 14 Get the picture: development at the planning stage of writing; Chapter 15 A Matter of Choice/ Choice Matters to Writers; Chapter 16 Author’s craft and the making of meaning: using text features in writing; Chapter 17 Selling/Dispelling Gender Stereotypes; Chapter 18 Writing as an Aggressive/Transgressive Act; Chapter 19 Retelling Counts; Chapter 20 Postscript: beyond the page and beyond these pages;

Professional Practice & Development