Engaging Boys in Active Literacy Evidence and Practice

Too many boys do not like to read, are choosing not to read, and are suffering academically as a result. All concerned adults need to redouble their efforts to ensure that boys who bring the greatest challenges to our classrooms and schools receive responsive literacy texts and practices to increase their chances for academic, personal, and occupational success. This book is more than a compendium of techniques, it also provides an analysis of the research literature on central issues and related aspects of literacy and learning for boys. The author identifies issues that impinge on boys' literacy development and explores what the research literature has to say about these issues. The descriptions of how teachers have used engaging texts and practices to help boys overcome low literacy engagement and skill in order to stay on course as readers and writers are highly informative and practical as models of best practice.

Introduction; 1. Boys' reading and learning: identifying the issues; 2. Boys and literacy: a closer look; 3. Boys' masculinities and identities: evidence and practice; 4. Socio-economics and boys: evidence and practice; 5. Immigrant and new language learner boys: evidence and practice; 6. Literacy engagement and boys: evidence and practice; 7. Boys and new literacies: evidence and practice; 8. Boys and writing: evidence and practice.

William G. Brozo is Professor of Literacy in the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University, Virginia. On the Learning Metrics Task Force, he helped establish global learning and assessment standards and he contributes to iLit, a digital program for struggling adolescent readers.