Thanks to all the mums and dads who filled in our survey about their son's experience of learning to read. It was fantastic to receive 49 completed surveys. And boy did our parents have a lot to say about school readers and learning to read in the early years. Thanks so much — your insights are invaluable.
Also, congratulations to Lesley Richards who won the cool pack of books for her son William (personally selected by Oscar due to their coolness!)
The feedback showed that many parents and their sons have found learning to read very challenging and frustrating. However, there were a few families who have had very positive experiences of learning to read in the early years.
So now we will let the numbers, and the parents, speak for themselves…
The numbers
This is what you told us:
1. 42% of boys LOVE books, but only 8% LOVE most school readers.
2. 46% of parents described most school readers as DULL and 25% described them as YAWNINGLY-BORING.
3. 41% of boys OFTEN don’t want to read their school reader for homework.
4. 20% of parents said their son had been turned off reading because he doesn’t like school readers.
5. 39% of parents said their son’s experience of learning to read in the early years was FRUSTRATING and 39% said it was CHALLENGING.
6. 84% of parents said they would like school readers to be DIFFERENT.
The comments
“Readers should be relevant to Australia, with fun and exciting stories, and interesting/engaging topics for boys. They need good pictures and characters but still supportive of a very high quality reading program.”
“Some learners like to read information books. There needs to be more of these so there is choice. Children also do not want to read every night, sometimes they are tired and have done enough work for the day!”
“We have not actually bothered with school readers for the past 1-2 years. He gets his own books from the library and would easily read for 1/2hr or more by himself so we don't listen to him read except for sometimes reading the kids bedtime books.”
“An actual story would be nice.”
“It would be great if schools could purchase updated reading materials every couple of years.”
“Because his reader is on a low level it is difficult to get interesting books that don’t sound baby like.”
“This son was happy with school readers as he liked narratives more than non fiction, but my other son prefers non fiction so he didn’t like the readers.”
“Our challenge is a little more complicated. His reading level is WELL below his age and comprehension level and therefore what he is able to read he finds VERY boring. He has never liked reading through and the school readers did nothing to assist in encouraging him to read. He has always found them boring and I would say irrelevant.”
“My son finds school readers interesting because he has nothing to compare it to. When he brings home a reader with actual information or a funny story line, the difference in his enthusiasm is amazing. This happens rarely. I also noticed there was nothing interesting in the content at all until about Level 8.”
“I had a child who loathed reading very, very tedious Biff and Kipper books which have been torturing English children for centuries. An enlightened teacher changed his books and changed his outlook.”
The final word
Thank you for all the wonderful suggestions about topics and ideas to improve school readers. I’ve always believed that if you don’t like something, do something about it, which is how this idea to make readers appealing to boys came about.
It’s a mission of mine to hook all young boys into reading. I want young boys to LOVE reading as much as they love riding their bike, fishing or kicking a ball. I’m sure if we keep listening to what parents, boys and teachers have to say that we can help our boys on the magical journey of learning to read — and to LOVE it!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Compelling research: Boys, Books, and Blogs
There’s a stack of research to suggest boys fall steadily behind girls in school—just have a dig around the ‘net and you’ll be bombarded (unfortunately) with information to support this finding.
Recently I came across some particularly compelling research* which succinctly sums up where our boys are at with their reading. Here’s part of that research:
According to Smith and Wilhelm (2002), a comparison of boys and girls highlighted several key factors:
- Boys take longer learning to read than girls.
- Boys read less frequently than girls.
- Boys have difficulty comprehending narrative and expository texts.
- Boys place a lower value on reading as an activity.
- When boys do read, their choices are much different than those selected by girls.
- Boys prefer to act out a scene or to make something as a response to their reading rather than talking about it.
Their action-oriented and competitive style of learning often works against boys in traditional classrooms. Teachers expect children to read quietly and librarians often ask patrons to keep noise to a minimum because others are trying to read.
In his book, Guys Write for Guys Read (2005), Jon Scieszka provides a collection of essays and short stories written by male authors especially for males. They include a plethora of “boy” topics, ranging from the joys of public flatulence to eating toenails. Scieszka attempts to explain what it is like to think and act like a male, while giving permission to his audience to explore their own maleness.
Scieszka also has tackled the issue of engaging boy readers by creating a website called Guys Read (www.guysread.com). It is an online literacy program that connects boys with the books they would like to read. The site contains a section titled Guys Read Voters, where visitors can recommend books.
Scieszka’s belief is that, with the appropriate incentive and encouragement, boys will become better readers, which will result in them becoming better students and—ultimately—better guys.
*Herbert, Whittingham, Huffman and Ward (2008) Boys, Books, and Blogs
Recently I came across some particularly compelling research* which succinctly sums up where our boys are at with their reading. Here’s part of that research:
According to Smith and Wilhelm (2002), a comparison of boys and girls highlighted several key factors:
- Boys take longer learning to read than girls.
- Boys read less frequently than girls.
- Boys have difficulty comprehending narrative and expository texts.
- Boys place a lower value on reading as an activity.
- When boys do read, their choices are much different than those selected by girls.
- Boys prefer to act out a scene or to make something as a response to their reading rather than talking about it.
Their action-oriented and competitive style of learning often works against boys in traditional classrooms. Teachers expect children to read quietly and librarians often ask patrons to keep noise to a minimum because others are trying to read.
In his book, Guys Write for Guys Read (2005), Jon Scieszka provides a collection of essays and short stories written by male authors especially for males. They include a plethora of “boy” topics, ranging from the joys of public flatulence to eating toenails. Scieszka attempts to explain what it is like to think and act like a male, while giving permission to his audience to explore their own maleness.
Scieszka also has tackled the issue of engaging boy readers by creating a website called Guys Read (www.guysread.com). It is an online literacy program that connects boys with the books they would like to read. The site contains a section titled Guys Read Voters, where visitors can recommend books.
Scieszka’s belief is that, with the appropriate incentive and encouragement, boys will become better readers, which will result in them becoming better students and—ultimately—better guys.
*Herbert, Whittingham, Huffman and Ward (2008) Boys, Books, and Blogs
Friday, April 3, 2009
Five tips to keep young boys interested in reading
As parents we all have varying experiences of how our boys take to the challenge of learning to read. Some boys revel in the challenge, while others show little interest in learning the mechanics of reading—and I’ve had conversations with many mums who say they have a child in both camps.
Whether our boys are reluctant readers or rearing to go (or somewhere in between) we’d all agree that we want to be able to help our kids on their reading journey. Learning to read is such an important milestone in every child’s life and helping that process along is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children (along with our unconditional love!)
So if your young boy is riding the reading roller-coaster here’s my top five tips to keep him on the right track:
1. Let him read anything (well, nearly anything) he is interested in
There’s no rule to say learning to read should only involve books. In fact, the wider the variety of texts boys are exposed to the better. It’s all about keeping their interest from the beginning. So let them read what they are interested in.
Oscar is currently into reading road signs, particularly speed limit signs (which is very helpful for me when he alerts me to the fact that I’m doing 90km in an 80km zone).
Here are some other things your boys might be into reading:
Comics
Cereal boxes
Junk mail (Oscar’s learning a lot about real estate agents in our local area)
Instructions on toys
Shopping lists
Recipes (chocolate cake ones are the best!)
Billboards
Cartoons in the newspaper
Whatever takes his fancy, let him go for it.
2. Read together as much as you can
I hear you cry, “But there’s so much to do in a day!” I agree. There is a lot to pack into a day, but like anything, if you want to become good at something you have to practise it. It’s obvious, but true. It comes down to how much value we place on learning to read. If you think it’s pretty important, then it makes sense to spend adequate time reading with your son to help him become good at it.
Making a regular time each day for reading is helpful. Ours is always at bedtime. It’s quiet and relaxing and you never forget because your kids always go to bed (eventually!) Even 20 minutes each night adds up to ten hours a month—and that’s not including all of the other time your child spends reading at school and incidentally while taking in the written text that surrounds him in his daily environment.
3. Mix it up with some fun on-line learning
Most boys can’t wait to get their hands on a keyboard to explore all the amazing things on the Internet. While they may be mostly interested in adventure games there’s no reason they can’t learn some helpful things along the way.
There must be thousands of reading-related websites and, as you would expect, some are better than others. To find the good ones ask your son’s teacher and other parents what they use.
Here are three of our favourites:
http://www.starfall.com/ is a great reading website starting with basic alphabet sounds through to higher reading levels.
http://www.readingeggs.com/ is an Australian website with progressive interactive reading lessons combined with reading books and activity books.
http://www.matheletics.com.au/ is a well-known website focussing on maths from K-12, but there’s lots of opportunities for reading practise in the maths activities.
4. Make reading light and fun
A few mums have secretly admitted to me that they have lost their patience with their son while reading together. If we were all honest, we’d admit to doing it occasionally too. Why is it that our child can see a word 100 times and still not get it?!
I can’t stress enough—don’t get stressed when reading. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Keep encouraging your son to have a go and keep reminding him (and yourself) that he will be a great reader one day.
A recent example of taking the heat out of a potentially frustrating situation was when Oscar kept getting stuck on the word baby in his school reader. The word was at the end of every sentence in the book and yet, he still had a mental block each time he came to it. When I read the word baby to him I said it in a crying, whiney voice (as a baby might sound) baaaay-beeeee! He cracked up laughing and then read the whole book without getting it wrong once!
5. Show your son how much you value reading and books
We all know the old proverb; Monkey see, monkey do. Our kids are pretty perceptive little creatures and if they see us show a love of reading and an appreciation of books, then they are more likely to follow suit.
Do your kids see you reading regularly (and it really doesn’t matter if it’s the newspaper on the toilet—it’s still reading)? Do you have a good selection of books in your house, not only for your kids but for you as well? Do you frequent bookshops even just to browse? Do you visit your local library with your kids and borrow for the whole family? Do you treat books respectfully and look after them? Do you read a variety of materials such as novels, magazines, newspapers, recipes, letters? Our actions speak volumes to our children.
As I lay with Oscar the other night reading one of Andy Griffiths’s fantastic chapter books Oscar became upset when I bent the front cover back to hold the book in one hand. “Don’t do that, you’ll break the pages,” he said most indignantly. I smiled contentedly thinking what a wonderful display of how much he values his books.
I’d love to hear some of your reading tips too. Please post them here for everyone to see. And keep on reading…!
Whether our boys are reluctant readers or rearing to go (or somewhere in between) we’d all agree that we want to be able to help our kids on their reading journey. Learning to read is such an important milestone in every child’s life and helping that process along is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children (along with our unconditional love!)
So if your young boy is riding the reading roller-coaster here’s my top five tips to keep him on the right track:
1. Let him read anything (well, nearly anything) he is interested in
There’s no rule to say learning to read should only involve books. In fact, the wider the variety of texts boys are exposed to the better. It’s all about keeping their interest from the beginning. So let them read what they are interested in.
Oscar is currently into reading road signs, particularly speed limit signs (which is very helpful for me when he alerts me to the fact that I’m doing 90km in an 80km zone).
Here are some other things your boys might be into reading:
Comics
Cereal boxes
Junk mail (Oscar’s learning a lot about real estate agents in our local area)
Instructions on toys
Shopping lists
Recipes (chocolate cake ones are the best!)
Billboards
Cartoons in the newspaper
Whatever takes his fancy, let him go for it.
2. Read together as much as you can
I hear you cry, “But there’s so much to do in a day!” I agree. There is a lot to pack into a day, but like anything, if you want to become good at something you have to practise it. It’s obvious, but true. It comes down to how much value we place on learning to read. If you think it’s pretty important, then it makes sense to spend adequate time reading with your son to help him become good at it.
Making a regular time each day for reading is helpful. Ours is always at bedtime. It’s quiet and relaxing and you never forget because your kids always go to bed (eventually!) Even 20 minutes each night adds up to ten hours a month—and that’s not including all of the other time your child spends reading at school and incidentally while taking in the written text that surrounds him in his daily environment.
3. Mix it up with some fun on-line learning
Most boys can’t wait to get their hands on a keyboard to explore all the amazing things on the Internet. While they may be mostly interested in adventure games there’s no reason they can’t learn some helpful things along the way.
There must be thousands of reading-related websites and, as you would expect, some are better than others. To find the good ones ask your son’s teacher and other parents what they use.
Here are three of our favourites:
http://www.starfall.com/ is a great reading website starting with basic alphabet sounds through to higher reading levels.
http://www.readingeggs.com/ is an Australian website with progressive interactive reading lessons combined with reading books and activity books.
http://www.matheletics.com.au/ is a well-known website focussing on maths from K-12, but there’s lots of opportunities for reading practise in the maths activities.
4. Make reading light and fun
A few mums have secretly admitted to me that they have lost their patience with their son while reading together. If we were all honest, we’d admit to doing it occasionally too. Why is it that our child can see a word 100 times and still not get it?!
I can’t stress enough—don’t get stressed when reading. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Keep encouraging your son to have a go and keep reminding him (and yourself) that he will be a great reader one day.
A recent example of taking the heat out of a potentially frustrating situation was when Oscar kept getting stuck on the word baby in his school reader. The word was at the end of every sentence in the book and yet, he still had a mental block each time he came to it. When I read the word baby to him I said it in a crying, whiney voice (as a baby might sound) baaaay-beeeee! He cracked up laughing and then read the whole book without getting it wrong once!
5. Show your son how much you value reading and books
We all know the old proverb; Monkey see, monkey do. Our kids are pretty perceptive little creatures and if they see us show a love of reading and an appreciation of books, then they are more likely to follow suit.
Do your kids see you reading regularly (and it really doesn’t matter if it’s the newspaper on the toilet—it’s still reading)? Do you have a good selection of books in your house, not only for your kids but for you as well? Do you frequent bookshops even just to browse? Do you visit your local library with your kids and borrow for the whole family? Do you treat books respectfully and look after them? Do you read a variety of materials such as novels, magazines, newspapers, recipes, letters? Our actions speak volumes to our children.
As I lay with Oscar the other night reading one of Andy Griffiths’s fantastic chapter books Oscar became upset when I bent the front cover back to hold the book in one hand. “Don’t do that, you’ll break the pages,” he said most indignantly. I smiled contentedly thinking what a wonderful display of how much he values his books.
I’d love to hear some of your reading tips too. Please post them here for everyone to see. And keep on reading…!
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