UNORef10

Bringing the power of primary sources into the classroom

According to Chapman (1997), boys are about eight times more likely than girls to call out answers and not be rebuked by the teacher, creating a classroom dominated by the more aggressive style of males.

Girls read more than boys, but they choose narrative fiction to the neglect of other genres. Simpson (1996) argues that boys' nonfiction reading is more "congruent with the acquisition of social power and financial success" since secondary school and the workplace demand the reading of expository and information texts and the writing of reports, procedures, explanations and arguments.

Application to curriculum design  Draw from nonfiction genres (e.g., newspapers, web pages and nonfiction texts) for reading aloud and booktalks.  Encourage resistant readings of literature in Literary Club and Socratic Seminar texts.  Find ways to redesign tradition research essays so that students write debate speeches, briefings and persuasive letters.  For example, collaborate with a math teacher to turn a biography report about a mathematician into an investigation in which students research job opportunities in math or science, then write a résumé (e.g., Job Search: Mathematician).  Students benefit from enriched understanding of applied math or science career opportunities while they are reading and writing in workplace genres.