Snowed in too...but on the southside of the county, I am going to post with my own thoughts on this weeks readings. But before I start, I agree with Lisa on tailoring assignments to fit student's needs and interests. Being that I have yet to teach in a classroom, I would love some more examples of ways that you may do this.

I loved the "Lord of the Flies" project in Bruemmer's article. As a mother of boys, I could definitely see my sons picking some of the non-traditional projects like building a model of the island, creating a slide show, or researching forms of government. A former teacher of mine at McCutcheon, let me observe last year in her class and the students were reading "Lord of The Flies" and researching government. They had to pick to defend Roger or prosecute him. Then they presented their cases to a younger class of students (who had yet to read the book) and they served as the jury. The students seemed to really get into it.

While male students would identify with these projects, I am sure there are even some female students who may choose these non-traditional approaches, as well. After all, as teachers, we have, both male and female students that have different learning styles for instance the hands on, or spatial styles discussed in the article. I think restricting English projects to simply essays (as we did when I was in high school) is stifling creativity level from all students (boy or girl.) In my opinion, these "brain-based methods" as Bruemmer defines must better prepare students for college. They are using different learning styles to create an end project that promotes critical thinking skills.

In "Not just boring stories..." by Taylor, I could identify with the character Gabe, from the perspective of my older son's personality. Jayden is an excellent student, he has always loved for me to read to him and still does, however he doesn't enjoy reading himself. He is in a high reading group, and has an "A" in reading, but even at this early age he can't identify with the characters or see the symbolism. I think he too, is very literal. He like Gabe, when forced to read for his reading grade, picks magazines, sports articles, factual books about animals and the Guinness World Records books. While I thought Taylor had valid points on "implementing innovative teaching approaches to address our boys' specific needs as students," I am not sure that she provided great examples for how to do this? She could have expanded more in terms of ideas and projects as we saw in Bruemmer's article. I do like Taylor's idea of a boy book club and a girl book club. I think this could be useful for free reading assignments, where the books are by choice. Much in the way that Cavazos-Kottke used "self selected reading" in his classroom. I like the idea of incorporating this, however I don't think an entire class can be based on this. I believe that a teacher still needs to couple this with some books that are read by the entire class for discussion etc. Do any of you use "self selected reading" or reading book clubs or book groups, where students read different books and how does this work in your classes? Finally, I liked many of the ideas to entice reading in "Addressing the Gender Gap in boys' reading" like a book hunt through the library, a type of student email discussion or blog, rewards for books read (the karate belt idea(not sure about this one) but something like it or the pizza party idea.) I really enjoy articles like these that give practical examples from teachers that one can really utilize in the classroom. I am becoming so intrigued by this boys and reading idea, both as a teacher and a mother, I may just snag it for the project.

I plan to blog later on my book for this week, as I am not quite finished. I decided to revisit "Huck Finn" as it has been years since I read it and it is so widely taught. However, it is not really a quick read. Anyhow, I am sure most of you have read it at least once and are familiar with the plot. More on that later...

However, I did read "Holes," as my book for the gender week and I agreed with the author from "Rough Flight," in the ways that the character, Stanley, climbs to man-hood by taking action and gaining strength throughout the story. I think he does move from a feminized boy, he learns to fulfill his duty at the camp, he becomes more aggressive and independent. It is a story of survival and as I discussed in a prior blog the book shows much aggression from boys with physical fighting and abusive discipline from the adults. However, while I agree that these books are about boys and do show that "masculinity and manhood are traditionally defined by one's toughness, individuality, strength and emotional reserve," I disagree with reading such books as only "male." Why do we have to read these books as be this way and be "male" or don't be this way and be "female." Such characteristics as strong, reliable, successful, and in control can be female traits, as well? Can't both girl and boy students read these traditional male books and with a good teacher learn to equate it to themselves?

Staci