Exactly

Exactly right: by pushing literacy onto younger kids, we are trying to teach boys to read before most of them are ready. By the time they are ready, the class has moved on from phonics and it is too late for the boys. A rigorous spelling curriculum might help, since it can function as a second bite at the phonics apple, without tarring half the boys with a "remedial" label.

Column: Plastic women vs. cardboard men

Boy troubles are international (repost)

(Reposted from February 1, 2010)

One point that Richard Whitmire over on "Why Boys Fail" (which recently moved to Education Week's website) always brings up, is that the "boy troubles" are actually an international phenomenon. Other countries have actually tried to address the problem, but the US ignores it.

Today, Phyllis Chesler posted four photographs from Cairo University, showing the graduating classes for 1959, 1978, 1995, and 2004. She posted them to show that in the 50's not one woman was wearing a hijab, in the 1978 photo one or two women are, but by the 2004 photo, all but one or two are.

I looked at something else in the pictures: the ratio of men to women. Here are the photos, with circles around the male and female heads (Click on photos to enlarge):

1959--> Men=68 (65%), Women: 36 (35%):


1978--> Men=39 (34%), Women: 74 (66%):


1995--> Men: 36 (35%), Women: 81 (78%):


2004--> Men: 19 (17%), Women: 91 (83%):


Most of the shift seemed to be over by 1978, with women reversing their percentage in 20 years. Since then, they've held on and increased their advantage: up to 83% in 2004.

Update: Got a link to this from Richard Whitmire. Thanks!

Hand in hand

In the last few years, I've done a lot of tutoring of our 5-8 year old boy. We started with "Hooked on Phonics" and built from there. Last year, we tackled his weak spelling through the use of the "All About Spelling" curriculum. I also do a lot of reading with him (he hates to read alone--it's a very social thing for him.)

I've figured out one thing: Learning how to spell is crucial to reading!

The opposite is also, obviously, true.

Learning the rules of syllable division, vowel and consonant teams, and all of the rules of spelling has allowed him to sound out words he never could read before. He didn't learn that at school or from any reading/phonics curriculum. He learned it by learning how to spell.

So, these seem to me to be the crucial questions:

1. How much and at what level of detail are kids being taught the rules of spelling these days?
   
   
2. Can structured and rules-based spelling instruction help poor readers to catch up?
   
   
3. Is part of the reason for declining literacy rates (particularly in boys) due to a lack of strong spelling instruction? (Boys have always learned reading later than girls, but traditionally have caught up by 4th and 5th grades. That is no longer true, as early literacy is happening too early for many boys. In previous eras, how much did strong spelling instruction play a role in helping boys catch up in later elementary years?)
   
   
4. Most importantly, can detailed spelling instruction work as a second phonics course for learners who missed the first phonics go 'round in kindergarten and first grade? Putting it another way, is strong spelling instruction a way to help boys and late-blooming girls get the phonics they need, when they need it, without the stigma of remedial instruction, or worse: retention?

There obviously is no quick-fix out of the problems of declining literacy(*,**) But my hunch is that proper spelling instruction is one of the pieces of the puzzle.

(* Especially when middle and upper-income children come to school having heard literally millions more words than children of lower-income families.)

(** And when 25% of high school boys with at least one college-educated parent, can not read a newspaper.)

Boy troubles are international

One point that Richard Whitmire over on "Why Boys Fail" (which recently moved to Education Week's website) always brings up, is that the "boy troubles" are actually an international phenomenon. Other countries have actually tried to address the problem, but the US ignores it.

Today, Phyllis Chesler posted four photographs from Cairo University, showing the graduating classes for 1959, 1978, 1995, and 2004. She posted them to show that in the 50's not one woman was wearing a hijab, in the 1978 photo one or two women are, but by the 2004 photo, all but one or two are.

I looked at something else in the pictures: the ratio of men to women. Here are the photos, with circles around the male and female heads (Click on photos to enlarge):

1959--> Men=68 (65%), Women: 36 (35%):


1978--> Men=39 (34%), Women: 74 (66%):


1995--> Men: 36 (35%), Women: 81 (78%):


2004--> Men: 19 (17%), Women: 91 (83%):


Most of the shift seemed to be over by 1978, with women reversing their percentage in 20 years. Since then, they've held on and increased their advantage: up to 83% in 2004.

Update: Got a link to this from Richard Whitmire. Thanks!

Boy readers. And Percy Jackson

Tech Central Station, which I suppose changed it silly name to the initials TCS a while back (not much of an improvement) reports on boys' reading problems and the fact that they have been scoring substantially below girls on standardized tests for 30 years:

[ TCS ] The good news is that reading scores for 9 and 13-year-olds are the highest ever according to results released this week from the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The bad news is that boys trail girls in reading performance at all age levels. The gap at age 9 is 8 points, at age 13 is 8 points, and at age 17 is 11 points. This is not a new trend—boys have been scoring lower than girls on U.S. Department of Education reading tests for more than 30 years.

The reading gender gap spans every racial and ethnic group, and categorically finds boys underperforming girls regardless of income, disability, or English-speaking ability.

The article talks about one way to change this:

One of the best ways to get boys reading is to offer them reading material that motivates them to want to read. Boys enjoy reading: nonfiction; stories with action and adventure; stories with male protagonists; and a wide variety of reading materials, including books, magazines, newspapers, how-to manuals, Web sites, comic books, and graphic novels.

Many teachers do not offer boy-friendly reading material because they view it as substandard. They believe it's better to require boys to read books that meet high literary standards, even if boys find those books unappealing. The fallacy of this line of reasoning lies in the results:many boys are poor readers.

The consequences of creating future generations of boys who hate to read are far worse than the consequences of succumbing to the natural reading interests of boys. The first priority should be to get boys excited about reading so they will become lifelong readers. Broadening their literary palates comes second.

I've been reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books lately (Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters, Titan's Curse, Battle of the Labyrinth, and yesterday's release of The Last Olympian.) They are very, very boy friendly. It's all about being a hero (literally), being there to fight beside your friends, fighting the good fight, etc.

I actually had a strange reaction to one thing in the books. The stories revolve around a group of "half-bloods", or in mythological terms: demigods. Kids with one normal, mortal parent, and one god parent...as in Olympian gods, like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, and etc. The kids are unabashedly referred to as "heroes" throughout the books. Just being a demigod means that it is their place in life to fight monsters and help their god-parents, making them naturally-born heroes.

But I've lived in a post-modern and liberal world all of my life. My high school, college, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, all of it was on the cultural and political left. I think I've been so ingrained against the idea of anyone ever being an unapologetic "hero" that my mind actually skips a step when I see the kids in the books being referred to that way. It's really a sad commentary, I think, that we can no longer simply accept the heroic without qualifying it and without suspicion.

In the end, Percy Jackson proves himself to be a true hero, and even the greatest hero of all the Greek myths. Nearly every feat of every hero from antiquity was thrown at him, and he survived "against all odds." But it is not only his fighting ability that makes him a hero, but two choices he makes in particular (neither is the one from the Great Prophesy.)

Choice #1: I've always felt one of the most powerful stories in Greek mythology was that of Odysseus and Calypso. If you don't remember: Odysseus washes up on Calypso's island. She's beautiful, she's perfect, the island is perfect and peaceful, he could be immortal on the island with her, no more war, no more odyssying around the Med for 10 years. But it isn't enough. He can't stay because he is human. He must strive and struggle and fight if he is to remain human and to remain Odysseus. So, he leaves her and the perfect life behind. In the words of Tennyson:

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little

In the books Percy is placed exactly in Odysseus's place. He has the same choice to make, and makes the same one. There is a war going on in the outside world, he won't leave his friends to fight it without him, and he certainly won't leave the girl he cares about out there without him.

Choice #2: (Spoiler Alert!!) The gods, in the end offer to grant Percy one wish. Greek Mythology is filled with heroes acting selfishly, and the point is made again and again in the books that heroes are selfish and not to be trusted in the end. Almost every old hero is held up as wanting from Orpheus to Hercules. But again, Percy passes the test. When he is offered anything, he chooses to use his wish to help others...pretty much stunning the gods by doing that. But he's a complete hero, a superior fighter as well as a friend and honorable young man.

One of the kids we carpool with is a 9.75 year old boy, and he has been reading these as well and loves them. I've given copies to my niece's classroom as well. They are really great boy books. Full of heroism and sacrifice and standing firm against the odds.

I highly recommend them to anyone.

Boys and writing

A comment on my last post mentioned that lots of boys seem to claim to have physical pain when they write.

Ralph Fletcher also mentions this phenomenon in his book "Boy Writers" (without adding any suggestions for a solution.)

Our boy has occasionally mentioned his hand was tired, but hasn't done so lately. However, when I watch him write, it becomes clear that he pushes the pencil very hard on the paper. It's hard for him to use a mechanical pencil, for example, because the leads always break.

When I am helping him with homework, I always am telling him to write gently and not to push as hard.

I don't know how many boys who claim hand pain are being overly aggressive with their pencils, but that might account for some of it.

As for our boy, the problem has usually been that he can't think of anything to write. Today, however, he was all excited to get to school so he could finish the book he was working on.

Wait a minute...Reverse that...Thank you.

Because we have a 3rd grade girl, we know, roughly, where our 1st grade boy should be academically. A few months ago, we looked at the school work that he was bringing home and were disappointed.

Much of it was not done. Often what was done was wrong. When things were done wrong, there was no attempt by the teachers to offer instruction or correction.

In short, the work, particularly in writing, was shoddy.

So, my sister asked for a conference. The teacher was able to show her enough other work to satisfy us that he was doing better than the things he brought home led us to believe.

Still, my sister stated her worry that his writing wasn't as good as it should be, and wasn't anywhere near where his sister was at a comparable time.

At that point the teacher said: "Well, he's a boy, and boys aren't as good at writing."

At that point, my sister's jaw just about hit the floor.

Image a teacher saying this: "Well, she's a girl, and girls aren't as good at math."

It would never happen. NEVER. But a first grade teacher with a masters in education spewed the opposite at us.

This is what boys are up against. Expectations that they can't be expected to be as good as girls, a lack of interest in getting them to be as good as girls, and an acceptance of their second class status in the classroom.

No wonder boys are doing so very badly; this stuff starts as soon as they pick up a pencil.

Why "boys being boys" is so damaging

This recession is pummeling undereducated men more than any other group. The unemployment rate for people without a high school diploma stands at about 12%, the rate for people with a college degree is about 4%. When you seasonally adjust the numbers, the no-high school unemployment rate tops 14%

A hugely-disproportionate number of undereducated people are men.

Here's a great post on Carpe Diem with the data.

Bottom Line: Women (men) are getting an increasing (decreasing) share of college degrees, and the gap between jobless rates for college grads vs. workers without a high school degree has been widening for the last year. Those two trends could help explain why: a) 82% of the job losses over the last year have been jobs held by males, and b) the gap between the male jobless rate (8.3%) and female jobless rate (6.7%) widened to 1.6% in January, the largest male-female jobless rate gap in BLS history (back to 1948).

I would add a note to say that illegal immigrants compete against this same undereducated demographic more than any other. So, not only are the uneducated losing out in a complex world, they are also getting hit by having more competition for jobs and lower wages because illegals act as "scabs" undercutting wages of legal workers.

Success!

A year and a half ago, on the last day of my nephew's second year of pre-school, just days after his 5th birthday, I began an intensive effort to get him reading, writing and doing basic math. We started with Hooked on Phonics and soon moved on to easy readers. For numbers I used a dot-to-dot generator to get him counting to 100 (see the links on the left), and moved on to workbooks after that.

The goal was straight-forward: to get him to second grade in the 2009-2010 school year. This was made harder by the fact that the school absolutely refused to give him a year of academic kindergarten--while kids just a week or two older got an intensive program of phonics, whole words, writing, math, and fact-based learning. That is what I had to try to replicate at home. My job was to make sure that when he started the 2008-2009 school year, they could not deny that he was capable of doing 1st grade work, thus leading him to 2nd grade next year.

The enrollment contracts for next year arrived in the mail today.

We did it! He's going to 2nd grade next year.

I'm so proud of him for the work he did, however reluctantly, and for being able to learn from a teacher who didn't know what she was doing half the time. (It was hearing the word "sight words" while at the kids' school that got me on the right track. Sight words were what he needed the most, but I had forgotten all about them.)

I know that another family, who we warned about the school's tendency to flunk 6 year olds, was in shock after a parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago. They didn't take the advice we gave them last year to do work outside of school and to be proactive. They trusted the school to educate their kid. Big mistake. Their child will now turn 19 before heading off to college. Our kid will turn 18 just in time for high school graduation.

Missing men (III)

Reading through the comments at Mark Perry's blog and elsewhere, the question of the breakdown of degrees by subject area and gender came up. So, I charted it by subject, using this data from the D.ofEd and is for 2005-06.

Click on the images to see full size.

Bachelors:


Masters:


PhDs:

Missing men (II)

One of my favorite blogs--mostly because Mark Perry manages to find the data I try to search for and can never quite find--has a couple graphs on the missing men in higher education. It is stark and long-term scary:







His data source is the Department of Education.

Book cascade

We got Peg Tyre's book "The Trouble with Boys" last week and have been reading it.

It's full of the statistics of boys' academic failure. According to the book, the only universities that can keep relatively close equality between the sexes in incoming freshman are the heavy sports schools and the engineering schools. Everyone else is way out of whack--with some school having trouble recruiting even two boys to every three girls.

From that book, we found reference to Ralph Fletcher's "Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices". The book hits similar themes as "The Trouble with Boys" (and, in fact, that is the title of its first chapter,) but it is far more of a practical book. It is about how boys write, why they often have trouble writing, and what teachers can do to encourage boys' writing. I'm about half way through, but here are some general tips:

1. Give boys the freedom to choose the subject or the type of writing they want to do. If they want to do a comic book, or have a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" style to it, that's okay ("Wimpy Kid" is a series of books written in journal-style, with little sketches and thought bubbles along the way. It's a cute book and they're all the rage right now.) Give them the freedom to explore writing.
   
   
2. If you have to do "writing to the prompt", then set aside some time to have free writing, as well.
   
   
3. Allow boys to get away from their desks. If they want to take a notebook down to the floor or over to the corner, let them. Let them find their "room of their own."
   
   
4. Boys love to write about violence and low humor (i.e. fart jokes.) LET THEM DO IT! According to Fletcher, many of the so-called violent stories are actually stories about boys exploring their masculinity and its unique issues: bravery, fellowship, strength, determination, honor, etc. And boys often use humor that teachers, particularly women-teachers, can't stand; but that doesn't make their work automatically bad.
   
   
5. Pay less attention to penmanship. Boys tend to develop fine-motor-skills later than girls. When Fletcher interviewed boys to see what they hated most about writing, these were their responses:

   "For me, the hardest part of writing is that my hand hurts." (Our six-year-old boy says that one after a few lines.)
   
   "My hand gets sore."
   
   "My fingers burn."
   
   "Handaches."

   Teachers should judge the content and the attempt at subject and writing separately from the technically-messy handwriting. If a student is able to, get them using a keyboard.

I think my next book purchase in this book cascade will be "Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture".

Why boys fail (II)

Interesting...I've been reading lots of the links on the Why Boys Fail blog mentioned below. In one they discuss gross-out books as one way to get boys into reading, and the debate about whether this is the right tactic to use. There were other articles I read on similar subjects.

Why stands out for me is that two old-time remedies for boys' lack of interest in reading were never mentioned:

1) The comic book.

2) Science fiction.

The first is much more problematic than it used to be. Ever since the rise of the "Dark Knight" comic book in 1986 (I remember friends in college being so excited about that one!), comic books...sorry graphic novels aren't what they used to be. Now they are dark, moody, uber-violent and filled with se(x). I know there are still youth-oriented ones, but there aren't as many as there used to be, and as a parent, I would worry about boys wanting to move on to the more graphic of the graphic novels before they should.

The second seems like a good option. However, looking around the early reader section, I can think of only one sci-fi book that isn't a movie tie-in (6 year old boy loves "Wall-E".) Looking around the chapter book section, I'd have to say the same. Since J K Rowling, there has been a massive explosion of fantasy novels, but not sci-fi.

Some thing tells me there is a big market out there waiting to be tapped.

Why Boys Fail

For the first time...I get to link to another blog about the treatment of boys in schools. The whole blog is titled "Why Boys Fail". There are a lot of links and resources there discussing the problem.