Volume 9 • Number 1
Annie Ortiz, Denise Ferrell, Jan Anderson,
Leann Cain, Natalie Fluty, Sarah Sturzenbecker,
and Tammy Matlock
Teacher Research on
Boys’ Literacy in One
Elementary School
Annie Ortiz, MS, is the gifted and
talented teacher at Skyline Elementary in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Jan Anderson is currently a second
grade teacher at Skyline Elementary
in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Leann Cain, BS, is currently a first
grade teacher at Skyline Elementary
School in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
[email protected]
Denise Ferrell, BS, teaches art at
Skyline Elementary in Stillwater,
Oklahoma.
[email protected]
Natalie Fluty, BS, is an instructional
coach/assistant principal at Skyline
Elementary in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
[email protected]
Tammy Matlock, MS, is a teacher/
librarian at Skyline Elementary in
Stillwater, Oklahoma.
[email protected]
Sarah Sturzenbecker is currently
a third grade teacher at Skyline
Elementary in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Photos and images courtesy
of the authors.
H
ow would you respond as a classroom teacher to a boy’s drawing
of a gun or depiction of a gross body part? Send him to the office?
Lecture the child about the evils of guns? Ask the child questions?
Or would you ask questions about your own practice? That’s what
we did—we decided to ask questions about our teaching.
This article describes our year-long process to learn about boys’ literacy
and apply the results to our teaching. We are a group of K–5 female teachers
who became concerned by the frequent occurrence of violence and often
graphic and explicit examples of bodily functions or other distasteful topics
in the writing and illustrations of boys in our classes. We also had observed
that the boys were attracted to books such as the Guinness Book of World
Records and the Ripley’s Believe It or Not annuals, and we believed the reading of these books had little value.
Our teacher research study was also prompted by three events that
occurred at about the same time. One of our local Board of Education
members raised concerns about the low literacy achievement of boys in our
community. Additionally, one member of our group read the book Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture by Thomas Newkirk
(2002), and was excited about it. It made us all wonder, “What have we misread about masculinity?” We were all daughters and wives; some of us had
brothers, and some had sons. Didn’t we already know about boys? However,
the book gave us an awareness about boys’ literacy we had not expected.
The third event was an opportunity to apply for a grant from the National
Ortiz, A., et al. • Voices of Practitioners 9, no. 1 • June 2014
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Foundation for the Improvement of Education (NFIE) for action research.
We knew we had to work with the interests of boys in order to better support their literacy; we had to discover what they were actually attracted to,
not what we wanted them to like. Annie Ortiz had taken a class on teacher
research and read the book The Art of Classroom Inquiry by Hubbard and
Power (2003). It made teacher inquiry a doable and step-by-step process.
Based on the premise by Castle (2012) that teacher research helps teachers
develop a deeper understanding of their teaching practice and its impact on
students’ learning, we decided to apply. Annie Ortiz wrote the proposal and
we were awarded a grant to support our inquiry into boys’ literacy.
This article chronicles how we worked as a group to generate our own
learning. We constructed a deeper understanding of boys’ literacy, and
changed our teaching practices. Although this article represents the voices
of all of the teacher researchers involved, Annie Ortiz took responsibility for
the final writing.
Research questions
The overall goal of this study was to enhance our understanding and support for the literacy learning of our male students. We decided to focus on
boys’ literacy in three areas: reading, writing, and art. We formulated questions for each area.
Reading Questions:
• What type of books are boys checking out of the library? What book
genres are boys choosing?
• What are they reading?
• What do the boys think makes a “just fit” or a “good fit” book?
Writing Questions:
• What do boys prefer to write about when given choices? What is the
content of what they write?
• Would a boys’ writing group be different from a girls’ writing group?
• If so, how would they function differently?
• How do boys use drawing to support their writing?
Art Questions:
• What do boys draw?
• Are there any recurring patterns in boys’ artwork?
• What does the artwork tell us about boys?
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Literature review
We explored professional literature and together all read The Art of Classroom Inquiry by Hubbard and Power (2003). We learned teacher research
would not be a step-by-step process, but recursive and messy—much like
teaching. Our questioning stance about our teaching already poised us to
take up teacher research. When practitioners take an inquiry stance, this
transforms and expands traditional views of what counts as practice and
thus what it means to be accountable for one’s practice (Cochran-Smith &
Lytle 2009). With inquiry as a stance, teacher practitioners can make changes in their own classroom practices and in the policies that specify what
it means to be educated. Teacher research opens our eyes; it is a way to
uncover, to dive into what is in the classroom. We can challenge the boundaries of our teaching practices. Teacher research fosters change for the
improvement of learning (Tyre 2008).
Although teachers can engage in careful individual inquiry about practice, inquiry as a collaborative activity among teachers at a school is what
contributes to professional community (King 2002). These contributions can
significantly impact an entire school, school district, and the children those
entities serve. Engaging in research as a part of one’s professional life is
fundamental to sustaining teachers’ professional learning and well-being and
is central to improving students’ leaning (Kamler & Comer 2008).
Gender as a social construct affects learning in and out of school, dictating what is and can be learned and what is out of bounds (Sanford 2005).
What boys want to read, write, or draw in the school setting is many times
off limits. Teachers provide fiction; boys often want nonfiction. Teachers
request writing and drawing on designated topics; boys often want to write
and draw about what they want, which might include violence. Because
of these discrepancies, boys may not engage fully in the literacy offered in
schools. This disengagement may lead to remediation. Despite the fact that
boys dominate literacy remediation classes, reading remediation educators
and school administrators seem almost blind to the gender imbalance in
remediation resourcing, and to the gendered difference in children’s literacy
performance at school (Alloway & Gilbert 1997).
Research design
Setting and participants
The teacher research group participants. I, Annie Ortiz, facilitated the
research group. I am a fourth grade teacher with National Writing Project
experience with a concern about boys’ literacy. In order to get a true picture
of the boys in our school, I recruited a teacher from each grade level. Leann
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was a Kindergarten teacher with about ten years of experience and a willingness to try new things to improve her teaching. Sarah was a first grade
teacher with a couple years’ teaching experience. She had substituted at the
school and was on the lookout for ideas and techniques. Natalie had taught
special education for several years and desired to become an administrator. The time period of our study was her first and only year in third grade,
which she assumed in order to better understand the role of the classroom
teacher. Jan and I had taught for about twenty years but were both new to
fourth grade; I moved up from third grade and Jan transitioned from special
education. Heather, now deceased, taught and loved fifth grade and her
fifth graders for about ten years. Our art teacher, Denise, and library media
professional, Tammy, were the specialists that joined our team; they taught
every student in the school. As the art teacher, Denise’s approach was a bit
different than the rest:
From the art room, boy’s literacy looked a bit different. I carefully
observed first graders in what we have given the name ‘free art.’ I put
out various materials like boxes, packaging throwaways, and tools
to construct with. The kids construct ‘stuff.’ I have done this for a
few years and always knew it had literacy connections because the
children were always brimming over with stories as they left, with
their constructions held together by tape and staples. I have always
enjoyed watching the kids create.
We had no second grade teacher who was able to join the group, so
Tammy collected data from second grade students who came to the library.
The commonality among our group of teachers was a willingness to learn.
The composition of the group was significant in that it represented all grade
levels. The various teacher perspectives reflected the curriculum needs and
developmental levels of our student population.
The students. Our neighborhood school is located in a small Midwestern university city. We are a Title I school with a population of about 560
predominately-white (63%) students, with some African American (12%),
Asian (1%), and Native American (16%) students. A little more than half of
our population receives free and reduced lunches. Our neighborhood school
serves a mix of families in low income housing, college students, and families
of middle class. Student ratios of boys and girls are typically evenly distributed. Classes are self-contained and range in size from 20–24 students.
The boys in the study are typical in that physical education is their
favorite subject. Despite what was implied by the Board of Education’s
concern about the low level of boys’ literacy, they do love to read. They love
the outdoors as well. We have an outdoor classroom, which is an extension
of the regular classroom. We try to utilize it on a regular basis by outdoor
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reading, hiking, writing poetry, and scooping things up from the pond and
identifying them.
Data collection
We used a variety of techniques for our data collection, including:
• Collecting library statistics on what boys were checking out (see
Appendix), closely monitoring categories such as genre and nonfiction topics and which books were checked out most frequently;
• Having boys fill out a survey about the genres they liked;
• Asking boys to write and describe what made a “just fit” book;
• Using a visual prompt (a “squiggle”—upside down question mark)
and asking boys to use it to draw anything they liked;
• Giving all boys a writing prompt, “On the playground . . .”; and
• Keeping journals to record thoughts/observations about what was
happening.
Data analysis
The group used the constant comparative method to analyze data (Hendricks 2009). We continuously reviewed and compared data to see what
themes were emerging.
Teacher research group meetings. We met at least twice a month after
school, and sometimes all day Saturday. We brought data to each group
meeting and answered the questions “What do you notice?” and “What
themes do you see?” For example, we reviewed all the drawings made from the squiggle visual (an upside down question mark).
We laid all the drawings out on the floor and
assigned them categories as they arose.
As busy, dedicated professionals we had
one norm for the meetings: No Guilt! You
could leave when you had to leave, and be
absent when necessary. You could participate
as much, or as little as your classroom or life
allowed. It seemed like everyone breathed a
sigh of relief at this rule. But as we delved into
the project we noticed that participants rarely
missed a group meeting.
Leann and Tammy
categorizing some of
the data.
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As art teacher Denise Ferrell reflects,
I did not think I had the stamina to attend one more meeting when
we began getting together. I became aware that this research was
giving me energy.
We loved our discoveries and our professionally-focused social
exchange.
Findings: What we learned
Our findings were that:
• In each and every grade level we noticed the same broad themes—
boys read, write, and draw about reality/nonfiction, action, and
funny things;
• boys are drawn to visually-oriented content;
• boys enjoy statistical information and numbers;
• gender-specific practice can enrich boys’ writing experiences; and
• female teachers unintentionally limit boys, placing topics that interest them off-limits.
Finding 1: In each and every grade level we noticed the same
broad themes—boys read, write, and draw about reality/nonfiction, action, and funny things
Specifically, in answer to our questions we found the
following.
Reading
What type of books are boys checking out of the
library? There were three categories:
• Generalities: Guinness Book of Records,
almanacs, unexplained phenomena like bigfoot
and UFOs
• Life Sciences: sharks, dinosaurs, natural
disasters and Earth forces
• Arts and Recreation: motorcycles and other
vehicles, baseball, riding, racing, wrestling,
hunting and fishing
What are they reading?
• nonfiction/real things
• books with pictures
• sports
• science fiction
• anything with humor and gross body functions
• monsters and superheroes
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What do the boys think makes a “just fit” or a “good fit” book?
If you are interested. If you like it.
Writing
What did the boys prefer to write about, when given
choices?
• Nonfiction/reality
• sports and science fiction
• funny stuff
• monsters and action heroes
• gross body functions
• fantasy and action
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Drawing
What did the boys draw?
• real objects in the world
• action and superheroes
• dragons, creatures, and monsters
• “fierce” animals
• battles and violence
• “gross” body parts/functions
Boys across all grade levels wrote, drew, and
read about:
• Traditional nonfiction subjects—lists, guides,
information with numbers, animals, vehicles
• Funny stuff—eating, bodily functions(especially
those that make sounds—burps, farts)
• Fantasy and entertainment—mysteries, adventure, tornadoes (common in our area),violence,
monsters, video games, songs and rock music
(guitars), Star Wars and other movies
Drawings done using our visual prompt of a “squiggle”—an upside down
question mark
Third grade example: A helicopter (vehicle)]
First grade example: A hook (weapon).
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Finding 2: Boys are drawn to visually-oriented content
One consistent finding from our study was that boys were drawn
to visually-oriented content, such as books with a high image-totext ratio, graphic novels, and comics. Cartooning became a series
of writing lessons for third and fourth graders. The fourth graders
turned biographies into comic books, while the third graders did
book reviews as comics. Drawing as a way into writing was accepted in each classroom, which wasn’t the norm in the upper grades.
The children used this information, and drawing became a tool
for revision as well. The realization that boys will draw and write
about violence helped teachers in this group change how they responded to boys. One teacher in the group had sent a child to the
office for something he had written about earlier in the year; the
violence in the story bothered her. After this project, she realized
she would have reacted differently.
Finding 3: Boys enjoy statistical information and numbers
Statistical information and numbers were also often included in boys’
different artistic experiences, as art teacher Denise observed:
Seeing their products and hearing the stories was fascinating, but
I never thought about making gender generalities. The boys made
signs with numbers, weapons, airplanes, etc. I found the numbers on
a sign a student had made and was wearing proudly around his neck.
I inquired about the number. The first grade male answered confidently and without hesitation, ‘These are the prisoners that haven’t
been captured yet.’ Often the weapons or vehicles had number
names, XC235, for example. We started to think about men and numbers and noticed how interested males were when facts and figures
were presented. . . . I have discovered that numbers have power,
when formerly I often dismissed exact figures for general ideas.”
Finding 4: Gender-specific practice can enrich boys’
writing experiences
The results of the writing survey and quick writes indicated the topics
boys liked to write about. Because of these results, the fourth grade class
implemented gender-specific writing groups. As fourth grade teacher Annie
details, the findings were encouraging:
In the past, I purposely had writing groups consist of boys and girls in
order for children to develop relationships with other students. By listening
and responding to each other’s writing they would get to know each other
on a deeper level. But instead, the opposite would happen. A boy would
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share a part of their story and the responses from the girls would be ‘Oh,
how gross.’ The boys would laugh like they had achieved their goal. There
were no purposeful responses to the writing.
After finding out the interests of boys from our surveys, quick write
prompts, and squiggles, I changed my mind. Writing groups would be samegender-based groups. I learned boys would respond to boys and their writing in a sophisticated manner if given the opportunity, but I hadn’t provided
that opportunity in the past. Instead of hearing girls responding to writing
with ‘Oh, how gross’ I heard boys respond to boys like writers responding to writers. It was the same gross topic, but they were giving each other
writerly advice, and pieces were revised. ‘What if you moved that part to the
middle?’ or ‘Can you tell me how the alien got the space ship?’
were pieces of their conversations. The productivity of writing groups had increased by that small but significant change.
Boys were connecting to boys on a deeper level around topics
they were all interested in developing. My teaching was impacted by this change. I had underestimated boys.
We also found that offering prompts based on an actionbased setting yielded more productive writing. As fourth
grade teacher Jan states,
I looked at how I could get boys to produce more writing.
I wanted to know if there was a way I could ‘hook’ them,
help them to become confident writers and enjoy the
writing. I began by giving them a prompt to complete. The
prompt began, “On the playground…” and the students
were to complete it any way they wanted. The research
team worked together to put them into categories. I also
asked the class to list what they like to write about. I then
looked at the boys categories. Finally, I asked the boys
where they got their ideas for writing. I was curious about
what they choose to write.
Finding 5: Female teachers unintentionally limit boys, placing
topics that interest them off-limits
Reflective introspection led to discoveries about our own practice. We observed that it was not hard for boys to come up with ideas to read and write
about, but we female teachers unintentionally limited them to writing on
topics considered school-appropriate or subjects which with we were comfortable. These were not topics boys were interested in reading and writing
about. We realized that as females, we were judgmental about the content
choices that boys made. As Jan reflected,
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I am always trying to find ways to get my students interested in
writing. In the past I noticed the girls’ writing was more detailed and
easier to read. The boys’ writing, if I could get
them to write, was always short and to the point.
They often had what I considered inappropriate
stories or pictures. I felt like I needed to facilitate
their choices or subjects but when I gave them
specific prompts they either wrote very little or
continued to write what I considered inappropriate material. I wondered how I could get the
boys to write with detail. How could I get them
to weave a story that made sense? How can I get
them to choose appropriate material?
Me and Jake and Chris and
August abandon ship.
I learned boys write about what boys know. They
are willing to write a great deal more if they are
allowed to write about the “boy” stuff. I now have
a different idea of what is acceptable in writing.
I learned that their vocabulary was different and
it was okay. They will always write about farts,
boogers, smells, bloody things, death, war, guns,
knives, fighting, monster trucks, etc.
We had stocked our classroom libraries with stories we identified that
included happy endings, literary details, well-developed characters, and
positive social messages. Our biases carried over to boys’ drawings—even
to their very choice in colors. The colors they preferred were dark, bold colors: red, blue, black, green, and brown. Art teacher Denise noted her discovery of her own bias in this area:
Another consistent observation was the selection of color. Many boys
prefer dark colors. Since the study, I make sure when I am purchasing
materials that I select a wide range of colors—including browns and
blacks.
This study has challenged me to look at differences as just that. I can
remember vetoing certain subjects as inappropriate for school. I also
have instead begun to simply ask for more details instead of passing
judgments. I include choices of dark colors for projects where choosing color is important.
Guns, blood, violence, bodily functions, wars, and nonsense humor were
all desired components of boys’ artwork or illustrations, but we had deemed
them inappropriate and shallow. By examining our practice, we found that
we had to work with boys using what they were already attracted to in order
to better support their literacy. We realized we needed to dig deeper into
our practice in making changes more relevant to boys.
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Reflections of a Library Media Specialist
Tammy Matlock
It was imperative that I understand
boys’ interests and behavior patterns as they freely select reading
materials in the school library. As
the media specialist, it is my responsibility to purchase the collection materials that support the
learning needs and interests of patrons. In material selection, I looked
at resources that balanced curriculum needs with individual interests.
Purchasing practice leaned toward
the selection of highly-reviewed but
child-favored fictional materials,
and nonfiction purchases that supported curriculum content needs.
For example, if a learning objective
for third grade was to understand
the properties of Earth, then library
purchasing would reflect that by buying resources that
connected to the topic (books about rocks, minerals, soil,
water, chemicals, etc.). If students enjoyed a particular
fictional series or author’s works, then library selection
would quickly support those interests as well. It seemed
that student interest dictated fiction purchasing, but
curriculum content largely drove selection decisions for
nonfiction materials. I wanted to look at patterns in boys’
literacy choices to better understand if current buying
practices were effectively balancing patron interest with
curricular needs.
Librarians have long noticed that student interest in
nonfiction materials is overall greater than that of fiction.
Kindergarteners through fourth grade students and older
zoom right past the “Everybody Fiction” and “Chapter
Book Fiction” areas, making a beeline to the nonfiction
resources. A quick printout of any monthly circulation
statistics will quickly verify that this is true. I believe that I,
along with my librarian partners and many other teachers,
often diminished this student practice with a subversive
roll of the eye or in some cases a flat-out restriction to
what students are freely allowed to check out. Time and
time again I would often hear educators interfere with student choice during library checkout. The cry was “No, not
the Guinness World Book of Records again. Pick something
that you can read.” This usually resulted in a deflated
student who hesitantly put the book back on the shelf,
then returned to the circulation desk with a lot less passion or enthusiasm, maybe with another nonfiction book.
This time, it might be The Lifecycle of a Frog,
complete with stock pictures, a high readability level, and pages of lengthy text. The
educator smiles approvingly as the student
checks out—after all, this book has facts and
is educational. Yes, as one of those educators
I may have done this too. It never felt right or good.
For my first step, I had to know exactly what boys
checked out of the library. A review of the data was as
expected: yes, Guinness World Records book annuals
from 1999 to 2009 were the most popularly checked out
books by boys. Yes, boys check out books about sharks,
dinosaurs, motorcycles, and baseball. No, boys typically
do not check out books that tell stories, or that deal with
the mundaneity of the world like historical events, biography, and the science behind a cloud. Statistical reports
generated by the library’s management software verified
that these Dewey Decimal subject ranges were the most
circulated areas in the library 000s—Generalities (world
records, almanacs), 500s—Life Sciences (dinosaurs,
animals, natural disasters) and 700s—Arts and Recreation
(hunting and fishing).
I had to consider how to make decisive and considerate decisions based on what I had really expected all
along: I now knew that I needed to make selection choices
that moved with the boys’ flow of interest instead of
against. So, what is it about the Guinness Book of World Records that attracts boys? I used what we discovered based
on our teacher research: boys like graphic, weird, violent,
and gross content. The Guinness Book of World Records
offers all of the above. The images are often graphically
distasteful; the content is unusual, unexpected, and sometimes shockingly macabre; the pictures are a dozen to the
page with short, to-the-point text, labels, and captions.
And boys eat them up!
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Implications: Changes to teaching practices
The implications for our research group were
numerous, and have affected practice both for
us personally and throughout our school. As art
teacher Denise reflects,
Observing students in a new way refreshed
my interest in the classroom, wondering what
I would see next. Since doing this research,
I have thought about how what we create is
indeed an image of who we are.
There were, however, drawbacks to this
project. There never seemed to be enough time
in the day to meet. This can be a deterrent
to groups of teachers doing teacher research
together. We advocated for time together with
our grade level colleagues. As faculty, we just
decided to use our faculty meeting time to work
on our mutual inquiries.
We made many changes to our practice, including augmenting our
literacy resources. We added more nonfiction, graphic novels, and “gross”
books to our classroom libraries as well as our school library. The layout
of our school library also changed somewhat. There is now a whole section
of graphic novels, and a wider variety of nonfiction. The Guinness Book of
World Records has been reordered each year.
When boys read these types of books, we started to respond differently.
In book club, we had boys leave tracks of their thinking on sticky notes, and
our questions changed as they did for fiction. We asked children, “What do
you know about . . . ?” before we read and “What did you learn about . . . ?”
afterward. We also stopped them to examine pictures and discuss what they
noticed and wondered. We called it “reading a picture”; now we might ask,
“How are you reading that picture?” when children explore a Guinness Book
of World Records. We now have a better awareness of the amount of nonfiction we really read in life: recipes, medicine bottles, sports scores and statistics, news articles, weather reports, and more. It became more important to
us to teach children how to read nonfiction—which happens to also mesh
well with evolving national literacy standards for all students.
In writing, we now remind children to gear their writing toward their
audience, and are no longer repulsed by their topics. Instead of recoiling,
we follow up with questions about audiences, details, and settings. Offering
choice allows writers to express themselves in topic and format. Writing
groups with only boys allow them to comment more readily on structure
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and content. Adding illustrations or beginning writing from drawings has
become a part of writing. Cartooning is now a unit of study.
As one of our members reflected,
Writing began to look different in my class. I asked them what they
wanted to write about. They wrote stories about playing a guitar,
bows and arrows, game systems, comics, and war. They also enjoyed
hearing each other’s stories, and began helping with ideas and revisions. I became much more open-minded about what they wrote. I
learned that it wasn’t really hard for them to come up with ideas. This
research has impacted the way I teach writing. To my surprise, it has
also impacted the way I teach reading and the books I choose for my
library.
The kindergarten and first grade teachers began to collaborate with the
librarian about how to check out books for younger students. Books are
selected by both the teacher and the librarian and set out for children to
choose from. Nonfiction books were selected where they hadn’t been before.
Our kindergarten and first grade teachers offer their reflections:
Kindergarten teacher Leann Cain—Selection. The boys’ literacy
research changed the selection of what I have allowed in my classroom. Selections are now about the needs and interests of boys.
Tapping into boys humor like Captain Underpants, would never have
been a choice in my room before. Now I have a deeper understanding of boys and their needs. I have found the freedom to value what
they are reading and writing. That freedom has helped me become a
better teacher. It has also given me knowledge to back up and support the choices of boys if questioned by a parent. As a teacher of 14
boys this year, I understand and celebrate their choices.
First grade teacher Sarah Sturzenbecker—Because of this teacher
research around boys’ literacy, I became open to boys doing what
boys do. I chose to have more nonfiction books in my classroom
library and had the boys in my class help choose them. They got out
the Scholastic order forms and pored over them. I ordered what they
wanted and knew they would have a vested interest in reading and
in writing. I knew boys would read if given choices. Choices I hadn’t
given them before. Today as a third grade teacher I am still aware of
the needs and interests of boys and give them a wide opportunity to
be literate.
Other classes were taught how to use the book bag selection tool in the
library, and use their lists to find books to check out. A larger part of library
time is now dedicated to searching for books. This lesson has been applied
to all students in the school from second to fifth grade.
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Third grade teacher Natalie describes how our study led to changes in
what types of books she encourages her children to access, and how our
group’s research has influenced school curriculum:
During our annual school-wide book fair I overheard a parent telling
his child he could buy two ‘real’ books, not comic books. I shared
the recent research about boys, their literacy interests, and reading
patterns. When the child left the book fair, he had a ‘real’ book and
a comic book. The boys’ literacy research also focused me in on the
importance of nonfiction for boys and girls. My library became filled
with nonfiction. Our school chose to use The Comprehension Toolkit,
(a study of comprehension centered on nonfiction) in a large part
because of our research. We had knowledge to give to administration
in the decision making of our professional development. Now as an
administrator, I share the value of boys’ literacy and the importance of
nonfiction with new teachers.
The fourth grade teachers have book clubs as part of their reading
instruction, and have now included nonfiction books for the first time. Each
teacher in the research group also had $300 to spend in their classrooms,
and most teachers bought graphic novels or added to their nonfiction collections. The library media specialist was also given funds to expand the
library collection. As noted above, she added many more graphic novels and
nonfiction books.
Our school has an after-school tutoring program for students with low
scores on state testing. One of the reading tutors was a member of this
teacher research group, and the group she was tutoring consisted of all
boys. She used some of the knowledge learned from this project in her tutoring sessions, incorporating nonfiction books, graphic novels, and drawing as
strategies to get the boys interested in reading—and it worked! Our school
also housed our district’s summer school program. Again, the majority of
the children attending were boys. The library media specialist joined the
summer school sessions, and taught the children how to make book bags
on the computer and check out books of interest. She also selected sets of
nonfiction and graphic novels for the reading teachers to use.
Incorporating visual content into literacy learning was emphasized. The
second and fifth grade teacher’s classes from this group are reading buddies. The teachers decided to use their classes’ time together for writing:
fifth graders became scribes for second graders, and they developed stories
together. One teacher asked her students to draw before writing in order to
generate ideas. The library media specialist realized how visual needs were
part of learning for many boys. She had children watch informational videos
as a means of gathering information about topics they were researching, and
taught them how to use the equipment to access these videos on their own.
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Before, the internet or books were the only informational sources available.
The art teacher used the results about boys’ interest in superheroes, bringing in a cartoonist to teach all fourth grade students how to draw and design
superheroes. Each student was given a class collage of their superheroes.
One goal of the fourth grade book club is to enrich vocabulary; students
collect words they don’t know and write definitions. After seeing how much
boys relied on drawing, space for drawing vocabulary words was added.
After realizing how many boys depended on visual information, we
looked up the PASS (Oklahoma’s State Priority Academic Student Skills) objectives on visual literacy. There were many suggestions for each grade level
to incorporate into the curriculum. The library media specialist collaborated
with the first grade teachers to study the author Mo Willems. In a similar approach to Willems’ Knuffle Bunny books, she took pictures of places around
the school, and created electronic pages where children added text to
speech bubbles and placed characters from Mo Willems’ books. Each page
became part of a class book read over and over in their classrooms.
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This research study impacted not only the classes of the teachers participating in our research group, but other classrooms in the school as well.
Our school had only one male classroom teacher. Whenever we discovered
something from our data, for instance boys enjoying gross graphic novels,
we would go to him and double check or verify the data. He would agree
and elaborate, or share his own personal examples. We valued his input like
never before. At the time of this research study we also had a male principal.
We used the information we learned about boys liking numbers and presented a proposal to him. We used numbers again and again in our request. He
readily agreed, no questions asked.
The participating teachers shared information with their grade-level
colleagues as well. Collaborations with the art teacher and the library media
specialist impacted all students in the school. Responses to what boys read,
write, and draw are now very different. These implications will be far-reaching and long-lasting at our school.
This process had such an impact on our school; we didn’t realize how
much our research could change our school environment and our teacher
conversations. From Annie’s experiences and work with National and State
Writing Projects we knew teacher research was powerful, but it was surprising to see the overall impact in our particular school context. Conversations
in the hallway were about things teachers had tried, noticed, or wondered
instead of gossip. We realized how inclusive instead of exclusive this process could be. Other teachers asked us about what we were finding out,
shared articles they found, and suggested books boys might like to read.
As our research group shared with other faculty, some of them helped
with insights on data analysis and interpretation. Many female teachers were
very surprised at our findings. They began to think about their own practices in the classroom. At the end of our year together, Annie told the research
group she would support them in any way possible if they wanted to go back
to their respective grade levels and try a teacher research project with their
peers. We unexpectedly found the research impacted our personal lives as
well. We spoke with our husbands and sons, we bought our children graphic
novels, we made purchases of dark-colored items, and we joined in laughter
at some of their jokes.
Since this research project began, many of us have changed grade levels
or moved into new positions. Sarah moved from first to third grade, Jan
from fourth to second, Leann from kindergarten to first, Annie from fourth
to gifted and talented education, and Natalie to administration. Sadly, during
the time of our study our fifth grade teacher, Heather Corbett, lost her battle
with cancer. Our research affected her as well, and her teaching of reading
and writing also changed. She laughed at the humor of boys, instead of being revolted by it. She read her students great gross books; she understood
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more. During this project, she also gave birth to two boys. Her legacy is her
two sons, who now benefit from her exploration of boys’ literacy.
We have taken our knowledge with us and applied it to our new settings, where we see the same patterns we explored in our research emerging
again. We continue to share our research in professional development settings with other teachers in our district and those teachers new to our grade
levels. Not only did we learn much about boys’ literacy, but also about how
teacher research can change a school and improve education for learners.
References
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Castle, K. 2012. Early Childhood Teacher Research. New York: Routledge.
Cochran-Smith, M., & S.L. Lytle. 2009. Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research for the Next
Generation. New York: Teachers College Press.
Hendricks, C. 2009. Improving Schools Through Action Research. 2nd ed. Columbus, OH:
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Hubbard, R.S., & B.M. Power. 2003. The Art of Classroom Inquiry: A Handbook for TeacherResearchers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
King, M.B. 2002. “Professional Development to Promote School-wide Inquiry.” Teaching and
Teacher Education 18: 243–57.
Kamler, B., & B. Comber. 2008. “Making a Difference: Early Career English Teachers Research
Their Practice.” Changing English 15(1): 65–76.
Newkirk, T. 2002. Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture. New York:
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Sanford, K. 2005. “Gendered Literacy Experiences: The Effects of Expectation and Opportunity
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Copyright © 2014 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
See Permissions and Reprints online at www.naeyc.org/yc/permissions.
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Appendix
Examples of Types of Books Boys Checked Out
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