Boys and writing

Design Thinking: planning

I attended professional development on the weekend, along with some of my primary school Kāhui Ako colleagues. The only reason we gave up time on a Saturday was because the theme was so topical. I don’t feel like my boys have a massive obstacle to writing, but it is something that we are consistently asked to focus on. Did we get the silver bullet on how to teach boys’ writing? No. In a nutshell the facilitator left us with the view that we probably all share: The quality of education is based on the quality of relationships. Not one child is the same. And not every boy is the same. But in the age we live in, gender is no longer definitive. And we certainly need an inclusive education.

In schools, boys are treated like defective girls. Make your classroom more boy friendly.

Another long held view is that writing will improve if students read more. And a simple rule to follow: boys will read if interested. So a good website to checkout is guysread.com

Boys seem to want to read and write about topics that are:

Factual

Humorous

And about:

Survival

Conflict

Adventure

Another point to remember: Zero out zero tolerance. When teaching boys, instructions must be explicit. So it is better to be forthright with boys. Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind. Ambiguity brings disorder. And we always need to remember that we are not changing the world, but we can change our class, our boys.

Know me before you teach me. A good strategy to adopt is learning buddies. Instead of hands up, students can turn to their buddy and discuss questions. This helps with knowledge distribution.

And finally, in empowering boys, follow these strategies:

You don’t need to be a rock star teacher. Just be approachable
Let boys write about things, not feelings
Don’t brand boys as reluctant writers if they are not captivated, yet
Boys can often be labelled ADHD. Perhaps they all need to be freed up away from their desks for short breaks (Age plus 10 minutes of sitting should be the norm)
Boys thrive in structured environments
There needs to be consistency across the school

And finally, keep them in their strength zone. Boys want the headline, not the whole paragraph. So keep instructions short and simple. I would suggest that these strategies are good for all students, regardless of age or gender.