Teaching Methods and Activities to Encourage Boys to Read

Boys and Reading How do we get boys to want to read? It’s got to get their interest!

An Element of Forbidden Recommending the boys to read banned books – “Lure Boys to Reading with Banned Books” stated that boys just can’t seem to help being intrigued by someone stating that they should not read this book since at one time someone was trying to “ban” the book. It is like telling a boy not to mix fire with an aerosol can; they just have to find out what will happen if they do. Now with a banned book, they just have to read it to find out why it was banned. “Gettingboystoread.com”

Move It, Move It, Move It! Allowing boys to be active while you are reading. Whether they get up and act out some of the story, dance or sing. After reading have a craft project that reinforces the story. Make sure the craft is geared to the boy’s interest to build, create and use tools to solve problems. They could even draw a scene from the story using a big sheet of paper and paints. “schoollibraryjournal.com”

Put the Pieces together Using puzzles and games – “Boys & Games: Using Puzzles to Improve Literacy Skills” stated that the short task of having to solve a puzzle, such as a hieroglyphic, boost their self esteem. Once their self esteem is higher and they have that feeling of an accomplishment they will be more willing to take on more challenging books. “Gettingboystoread.com”

Grab some comics! Use comic books to teach writing, grammar and punctuation; Comic books can teach the same reading concepts as novels. Since the boys are interested in comic books, they become fully invested. Boys enjoy comic books because they are full of adventure, violence (which appeals to the boy’s aggressive nature), straight to the point dialogue, and of course the illustrations since boys tend to be the more visual sex. “Gettingboystoread.com”

How about a Game? Since boys enjoy sports, non-fiction and magazines, take advantage of the activities around your community. Construct a bulletin board about the Olympics or a sporting event in the community. Let the students post articles and information about the event on the bulletin board. Make it a competition since boys are very competitive. Have a competition of who can find the most interesting facts or outrageous things about the athletes. “schoollibraryjournal.com”

Story time anyone? Let the students bring their lunches back to class once a week if they choose for a story time. The article states that we will be surprised at how many boys show up to hear a short story, since they have not been read a picture book in years. " schoollibraryjournal.com

How Gross! “ Boys and Gross Humor” stated that boys tend be obsessed with gross humor. Read or introduce boys to books that talk about boogers and farts. These books even reinforce there is a time and a place for certain behaviors, so they are not all bad. A couple books they recommended were “Oh, Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty” by Joy Masoff, “Parts” by Tedd Arnold “Walter the Farting Dog”, and “Dirty Berty”. “schoollibraryjournal.com”

BOYS ONLY!! Promote reading through the use of male role models. Create a program/event that gives boys male role models in reading. Michael Sullivan discusses his "No Girls Allowed" program in his book Connecting Boys with Books 2. Get dads, fathers, uncles, male community leaders, male principals, etc to come into the classroom and read with the students. Have male student volunteers to work in the library.

Choose a book by its cover Michael Sullivan says that the appearance of the book and its cover is important to boys. Create a fun, attractive book display that appeals to boys. Use Power Points to introduce the books.

Correlating Standards Standard 1 There should be a variety of literature available to boys in the various genres and forms. Students should be able to select books that are read for information gathering purposes, learning of new material, and for enjoyment. Selections that would target this standard are informational texts, trade books, magazines, graphic novels, and novels that are both classic and contemporary. Standard 3 Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, evaluate, and appreciate texts. Standard 6 Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation) to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts. Standard 7 Students conduct research on issues or interest by generating ideas and questions. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources to communicate their discoveries.