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Make effective use of assessment, targets and challenges

Effective assessment strategies and clearly defined routes forward are key ingredients of any successful reading programme. But why is assessment and target setting so important for boys? Boys – far more than girls – need to see a clear purpose for their learning. They need to know not just where they are going and what they need to achieve to get there, but why they need to go there at all! Making reading and writing meaningful to boys is therefore crucial, as is setting them clear targets so that they can see the progress they are making.

Photo by MTJ Media

What you can do:

If raising boys’ achievement in reading and writing is an issue for your school, make sure it is part of the school development/improvement plan – ensure assessment strategies are set up to help you monitor boys’ progress
Be clear about what you expect each child’s learning journey to be, and break the journey down in to the small steps they need to take to make progress
Assess regularly and in different ways, so that children are always conscious of the progress they are making
Using books that are finely graded is a good way to track children’s progress as it is usually very clear if a child is moving forward or not
Link assessments to appropriate targets, share these targets with the children and give clear feedback against these targets
Wherever possible, give immediate feedback against targets – boys in particular benefit from this as an immediate response is a more meaningful one
Set boys challenges against their own targets and encourage them to self-assess against these targets
Use peer assessment to encourage children to talk about what they’ve learned with their friends – this helps boys feel less ‘threatened’ by learning and doing well
Use reading competitions as a way of motivating boys
Publicly reward achievement and progress - stickers, certificates, characters and so on

An example of a practical activity

Using competition and challenge

Most boys respond enthusiastically to competitive challenges in the classroom. Give children a Reading Passport in which they can collect ‘stamps’ each time they complete a book. Use the passport to create a learning journey, e.g. you might specify particular books or genres they need to read, as well as giving them space for their own reading explorations. Challenge children to read a certain number of books in a certain period of time, or to visit all the genres. Make sure all types of reading are valued. Reward children on completion of a reading passport.

You could create a similar passport for writing.

If you would like more information about the reasons for some boys’ underachievement in literacy and how we can overcome this we suggest you read the Project X Handbook: Get the Boys Reading and Writing: The Essential Guide to Raising Boys’ Achievement.