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Give them a reason to read – comprehension and book choice

Motivation is crucial to the success of most learners, but it is particularly important to boys. Boys need to see a real reason for what they’re doing and, unlike many girls, will not do something simply because they are told to. Empowering boys to make their own choices of reading material – and providing them with the kind of material that will appeal to them – is essential. The most important thing you can do as a teacher is to give boys a reason to read – and also write. The way that young, inexperienced readers devour books about dinosaurs and can recite their complex names, for example, is evidence of what boys can achieve as readers if they really want to.

Photo by MTJ Media

What you can do:

Comprehension of a text is every reader’s reason to read so it is important to place a high value on actively engaging children with the meaning of a text
Comprehension skills need to be taught – you will need to give children of all ages a range of comprehension strategies to help them access a text, and help them to know which strategies to apply when
Teach comprehension using active strategies such as talk, drama, role play and writing
Limited vocabulary can be a real barrier to understanding, so it’s important to actively broaden children’s stock of words through regular speaking and listening, reading aloud, playing with words, collecting words, word games etc
Provide a range of books and other materials that will appeal to boys – fast-paced, action packed stories, adventure, mystery, humour and a range of engaging non-fiction
Allow boys sometimes to tackle ‘harder’ texts if they want to – most boys like a challenge and find this motivating (it is a common misconception that all boys want is short, easy chunks of text)
Involve boys in the choice of books, and respect their choices, so that they feel the reading is for them

An example of a practical activity

Make a particular comprehension strategy so familiar that children begin to use it spontaneously. For example a ‘think, feel, say’ strategy encourages empathy and inference by asking the reader to pause at particular points in a reading and speculate on what the characters are likely to be thinking , feeling and saying. This can be an oral activity or recorded on a proforma with a thought bubble, speech bubble and heart shape. (See the Project X Handbooks for a photocopiable Think,feel, say sheet).

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.