Chloe Chapter 1

So, I went into this novel hoping that it might illuminate some of the reasons that boys have trouble in classes.  I was happy about the way they frame the discussion at the beginning of the chapter: it doesn't have to be either boys succeeding or girls succeeding.  Smith and Wilhelm state, "To take one instance, the issue of girls' relatively low achievement in math and science has received much well-deserved attention, and as a result demonstrable improvement has been achieved in these areas" (1).  I think this shows that just as girls are starting to improve in math and science, teachers should help boys achieve higher standards in reading. This doesn't have to be a zero-sum game.

They also made a strong argument for the sociocultural explanations of why boys are not doing so well.  I had never considered that many of the people we see reading in movies, TV, or in magazines are women.  On the other hand, Smith and Wilhelm report that "while most girls arrive at school with a secure sense of gender, boys do not.  As a result, boys are more susceptible to peer pressure..." (12).  I wonder how they arrived at that result.  Is it all boys who are insecure? How do they measure insecurity?

I appreciated the summary of research they provide that illuminate the differences between boys and girls in reading.  I thought the most salient ideas that could be implemented into the classroom are the differences in choice.  I had never considered that my choices in topics might influence their interest. It could be easy to add some readings about hobbies, or read magazine articles.  In conjunction with this, I thought that asking students to fill in a personality profile, might help the teacher with their choices in readings.  Realistically, I understand that the teacher may have to have already chosen the readings.  Another way to balance these might be to have students do an independent reading project where they choose what they read about and write something up about it at the end.

The last point that I wanted to discuss was the choice in students that Smith and Wilhelm will be using as examples.  Three out of the four boys are European-American and one is Puerto Rican.  I don't feel as if this is representative of a typical classroom. I have learned that African American males have the toughest time in school, and I think it would have been valuable to include one African American male to talk about.  Many schools are diverse and I think that should have been represented in the students they chose.