How to Light a Fire

As a woman who grew up reading, it's difficult for me to comprehend that

See? Some boys DO read for fun!

1) there are people who don't like to read
2) a lot of those people are boys because reading "isn't masculine" so
3) there has to be some sort of lure to spark a student's desire to read.

In Elizabeth Greef's article "Lighting the Fire: Inspiring Boys to Become Readers," she talks about the different ways to motivate schoolboys to read books and delves into the reasons why it's such a battle in the first place. One of the primary reasons Greef cites is that reading is not masculine. It's considered "passive and feminine" so boys don't want to do it. A fair portion of the blame is also placed on the fathers and other men in their lives, because children learn by example and seeing older men forsake reading in lieu of sports or television inadvertently tells boys that reading is for girls.

Even the cover is kind of girly...

Since the novel I want to do my lesson plan on is Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, I think it's important to explore what is so off-putting about literature in general to boys, particularly a book with a girly-sounding name. Nevermind that the book is told from a guy's point of view about the girl he loves. Getting the boys intrigued is important, but it's more important if they like reading in the first place.

Greef and her colleagues conducted a study at St. Andrew's Cathedral School for boys, surveying students to find out what sort of books they liked to read or if they liked to read at all. While 50% of the boys said that they liked to read, only a sad 26% would call themselves readers. Greef attributes this to the adult male problem and shared the argument that if we can get men to read, we can get boys to follow suit.

This is not all boys want to read about.

Greef offered suggestions to help boys get excited about reading. One was the Literature Circles program, which  is "an intensive reading program, which encourages the habit of daily reading for enjoyment, using attractive contemporary well-written books with a strong story" because boys are drawn (like most others) to a strong plot and relatable characters. The Literature Circles program is done in conjunction with the English department and the school library. The school library, it turns out, has a major influence over student readers, particularly when it is well-stocked, attractive, and run by a competent, helpful librarian who is willing to make recommendations. Who knew?

While books adapted into movies were popular, like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, Greef was all about the action books for boys because she feels that boys today are too restricted and not allowing them the option to explore through the world of books contributes to their disdain for reading. As a jumping off point, this is okay. To get students excited about reading anything in general will certainly make it easier to get them to do the required reading. However, today's society is incapable of the delayed gratification that comes from reading a book, so I'm not in agreement with Greef's push to incorporate all sorts of technology into reading.

Power = Reading

I am definitely for promoting reading in all students from all walks of life and with all interests and backgrounds. That being said, I don't feel that only giving students the "fun books" to read is really furthering their education. Yes, we all want to read the occasional Koontz novel under the covers or The Watchmen, but as educators it is our job to encourage students to broaden their horizons and expand their minds to new sorts of adventures, to cheerlead the "boring" books and give them something to relate to. By giving in to the confines of only allowing them to read books they KNOW they'll like, we are sort of pigeon-holing students instead of setting them on a path to greatness. As Greef says multiple times, reading is power.