Teaching Boys Who Struggle in School
Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (Verlag)
978-1-4166-1150-9 (ISBN)
Cleveland presents findings from four large-scale studies about how boys learn best and combines these findings with insights about ongoing social and learning-style factors that affect learning in the classroom, plus lesson plans and anecdotes from real teachers working across all grade levels and subject areas.
Cleveland’s Pathways to Re-Engagement represents the culmination of her substantial research and personal experience. A flexible and practical framework for decision making in the classroom, the Pathways model seeks to
- Replace the underachieving boy’s negative attitudes about learning
- Reconnect each boy with school, with learning, and with a belief in himself as a competent learner
- Rebuild learning skills that lead to success in school and in life; and
- Reduce the need for unproductive and distracting behaviors as a means of self-protection
Each aspect of the Pathways to Re-Engagement model offers educators a way to move underachieving boys from a position of weakness toward one of strength--giving them the tools to succeed in school and beyond.
Kathleen Palmer Cleveland is president and CEO of TeacherOnlineEducation.com. During the last 20 years of her 30-year career in education, she has designed, written, developed, and produced content, materials, and graphic art for more than 30 graduate-level site-based and online courses for K12 teachers. As a former K12 teacher and longtime instructor of practicing educators, she works with universities and colleges across the United States to meet mid-continuum professional educators' needs for rigorous courses that speak to both the teacher's need for practical relevance and the profession's need for research-based best practices. Cleveland received a bachelor of arts degree in English education from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, a master of music degree in vocal performance from Washington University at St. Louis, and a doctor of education degree in adult education with an emphasis in curriculum and instruction from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale.
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Boys and School
Chapter 1. Framing the Issue of Underachievement
Chapter 2. The Pictures Within the Picture: The Style Dynamic
Chapter 3. The Invisible Background: Cultural Expectations for Masculine Identity Building
Chapter 4. A Long-Term, Integrated, Multifaceted Approach
Pathways to Re-Engagement
Chapter 5. Pathway No. 1: Support
Chapter 6. Pathway No. 2: Guide
Chapter 7. Pathway No. 3: Reinforce
Chapter 8. Pathway No. 4: Adjust
Chapter 9. Pathway No. 5: Ignite
Chapter 10. Pathway No. 6: Empower
Epilogue
References
About the Author
Related ASCD Resources: Educating Boys
A Study Guide for Teaching Boys Who Struggle in School: Strategies That Turn Underachievers into Successful Learners
ASCD Talks With an Author: Listen to a chat with author Kathleen Palmer Cleveland.
Copyright
Introduction In recent years, I have watched with concern the steady increase of claims regarding a crisis in boys' achievement. Magazine covers, television programs, and books paint a grim picture of "a stunning gender reversal in American education" (Conlin, 2003) that is characterized by an alarming decline in boys' scholastic prowess in every grade level, kindergarten through postgraduate (MSNBC, 2006; Tyre, 2006). Some authors refer to emerging neuroscientific findings and suggest that boys and girlsby virtue of each gender's brain- and hormone-based differencesactually learn in different ways (Gurian & Stevens, 2005; Sax, 2005) and thus also need to be taught in ways that are selectively gender-friendly, even if this means a return to the single-sex classrooms of old. As an educator and researcher, I looked for ways to confirm or deny what I was reading and to make sense of what sounded like a massive problem requiring an immediate, nationwide response. My background in brain-based learning, learning styles, and multiple intelligences made me both skeptical and curious about underachievement perspectives based primarily on differences between boys and girls. I sought clarity about this issue with the same process of inquiry I use in my work, which is to say that I was alternately confused, excited, frustrated, overwhelmed, and illuminated in nearly equal measure. After many months, I arrived at a perspective about underachievement in boys that I believe addresses the complexity of the issue, yet also offers workable solutions that don't further stereotype the problem or disenfranchise the very learners for whom they are designed. In this book, I will introduce you to the questions I asked, the information I examined, the conclusions I eventually reached, and the potential solutions I found along the way. I invite you to discover them much as I did, by exploring the ideas, stories, and resources herein. Ultimately, I realized there is no magic, one-size-fits-all-boys solution, but I firmly believe (as I hope you will come to as well) that there are many potential responses that can, indeed, be quite magical, especially where underachieving boys and school are concerned. This book is meant to explore those responses and offer each reader a degree of understanding that is deep enough to support change, flexible enough to encompass many variables, and broad enough to serve as a viable framework for practical decision making. It is not an instructional recipe book filled with strategies, nor is it solely a book about ideas; it is, rather, a bit of both. I wrote it for the many educators who want to take part in solving the problem of "boys and school," and its ultimate effectiveness as a tool will be determined by the unique experience and expertise each educator brings to its reading.
Chapter 3. The Invisible Background: Cultural Expectations for Masculine Identity Building I worry about bullies. I worry about the narrow construction of masculinity in our culture that views deviance as "queer." I worry about hierarchies that always put athletes on top. I worry about the boys who don't fit this narrow definition, who are oppressed by the "boy code." I worry about schools so big that kids get lost in them. But my main worry is about boys who are alienated from school itself. Thomas Newkirk, author and professor at the University of New Hampshire In addition to the style dynamic, a second and equally important "contextualization of the situation for boys" (Weaver-Hightower, 2005, pp. 23) exists within a set of cultural expectations for masculine identity building that I would never have dreamed could affect boys' achievement in school so significantly. The influence of these expectations stretches across demographic, racial, and socioeconomic divides (Pirie, 2002) and is often unknowingly reinforced by teachers themselves. The result is an entrenched and socially codified force that works against boys' academic achievement. Like a detailed transparency laid over an original image, this second classroom-based factor adds clarity to the dynamic that results from conflicting styles, furnishes additional ways to discern more fully why boys are struggling, and helps us to more clearly appreciate why the SF/Interpersonal and NF/Self-Expressive boy may experience the negative impact of these cultural expectations even more intensely. As is true for almost any consistent yet largely unexamined element of our daily lives, this classroom-based factor has a heightened ability to exert its influence steadilyalmost without noticebecause of its accepted normalcy. It simply does not register on our radar when thinking about academic underachievement. Unlike learning styles, it is not linked overtly to how or what we teach, rendering it nearly invisible, which makes its influence even more detrimental to learning, especially among boys who are already struggling in other ways. The following excerpt from an Australian report on improving educational outcomes for boys provided my first glimpse at what these cultural expectations were all about and how they affected a boy's ability to function as a successful learner in the classroom: The issue of fear of failure is particularly pertinent to boys and their construction of gender. For boys, fear of failure operates across a number of domains. It relates to fear of not living up to popular images of masculinity, fear of being labeled a sissy or seen as feminine in any way, fear of powerlessness, and fear of having their sexuality questioned. In the learning domain, boys have been found to be unwilling to attempt new learning when they are uncertain of success and are less likely to re-attempt something that they had previously been unsuccessful at. Many of the problems boys experience during their education can be traced to their frustration and feelings of inadequacy in attempting to live up to what they believe their peers and society generally expect of them as males. (Martin, 2002, p. 62) Armed with this new awareness of how trying to live up to society's definition of masculinity can affect boys academically, I eventually identified three interrelated factors, one primary and two secondary. Both of these secondary factors feed off of and support the primary factor, but all three affect boys' ability to learn in potentially devastating ways. Factor No. 1: The Boy Code From the minute boys enter our classrooms, masculine identity building is taking place in one form or another. At some level, teachers and students, both male and female, often act in accordance with a set of unspoken tenets that are subtly or explicitly reinforced through tacit approval, willing indifference, or a lack of awareness. William Pollack (as cited in Neu & Weinfeld, 2007) calls this set of culturally embedded expectations about masculinity the Boy Code. An examination of this "code" yields new insights about the troublesome behaviors exhibited by many struggling boys in our classrooms and reveals why boys with certain styles (SF/Interpersonal and NF/Self-Expressive, specifically) might experience its negative impact more deeply than their peers. In their book Helping Boys Succeed in School, educators Terry Neu and Rich Weinfeld (2007) capture Pollack's Boy Code in the form of a "dos and don'ts" poster. Do not cry (no sissy stuff). Do not cower, tremble, or shrink from danger. Do not ask for help when you are unsure of yourself (observe the code of silence). Do not reach for comfort or reassurance. Do not sing or cry for joy. Do not hug your dearest friends. Do not use words to show tenderness and love. (2007, p. 24) As a female who grew up without brothers or close male friends, I had never given much thought to how boys are affected by society's restrictive set of "rules" regarding acceptably masculine behavior. Further, I was disturbed by the extent to which I and so many other educators tacitly accepted these rulesthough we might not have been able to express them as clearly as Neu and Weinfeldas representative of how "real men" are supposed to behave. A real man "likes to drive fast and take risks. He likes to display his muscles, not his emotions and he certainly doesn't cry. He's not a sissy and gets insulted if you call him a 'girl' or a 'woman.' Soldiers, athletes, and superheroes are the archetypes of his dreams. He would rather fight than talk because he likes action better than words. And he knows that reading books is something girls do" (Pirie, 2002, p. 16). This caricature of a "real man" would be laughable were it not for the fact that television shows, movies, video games, and cartoons also model these behaviors over and over. In a typical boy's life, similar messages are reinforced thousands of times. And I was discomfited by the realization of how little effort we spend on discounting or diminishing the veracity of such expectations in the eyes of those most susceptible to these unexamined "truths" about male behavior. The following vignette, as do the others presented in this chapter, illustrates one aspect of the Code's influence. Each story describes a real-life scenario as related by the boy's teacher or parent. To maintain the anonymity of these boys, I changed their names and have listed their teachers or parent separately from the vignettes they contributed (which is unlike the pattern of attribution you will find in the remainder of the book.) The names of the educators who generously gave permission to share their stories in this chapter are as follows: Diane Bolles (Enumclaw, WA); Lynnett Burroughs (Williamsburg, KS); Rob Erhart (Middletown, OH); Kimberly Gessler (Camas, WA); Laurie Hager (Williamsburg, VA); Joy Kiedrowski (Cleveland, OH); Suzanne Obuchowski (Newburyport, MA); Nate Parsons (Crestline, OH); Cynthia Scott (Middletown, OH); and Christopher Ward (Grove City, OH). Toby, Grade 5 Toby was on his scooter this past summer, playing with a group of neighborhood kids. He did some sort of jump and landed squarely on both knees. He immediately jumped up and yelled, "I'm OK!" and then proceeded to casually saunter to our house with blood running down both legs. As soon as he was inside, he began crying and telling me how much it hurt. But he certainly didn't want anyone outside to think he couldn't handle pain. He also has an extreme aversion to going to the nurse at school. When he fell at recess and his elbow was bleeding, his teacher insisted he go to the nurse. Knowing he'd rather collapse on the floor than go to the nurse, I asked him what he did and he said, "I went to my locker, put on my sweatshirt, used that to soak up the blood and went back to the classroom." He also added that he spent a long enough time at his locker to make it seem as though he had been all the way to the nurse's office and back! I discovered that the greater danger in regard to the Code's i
| Zusatzinfo | illustrations |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 175 x 226 mm |
| Gewicht | 408 g |
| Einbandart | Paperback |
| Themenwelt | Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Berufspädagogik |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Erwachsenenbildung | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Schulpädagogik / Grundschule | |
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| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-4166-1150-9 / 1416611509 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-4166-1150-9 / 9781416611509 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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