Getting Boys to Read—Part Four

(continued—Part Four Getting Boys to Read)

TIPS FOR TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS

Patrick Jones and Dawn Cartwright Fiorelli, authors of “Overcoming the Obstacle Course: Teenage Boys and Reading,” (Teacher Librarian magazine, Feb. 2003) say there are immediate steps that educators can take to improve boys’ attitudes about reading:

• Plan programs aimed specifically to boys

• Host book talks in the classroom that include a lot of nonfiction

• Display posters that feature males

• Encourage coaches of boys’ sports teams to participate in a “guys read” program in which athletes read to younger children
  

• Increase the number of periodicals, magazines, comic books, and newspapers in the library
  

• Actively recruit boys to work in the library

• Survey boys about their reading

• Buy books that boys recommend

• Place books where the boys are: next to the computers, copy machines, and study tables
  

• Allow boys to find reflections of who they are and what they like in a library. It just may encourage a return visit.

Additional tips, resources and book recommendations are available from the following resources:

1. Black Books Galore! Guide to Great African American Children’s Books about Boys by Donna Rand and Toni Trent Parker, Black Books Galore
2. “Boys and Books,” by Jane McFann
3. “Affirming African American Boys,” by KaaVonia Hinton, originally published in Booklinks, January 2005, available at: http://www.acrl.org/ala/booklinksbucket/affirmingafricanamericanboys.pdf
4. “Author Provides Tips for Getting Boys to Read,” Carroll County Times, March 15, 2006
5. Guilderland School District, Parents Corner (www.guilderlandschools.com)
6. “Getting Black Boys to Read Books,” by Anthony Asadullah Samad, www.NewAmericaMedia.com

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