Cultural or Social Factors
Small scale literacy studies such as the Boys' and Girls' Literacy: Closing the Gap focuses on grade levels and academic achievement. It also considers other factors such as curriculum outcomes; school based resources; student attitudes and behavior in reference to reading; teacher support; and the effect of role models. The individual assessments enabled us to examine the details of these factors and their influences on gender reading differences. This study has the potential to inform and influence school practices.
The individual reading assessment tool selected was the Basic Reading Inventory (Johns, 2001). This tool was selected for several reasons. It is commercially available and convenient for classroom teachers. Everything required for multiple assessments of an individual student is contained in the inventory book. The assessments are meant to be informal, even though they may seem more like formal assessments because of the administration and scoring guidelines (Johns, 2001, p. 114). Informal Reading Inventories (IRI) are generally used from grades Primer and one to grade ten. Informal assessments have limits and are probably best suited for the upper elementary and middle school years. Therefore, the Basic Reading Inventory (Johns, 2001) was chosen as an assessment tool for this research. However, IRI results should be regarded as tentative hypotheses or estimates of reading levels, and comprehension abilities. IRI results should be used with other results for verification of findings. The results of this research include findings from the analysis of data from the literature circles intervention strategy, the Male Mentor Reading program, and the book collection.