Scieszka, J., (2002). Guys Read. http://www.guysread.com
Scieszka is heavily involved with children's literature, including teaching and writing numerous books. He has
also created this informative website to create awareness of boys literacy. Through this technology, Scieszka
wants to motivate the adults, from teachers and parents to the publishers. Like other people, he too is
concerned that boys score lower on standardized literacy tests than the girls do. He also noted that boys are
more often placed in remedial classes or even held back. Scieszka feels there are not enough male role models,
boys are slower at developing reading skills, and that many books are not appealing to them. He does offer
some possible solutions, such as getting more men as role models reading, form a Father-son book club. For
instance, they could "meet at a gym to talk about books, and then run around too." Also, let the boys know that
non-fiction is reading too. His goal is to make noise and draw vast amounts of attention to boys literacy.
Short, K., Kauffman, G., Kahn, L., (2000). I Just Need to Draw: Responding to literature across multiple sign
systems. The Reading Teacher, 54. 160-171
This was a great article which addressed the issues of making and responding to meaning when children have
completed reading literature. During a study of two classrooms, they feel that children should be encouraged to
use many different responses, or "sign systems," as they call it. The authors feel this way because, in their
regular lives, children "move between art, music, math, drama" and various others. They came to this because
they feel that when many children were responding in journals, some felt it necessary to incorporate drawing.
The students should be given the choice of what activity they feel will best describe what they thought the
story, or poem meant. Meaning that not every child will do the same activity, which in turn, will create more
diverse thoughtful responses. Through the study of the children, and the use of several sign systems, the
children felt that the "availability of a range of systems gave them the opportunity to think more broadly."
Simmons, J. Spotlights [Online]. Accessed 07/02/02: http://www.scre.ac.uk/pdf/spotlight81.pdf
Simmons believes that as soon as a student enters the secondary level, regular reading should be taken place, to
encourage reading in a positive light. To lessen the gap between boys and girls, she speaks of a Reading incentive
Programme. It is a voluntary program for both boys and girls, where they read a wide variety of genres. The
program has three levels-gold, silver, and bronze. She notes that when the program was over, she observed
boys taking out more books than before. But also to encourage reading, the local football team coach came and
presented the certificates, and the children could have their picture taken with him, and have it in the
newspaper. At first the program only allowed fiction books, but after the boys were questioned, they could
read anything. On world book day, the results were shocking, Simmons noted that "for the first time, equal
numbers of boys and girls received certificates." In conjunction with single-sex meetings once a week, the
program was a success, and continues every year in this school.