DAY TWO

The second day of my practical visit, involved another Library session first thing in the morning. I had intentions of purposely identifying the types of books the students would be borrowing from the Library, both for school and personal reading material. In terms of borrowing, I had noticed boys had a tendency to go for books that had attractive front covers, whereas girls focus more on the title of the book. Interestingly I observed that boys tended to dwell on the motions of finding a book, where as girls tended to grab a book almost straight away. I have noticed the location students live in commonly determines whether school practices are exercised in the home environment. In my school it is apparent that most of the students only complete learning activities during school hours. However, I am aware there are schools in different areas where students have allocated time to complete school activities in the home environment with a parent or guardian. In addition, it is clear to me that boys tend to be more active in extracurricular activities, which are sport related in comparison to girls whom involve themselves in extracurricular activities related to their education such as book clubs. Reading is generally associated with girls and viewed by young boys as anti-masculine (Alloway, Freebody, Gilbert & Muspratt, 2002, p. 48). In addition, boys found independent reading more difficult to undertake (Alloway, et al., 2002, p.48). Millard (1997, p.157) found that boys and girls read texts from different genres. It is stated that girls tended to enjoy reading fiction books while boys preferred to read books with real-life relevance, scientific and historical plot lines (Millard, 1997, p.102). As teachers we must be aware to cater for the differences in our students interests, NSW Professional Teaching Standards 2.1.4 “Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of students’ skills, interests and prior achievements and their impact on learning” (New South Wales Institute of Teachers , 2006, p.4). Also, due to societies preconceptions I have noticed that boys follow this trend as they see their role models performing acts of sport rather than reading or writing, where as the girls seem to recognise the need to further their education outside of a school setting. Following on from last week’s blog, in this school setting it depicts females playing the dominant roles as educators.
REFERENCES :
– Alloway, N., Freebody, P., Gilbert, P., Muspratt, S. (2002). Literacy, Gender and Boys’ Education: The – Background of Theory and Research. Queensland: JS McMillan Printing Group.
– New South Wales Institute of Teachers. (2006). Professional Teaching Standards, Retrieved 4 February, 2009 from
http://www.nswteachers.nsw.edu.au/Main-Professional-Teaching-Standards.html