I found the articles on literacy and gender very interesting since I am met with the challenge of getting my own children to read, a boy and a girl. It is not always easy to find something to interest them, drama and romance for the girl, sports or dirtbiking for the boy - not always easy to find books for the boy! But I do beleive that even if they are reading a book below their own level - they are reading and they will become better readers by doing it. Pick up the comic section in the Sunday paper and read! After creating a glog for a literacy class, I showed my children and asked if they would rather create a glog instead of write a book report, using technology, music, current events etc to connect with a book they have read for school. Even my son thought it would be cool! They might not even realize they are learning!
The articles by Bronwyn T. Williams titled Girl power in a digital world: Considering the complexity of gender, literacy, and technology and Boys may be boys, but do they have to read and write that way? Touch on important aspects of gender, literacy and technology. Williams ended one of his articles with this statement:
What we need to teach students is how to recognize the challenges of the river; how to navigate it to get where they want to go; and, when necessary, how to turn the boat around and – slowly and with great effort – move upstream against the current. (Williams, 2006, p. 306)
This statement really stood out for me. We need to teach students skills, regardless of their gender, that will enable them to think, critique, distinguish, be creative. We cannot foresee what students will come up against in the future, but we can see who they are now. We need to teach them the skills of acceptance, diversity, creativity, and respect so they will be successful in society.
We need to rid ourselves of the stereotyping in many areas – one being in regard to literacies. Yes, girls like to read romance and boys prefer action and violence. This does not mean that adolescents are unable to distinguish between fiction and real life. Students need to be introduced to a wide array of genres but at the same time, they need to be able to read what they are interested in so they can become confident readers. If we respect what interests them, there is more of a chance that they will allow us to introduce them to something new and they will give it a chance. What we might see as violent, the real reader might see as “loyalty, courage, and the ability to face and transcend danger with a cool head and the help of close friends” (p. 513). As teachers, we need to listen to the students and give them the chance to teach us, let them show us what they find in the reading of their choice, or show us what they have tried to achieve in their own writing.
Williams spoke about reluctant classroom readers who might actually be ‘enthusiastic readers and writers in different contexts’ outside of the classroom. Bring technology into the picture, the idea that girls are not involved in or as good at technology as boys is old. Both boys and girls today text, blog, create wikis and facebook with clarity and speed. Bring technology to the classroom in a way that students can express themselves and their ideas in response to Shakespeare or Beowulf. The student that might shut down hearing of a five page paper due on the conflicts found in Romeo and Juliet might jump at the idea to create a blog, glog or movie trailer to show those same conflicts. Some of the same questions about boys and literacy address issues of girls and literacy. Girls should not be forced to read only about male heroes because that is what would interest boys.
This is a YouTube video entitled Gender Differences in Adolescent Literacy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ypNoRzr9AE
This video shows what boys need, but it also can be used in respect to what girls need. They need to have choices, to have their interests, ideas, perceptions and point of views listened to and respected. Students need to have positive role models, the chance to use technology, which they use every day, but they don’t realize they are learning as they are using it. Let students use technology to show what they learn. Give them different genres, graphic novels and magazines, not just wordy text books. This video reinforces my thoughts on literacy and genders.
The videos on Dr. Tuck’s blog really hit me from the standpoint of a parent. We do so much for our children, try to give them everything we think they need so they will have a happy fulfilled life; we want them to be happy. These videos showed parents that went against the old fashioned societal views of gender. They listened to their children, as young as those were, they were attentive to the actions and feelings of their children. The decisions they made to allow their child, born a boy, to follow his realization that he is really a girl had to be the most difficult decision they have ever made. I can’t say what I would do in that position. I had just seen an Oprah segment on the same subject so it was on my mind. I will say that I was shocked by the videos/show and I will admit that is because of the stereotyping typical genders that we have grown up in, a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl. In no way am I saying this is the way only way or that any way of looking at it is right.
This is a video clip that brings a question – are we rushing to label children at a young age?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78ND3vqPz90
The article by Darryl B. Hill entitled Categories of sex and gender: Either/or, both/and, and neither/nor connected to these videos. The concept of gender has always been male or female. The author states that bodily form is often connected to gender, the ‘either/or logic’. Some see gender as either/or – you are either male or female. Others see gender as a spectrum either/or being on one end, then there is the concept of both/and –where gender is a mix. “There are differences between genders…but that doesn’t mean that everyone who’s of one gender or another gender has all of them” (Hall, 2000, p. 28). The other end of the spectrum is neither/nor – “a third gender…a personal expression of who they were” (p. 29). There are many labels in society today, this is another label that some don’t want, they want to be themselves and to be accepted as they are. As we teach our students to be respectful and accepting of other cultures, that no one culture is the only right one, we need as a society to accept people that don’t feel they fall into the either/or end of the spectrum of genders. People speak differently, live differently and learn differently, we need to teach students to be accepting.This is a video clip on gender roles and stereotyping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIwWS2atEmc
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