Connecting Adolescents and Their Literature
Source: Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall
Topics: Teen Years (13-19), Preteen and Teen Reading, more...
A number of strategies exist that teachers and library media specialists can use to encourage adolescent boys to read.
- Identify role models and “catch” them reading. The American Library Association has a series of Read posters that reinforce this, but local personalities, male mentors, coaches, and community leaders can work just as well.
- Find things boys like to read and make them available.
- Include comics and graphic novels in the library and classroom.
- Make sure that both boys’ and girls’ reading interests are included on reading lists.
- Introduce an “all boys book club” (Haupt, 2003).
- Make magazines and newspapers available.
- Identify books that feature Brozo’s 10 positive male archetypes that are relevant to male development: King, Patriarch, Warrior, Magician, Pilgrim, Wildman, Healer, Trickster, Prophet, and Lover (Brozo, 2002).
- Visit author Jon Scieszka’s website for ideas: www.guysread.com.
- Display books where boys will notice them.
Excerpt from Young Adult Literature Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation, by K. Bucher & M. Lee Manning, 2006 edition, p. 46.
© 2006, Allyn & Bacon, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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