In the interests of improving gender equality, the 1970s and 1980s saw the challenging of stereotyping of girls and women in children’s literature. It was thought that the perception that girls had of themselves and of the opportunities open to them was influenced by their too often seeing themselves portrayed in domestic settings and in traditionally female jobs and professions. Publishers took note and both reading scheme books and trade books began to reflect a more plural and gender equal society. Research and thinking on gender issues was preoccupied with the evidence that boys often dominated discussion in mixed classes, sometimes with the teacher’s unwitting connivance (Swann and Graddoll, 1988). Then, as the 1990s got under way, there was a change of emphasis to a concern about boys’ relative lack of success in literacy. But it was already known that, in general, girls learn to read more quickly, say they enjoy reading more, read more widely than boys and perform better on reading tests (Baxter, 2001). So why did this issue come to the fore at this time? Part of the explanation is that the SATs, to assess children’s learning from the National Curriculum and National Literacy Strategy, revealed rather starkly that boys were behind their female peers when it came to literacy, or at any rate in the kind of literacy abilities measured by summative tests. Part of this mismatch is to do with the tendency of girls to mature sooner than boys and therefore to forge ahead in their literacy development. Boys may well catch up later on. But schools were pressed to ‘raise standards’ and the publication of league tables was a further spur to pushing all the children to achieve higher grades. Gender priorities at school changed to an emphasis on how to turn boys on to literacy.
Two things are worth remembering when we try our best to see that both girls and boys develop all kinds of literacy and competence in language use. First, children are individuals with their own preferences, interests and strengths. Not all boys are behind in literacy development and some girls contribute confidently in group and class discussion.
Second, a concern to help boys to improve their reading and writing competence in areas where they lag behind girls, must not make us neglect ‘the continuing needs of girls’ (Baxter, 2001, p. 3). The observations of Swann and Graddoll and others who have carried out studies on classroom interaction should still inform our practice. Elaine Millard (2001), Eve Bearne (2002) and Judith Baxter (2001) are all concerned that we should not approach gender issues in a competitive way but regard them as different aspects of ‘the same social and educational questions’. We are coming to realise that just as the principle of ‘inclusion’ requires schools to stress similarities and the ability of all pupils to participate fully within the curriculum so we must nevertheless understand the implications of the principle of ‘differentiation’ – that we need to respond to the individual differences and the differing needs of particular pupils. Very generally, girls and boys may have different needs when it comes to developing their literacy. Therefore, just as the entry on ‘Boys’ literacy’ concentrates on boys’ needs, the present entry looks particularly at what we need to bear in mind when promoting the literacy of girls.
Supporting girls’ literacy
Some girls need active encouragement to contribute confidently to discussion
Spoken and written language work together in children’s language learning; discussion, as well as contributing to learning, often precedes writing. So in the interests of developing both girls’ speaking abilities and their competence in related kinds of literacy we must make sure that silent girls are encouraged to speak out. One strategy is sometimes to have an all female group for discussion. When groups are mixed the teacher can help by appointing girls as ‘chair’ or ‘spokesperson’ to move them away from being ‘scribes’ and ‘helpers’. Girls also seem to appreciate time to prepare a contribution before the discussion group comes together. Some teachers find it helpful to ask a colleague to observe them teaching with some specific questions in mind. For example, we might ask whether the colleague thinks we have a fair way of appointing roles and responsibilities or how sensitively we select children to contribute.
Girls may need support in using the computer and multimedia tools and texts
Girls’ relative lack of interest in multimedia texts and activities risks them being disadvantaged in a technological world where familiarity and competence with these tools is becoming essential. So teachers need to actively encourage them. Reluctant girls need to be shown how ICT can be used to achieve their purposes in the classroom. It may be that some girls can be enticed into ICT by powerful multimedia narratives which tell a story through moving images.
Girls need to learn from non-fiction
It is often observed that girls, given a choice, will often choose to read fiction rather than information texts. Does this matter? I think it does because girls who do not read non-fiction hinder their acquisition of knowledge and understanding in English and other lessons across the curriculum. Girls can be tempted into non-fiction reading by offering them narrative non-fiction (Myers and Burnett, 2004). So it may be worth suggesting they read texts which have a natural narrative organisation – life cycles, journeys and ‘day in the life of’ texts – although my own observations suggest that younger boys and younger girls both benefit from this ‘information story’ approach to learning. I have also noticed that girls and boys, but especially girls, like non-fiction texts that tap into their preoccupations and feelings as well as ‘the facts’ and deal with controversial topics like endangered species, risks from mobile phones and the responsibilities of keeping a pet.
Girls’ interest in relationships is exploited by elements in the mass media. By the later primary years many girls read magazines which offer advice about diet, make-up, relationships with boys and of course they include advertisements. It is important that girls develop a critical approach so that they are less likely to be manipulated by this kind of reading material.
To increase writing range, we must convince girls that wide reading is important
Teachers find that where a ‘free choice’ of activity is given to young children girls were much more likely to seek out the writing corner than boys (Herring, 1990). As they get older many girls show a mature understanding of the emotional preoccupations of characters and their relationships, often using narrative and dialogue to tell the story. Of course the writing of both girls and boys reflects what they read (Bearne, 2002; Millard, 1997 and 2001). There is evidence that boys draw on their experience of reading multimodal texts so that their writing and imagery is often full of movement and sound while girls’ writing tends to use more static images. Accordingly, we need to encourage girls to read a wide range of texts in many mediums to support their thinking and learning and to encourage a broader variety of writing styles.
Girls sometimes need to prioritise content over presentation
Learning about good presentation, whether the work is handwritten or word processed, is part of producing a worthwhile final version. However, Browne draws our attention to the tendency of some girls to spend too much time on the careful presentation of first drafts. She suggests that they need to be reminded that content is more important, particularly at the drafting stage (Browne, 2002).
Baxter, Judith (2001) Making Gender Work Reading: The National Centre for Language and Literacy, University of Reading.
Bearne, E. (2002) ‘Multimodal narratives’ in Barrs, M. and Pidgeon, S. (eds) Boys and Writing London: Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
Browne, Ann (2002, second edition) Developing Language and Literacy 3–8 London: Paul Chapman.
Herring, A. (1990) What are writers made of? Issues of Gender and Writing National Writing Project, Walton-on-Thames: Nelson.
Millard, Elaine (1997) Differently Literate: Boys, Girls and the Schooling of Literacy London: Falmer.
Millard, Elaine (2001) ‘Aspects of gender: how boys’ and girls’ experiences of reading shape their writing’ in Evans, J. (ed.) The Writing Classroom: Aspects of Writing in the Primary Child 3–11 London: David Fulton.
Myers, Julia and Burnett, Cathy (2004) Teaching English 3–13 London and New York: Continuum International.
Swann, J. and Graddol, D. (1988) ‘Gender inequalities in classroom talk’ in English in Education, 22(1), pp. 48–65.
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