Ideas, Research and Readings:

Firstly, read what the research says:

Boys + writing can be success.

Once they are reading, use the following strategies for helping boys be successful writers:

1. Get to know their interests.
2. Provide regular, frequent opportunities for writing.
3. Allow as much choice for boys as possible.
4. Use technology and fun software. According to one student, “The computer makes it easier to get your work done.” One school suggests Comic Life. See “For Boys” in our white paperfor others and follow our weekly Resource Roundup for more suggestions. 
5. Tailor writing to boys’ learning styles.  For example, boys like to write short, specific essays.  Allow them to do this, and then work with them on expanding and elaborating.
6. Use role models.  See “For Boys” below for suggestions.
7. Use think-alouds and oral rehearsals.
8. Model, model, model.
9. Write WITH boys.
10. Assign writing topics that are relevant and related to real life. Boys tend to enjoy nonfiction more than fiction, and find it harder to connect “school” reading to their lives.
11. Provide stimulus material to give background knowledge about the subject on which they are writing.
12. Use the Six Plus One Writing Traits
13. Model how to use rubrics to support writing.

This is an amazing site with loads of great ideas:

TKI Success for Boys

An international study by Richard Hawley and Michael Reichert examined the narratives submitted by teachers and boys from 18 schools representing the United States, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa of specific lessons and practices that they deemed especially effective. “The successful lessons fell into the following eight general categories, each of which expresses a dominant feature of the lesson’s reported success: 

• Lessons that produced products 

• Lessons structured as games 

• Lessons requiring vigorous motor activity 

• Lessons requiring boys to assume a role or responsibility for promoting the learning of others 

• Lessons that required boys to address “open,” unsolved problems 

• Lessons that required a combination of teamwork and competition 

• Lessons that focused on boys’ personal realization (their masculinity, their values, their present and future social roles) 

• Lessons that introduced dramatic novelties and surprises 

Nearly every reported lesson included multiple elements, as when a teacher devises a game in which boys form teams to create a product that will be judged competitively. It appeared increasingly clear to us as we reviewed the teacher responses that these lessons had a distinct for-boys cast, a finding roundly confirmed by the boys themselves.” Story Starters is a resource that is specifically designed to be used in ways that tick the majority of these features. In summary, these resources are designed to engage and motivate boys because: 

• Content has been designed by boys for boys 

• The content is fun – in a boyish sort of way 

• They involve videos that require the boys to address open, unsolved problems 

• They involve team work 

• They enable teachers to engage with humour with the boys sense of fun and drama 

• They enable boys to connect with the teacher as relational learners 

Education Gazette - Boys will learn like boys. 

These quotes resonate with what I am seeing in class:

"soon became obvious that challenges among most schools fell broadly into two categories: engagement and literacy, particularly writing."

"We looked at it from the point of view that these boys are disengaged, but that they can learn: how are we going to re-engage them?”

“These were the boys who sort of switched off consistently, over a long period of time. Writing was a chore to these boys. It was something they had to do, not something they wanted to do: they’d made the decision that they weren’t any good at writing, and that it wasn’t for them, and that was it. They didn’t really value what writing was really about.”

Time Magazine. Helping Boys to succeed at Writing

More Ideas

1. Inspirations for writing: You can use these images to provide ideas and inspiration for writing in your classroom. http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/contents_writinginspiration.htm
2. Ideas for writing: There are some more writing ideas here from http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/ and https://docs.google.com/a/core-ed.ac.nz/present/view?id=ddf8kn4m_59zqzbv9gs
3. Direct links between literacy progressions and e-learning tools has been compiled here by BOP e-learning teachers: http://elearningbop.wikispaces.com/Senior
4. Blended e-Learning Literacy Group in the VLN has video tutorials of workshops and lessons sequences from Jill Hammonds and other VLN community members.

Mmmmm...so what can I do?