10 ways to successfully engage boys in school

We have a tragedy in America when it comes to connecting with and educating boys.

According to the book Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Strategies That Work and Why, boys are kept back in schools at twice the rate of girls. Boys get expelled from preschool nearly five times more often than girls. Boys are diagnosed with learning disorders and attention problems at nearly four times the rate of girls, Jessica Lahey wrote some years ago for The Atlantic. It still holds true today.

Lahey shared eight key approaches to classroom instruction that can lay the foundation for brighter futures for our boys. I added two others that address how we talk to boys. So, 10 ways to engage boys for successful academic outcomes are:

  • Lessons that result in an end product–a booklet, a catapult, a poem, or a comic strip, for example.
  • Lessons that are structured as competitive games.
  • Lessons requiring motor activity.
  • Lessons requiring boys to assume responsibility for the learning of others.
  • Lessons that require boys to address open questions or unsolved problems.
  • Lessons that require a combination of competition and teamwork.
  • Lessons that focus on independent, personal discovery and realization.
  • Lessons that introduce drama in the form of novelty or surprise.
  • Use Language that shows empathy.
  • Use Language that uplifts, inspires and encourages freedom of choice.

Without knowing it or planning it, my first interactions with students just so happened to be what boys needed. My goal was to make workshops, read-alouds, and classroom literacy instruction as exciting as possible. I wasn’t thinking about reaching boys. I was thinking about reaching children — and not getting booed off the stage — which essentially happened with a group of high school boys when I was an editorial writer. I had been invited to give a talk and mistakenly was scheduled to arrive in the middle of their recreational time.  Worse, I began my “motivational” talk by spraying them with stats about all the calamities that would befall them if they didn’t take it upon themselves to get an education.

How dense of me. They rebelled at what felt like a damning sermon, and, right at that moment, I understood they were doing the right thing.

I practically owe those boys — from so-called “low-income, single-parent families” and “high-crime neighborhoods” — my career. They taught me always to speak to children with empathy and encouragement, and make it clear that I have the highest expectations for them.

I encourage you to give just one of these approaches a try and let us know how it goes.

Want to stop ugly behavior in your classroom?

Play more games. Seriously.

How boys behave in class affects a teacher’s perception of their intelligence and potential for academic achievement. Negative behavior lowers a teacher’s expectations of his academic prowess.

This is another finding from the book Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Strategies That Work and Why, reported in The Atlantic by Jessica Lahey.

Behavior is such a consistent barrier to effective education that I wanted to share in this blog a powerful and practical way to implement one of the Top 10 strategies for engaging boys and eliminating behavioral problems.

Peppering instruction with friendly competitive activities is a key way to engage boys, and all children, in the learning experience.

Vocabulary “BINGO” is one of my favorite recreational/educational tools. It also was a big hit with Special Education middle-schoolers in D.C. who informed us they wanted to play more than learn academics. Homing in on a tactic to keep the students happy and still teach academic lessons, I invited them to create vocabulary game cards based on rhyming words, proper nouns, historical figures and places, and themes from our reading materials. We used those cards to play a “BINGO”-style game. Instead of B-6, for example, they’d place their chip on the vocabulary word. Their teacher and I awarded quarters (because I just so happened to have several rolls in my purse) and Reese’s Cups to the winning students.

A 6th grader, who represented the biggest behavioral challenge because of his unbelievably foul mouth and pugilistic attitude, won the most vocabulary games. He was the chief advocate of playing more games, and this particular day he was going home the biggest winner with $1.75 and three Reese’s Cups. He sat quietly, looked up, and then a wide grin spread across his face as he solemnly declared, “This is the happiest day of my life.”

The vocabulary game inspired a major turning point for him and the class. No longer did he curse a blue streak or threaten to beat up his classmates after his winning experience with the game.

Friendly and competitive games are not just about playing, although in a school setting, playing ought to be allowed and encouraged. Recreation, indeed, is also about healing. If our students and we teachers need anything, we need healing. Boys (all children) also need opportunities to succeed, and a game such as Vocabulary “BINGO” is an easy way to provide such opportunities. Each success inspires confidence that another one is possible. Soon the children become hungry for them.

If we routinely feed boys chances for success, we can look forward to classroom experiences where engaging boys is a cinch and a joy! Try vocabulary “BINGO” with your students and let us know how it goes, especially with boys that have exhibited troubling behavior.

Here’s to more Happy Teaching!

How to Read Books Like a Drama Queen or King

(So that your youngster will fall forever in love with reading)

You howl and growl
and laugh and scowl
and wiggle and twist
and change your voice
like THIS!

You make faces
and go to places
with imagination in the highest key.

You rhyme and sing
and soar like a bird on new wings.

You smile and play coy
and treat that book like a treasured toy.

However you read, read with joy
so those young listeners will think, “Oh, boy!

Books are my new friend.
Pleeeeease, please, please, please
read to me again!”