Reading Don't Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men

For me, this book was incredibly eye-opening and yet nothing new all at the same time. I'm afraid my insights are not terribly scholarly and echo my own thoughts that have been growing since I left my teaching job in D.C. Students are individuals. This is a quote from one of my favorite authors: "You learn to read so you can identify the reality in which you live, so that you can become a protagonist of history rather than a spectator". I believe this is true regardless of your favorite genre. I think reading done right is a terribly personal process. There are no magical answers and insights. The wonderful thing about this book is that it confirms the intuitions of great teachers everywhere and provides tangible evidence of what many of us already knew: that boys can learn to love and appreciate literacy but that we need to know and appreciate our students before they can appreciate what we have to offer.The process of teaching is so much more than just scaffolding and breaking things down into steps. It is looking at each individual student and facilitating their self discovery. I suppose I am very constructivist in this way. Every student learns differently, likes something different. All boys don't like the same thing, they are individuals and we need to learn who they are and what they like as individuals. Another quote from my favorite author:"The very least you can do in life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope". We need to find out what the hopes of our boys are. The writers offhandedly suggest encouraging boys to give you a song a week that they love, and using this to dialogue with them and learn who they are. It sounds like it has nothing to do with reading and yet it does, because reading is an interaction between the reader and the text, and hopefully it is a conversation among peers and colleagues as well.This is a worthwhile read for any teacher, even those with experience because it contains the voices of our students. It reminds many of us of what we have forgotten, to interact with our students and ask them what they want and need.

A useful and helpful book for instruction. Wilhelm offers insight into teaching male readers, and a wide variety of students.

I am a preservice teacher and wanted to get into the mind of some of my students a little bit. I found this book somewhat helpful but nothing groundbreaking.

Boys require a different approach for teaching as they learn differently.My hope is that this book, me, and my grandson(s) can learn somethingthat will benefit their life and careers.I see different learning ways and attitudes with them from this generation.

Great books for young boys

thanks

This an informative study of reading in the high school setting and why we are having so many problems interesting boys in literacy.

As someone who drove a beat up Chevy truck in high school and enjoyed action movies, I might have read some action stories if they had been assigned by my teachers. The only time during high school that I read any literature was one summer when I found a pulp action story on the ship’s library in Alaska. This was the first time I recall enjoying the act of reading literature. It’s too bad that boys have few opportunities like that in school. Wilhelm addresses the “problems adolescent boys encounter in school, especially in reading and writing,” and it’s good that somebody is addressing this problem because boys suffer in silence, often forced to read literature that doesn’t interest them, and they may learn to resent reading and writing in the public schools. It doesn’t have to be this way: The authors have identified the factors that motivate young men to read and pursue excellence. When young men are motivated, they change. They become achievers. They get interested in what teachers have to say.Because has reading become relevant.This book is loaded with information about what motivates boys. It shows the world from their point of view. Every literature teacher should own two copies.