The Boys Writing Project: What Boys Have to Teach Us About Teaching

• In Event: 54.080 - Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: 54.080-19 - Teacher as Researcher Reimagined: Building New Ways of Thinking and Acting for Educational Equity

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to share results of an action research project aimed at addressing the problem of boys’ underachievement in literacy. I taught a boys-only writing class in my third grade class at an overseas American school. I describe what the boys taught me as we constructed writing workshop, then illustrate my process of critical self-analysis. Results suggest that I needed to change how I valued talk, student autonomy, and how I made space for shared responsibility in the management of the workshop. The lessons I learned have implications for transformative practice in elementary and middle school education with the goal of making literacy teaching more equitable.

Author

• Sharon Besser, Edgewood College