What Schools Can Do
The evidence from case studies on performance suggests that there are classroom strategies which can help underachievers - particularly boys.
- Sit under-achievers with high achievers.
- Offer clear targets for each lesson.
- Give information in bite-size chunks.
- Organize tasks step by step.
- Build in challenge rather than completion as a goal.
- Provide opportunities for group work, active involvement, practical work.
- Offer more discussion, role play, story writing.
- Provide models and frameworks to support different kinds of writing.
- Don't single out individuals for praise or criticism in front of peers - do it privately.
- Make homework tasks focused and brief, mark it and return it quickly.
- Use homework for extension and enrichment of class work.
- Take in and mark extended coursework in sections
- Teaching of writing closely linked to teaching of reading
To increase boys’ skills and confidence in school
- Provide confident teachers who:
- Have good knowledge of texts
- Provide texts that grab boys
- Offer choices of writing format when giving a task
- Adopt flexible teaching approaches
- Motivate and support
- Understand when to break the rules
- Give effective oral feedback on progress as well as written feedback
- Develop a classroom culture that encourages children to justify opinions
- Accept the humorous responses and language play often evident in boys' writing
- Provide opportunities for class and group discussions, with a focus on vocabulary choices in writing - "getting at what works best"
- Share own reading and writing
- Manage behavior effectively by minimizing disruption, accepting restless behavior as long as boys are on task, building physical activity into instruction, accepting interjections in the whole-class sessions, and using praise to get attention
- Same teacher for grades 5 and 6