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Welcome to Your New Wiki! This wiki can serve as a forum for our "Gender" group's comments about our summer reading. Feel free to add any links to resources you run across in your research/reading, as well as comments, ideas, questions to ponder, etc. We look forward to hearing what's on everyone's mind. Enjoy!

Getting Started

 * Click on the edit button above to put your own content on this page.
 * Add your notes, comments, etc. beneath the specific book you are reading. The page will stretch to accommodate all of your writing. You can compose your thoughts on a //Word// document and copy and paste it here, if you wish. I've taken my notes in a program called //Evernote,// a handy tool where I can access/add to them from my phone, computer, anywhere, as they are in the "cloud." Don't forget to save the page after you've added your comments.

Paul Savering:
How Girls Thrive by JoAnn Deak

These are a few “bullet points” from the book entitled //How Girls Thrive// by JoAnn Deak:

Values/Morality: The literature supports the existence of differing views and beliefs by gender. Females often use a lens of connectedness while males usually choose a lens of justice for the decision-making.

Affect: The affective system of the brain (also known as the limbic system) is the seat of human emotions. Although the cause is still hotly debated, the literature indicates that females are more significantly influenced than males by the affective system in terms of values, beliefs, and behavior.

In the book Mathematics and Gender by Elizabeth Fennema and Gilah Leder, the authors conclude (under the topic of Internal Beliefs) that “affective variables have a more important influence on the achievement and participation of females than they do on males.” Mary Belenky takes this data and suggests that teachers who take the affective component seriously and structure their classrooms, styles of teaching, and curriculum around this knowledge are much more successful with girls than teachers who do not take these factors into account. She dubs these teachers “connected teachers.”

Classroom structures: Research dramatically supports single-gender classes, especially in middle and high schools.

Pedagogy: How each teacher teaches influences the learning and interaction in the classroom. Some techniques are gender fair, others are not. Those techniques that the research supports as positive for girls are not negative for boys.

Air Time: Myra and David Sadker have discovered that in a coeducational setting girls, compared with boys, are:

- half as likely to be called on in class
These are suggested ways to reduce the imbalance of air time in schools:

- establish rules of discourse, such as “you may not put down anyone’s answers”
Modeling and mentoring are effective techniques for girls.

Doing: Don’t just talk about it, read about it, or think about it – //do// it. Whatever the “it” is, research supports the act of experiencing/doing is key to long-term effects on the doer.

Regarding self-esteem, remember “The Three C’s” : competence, confidence, connectedness.

=__Strategies for Teaching Boys and Girls__ - notes from Phy Chauveau=

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and ended up purchasing my own copy. It's a fascinating and valuable resource for sure. I've summarized the main points of each chapter.

**Chapter 1: The Science of Boy-Girl Learning Differences**
//One of the authors, Michael Gurian, shares, "We all know that there is immense overlap between the genders, and that there is an inherently sacrosanct individual not to be limited by a gender stereotype, but we also know that boys and girls learn differently right before our eyes."//

STRUCTURAL DIFFERENCES in the Corpus Callosum (bundled nerves connecting the two brain hemispheres,) Brain Stem (involved with processing emotionally charged incidents), Limbic System (involved with memory and emotions,) iand the Cerebral Cortex (involves the serious intellectual functions of the brain) indicate that:

need more time to process emotional content
PROCESSING DIFFERENCES also have an impact on learning GIRLS: have more access to verbal resources, and on average use twice the number of words that boys do (when they start school and throughout life) tend to process more data across the senses, and will therefore include more sensory detail in their writing

BOYS: have increased resources for spatial manipulation (because of testosterone) have a more difficult hearing certain ranges of sound

CHEMICAL DIFFERENCES: GIRLS gain self-confidence from active, healthy competition are affected greatly by increased estrogen levels (especially if a girl is overweight, as puberty comes earlier to them) estrogen can affect aggressive tendencies and this can have an effect on behavior and performance, as early as third or fourth grade are more motivated because of oxytocin (the "tend and befriend" hormone) and are therefore more motivated to

BOYS are motivated by healthy competition tend to score better on tests when testosterone levels are high (and these levels rise during competition, even against themsleves) have less seratonin once angered, which helps with anger management less chemically driven to establish and maintain relationships with teachers and peers

//All this being said, the authors add..."It's important to look out for children who might just think a little differently from others of their gender, provide a diverse array of ways to meet their needs, and validate them."//

**Chapter 2 - Keep "Em Moving**
Movement is beneficial - it increases "cross-hemisphere connections" to translate language into learning Music is a whole brain activity; when coupled with movement, it helps students to use both brain hemispheres Physical movement stimulates curiosity, and this, in turn, stimulates attention span Movement increases the brain's ability to pay attention, solve problems, and retain informaion Take brain breaks - there are great ideas on p. 23 in the book. Students often learn best by doing

Interesting note about movement and stress reduction- Research shows that "as long as the teacher lays out the ground rules for movement, ***and enforces consequences for when kids abuse the privilege**, movement reduces agression, decreases boredom, motivates leaning, and increases both avoidance of learning and fears that they can't learn

//*before introducing movement activities, allow time to discussion and rehearsal procedural expectations - don't lose control//

There are some great elementary "Anytime Brain Breaks" on pp. 23 - 32 of the book.

**Chapter 3 - Make It Visual**
A highly-verbal classroom setting might be comfortable for girls, but might not engage the "spatial" abilities. A mismatch between a child's learning style and a teacher's delivery style can be problematic. Visual spatial aids can help.

Mathematical estimations are made in the right hemisphere; computation is done in the left hemisphere By stimulating the spatial side of the brain, both kinds of math could be learned better.

It's important to maintain a good balance between the "visual" and the "verbal." Students who are more visual than verbal benefit from outining/organizing before writing> WHile this results in good grades, it also leads to greater confidence and motivation.

Visual imagery is critical. When you picture yourself performing exactly what you imagine, you create neural patterns in your brain, just like the ones that form if you had actually performed the action.

We need to "talk less" and engage students in tasks other than listening.

**Chapter 4 - Empower the Learner**
Guys Read- interesting website www.guysread.com

Be sure that students have the opportunity to read typical "school" materials, as well as "non-school" materials.

Try to be accepting of student writing that is "gross, violent, edgy, or silly." However, with regard to "violence" in writing...while we want students to make choices about what they write, they also have a responsibility to consider the "audience" for each of their pieces. If what they write is too violent for anyone who might be in that audience, they have not done their job,

Teach students strategies to become more invested in the writing prompts you provide.

**Chapter 5 - Get Them Learning Together**
Collaboration is beneficial on so many levels. The opportunity to "think out loud" is especially important.

Specifically, increasing social skills helps with all of the following: increased achievement, reduction in risk behaviors, positive school culture related to learning, less social isolation of students, increased creativity and problem solving, decreased level of stress, increased resilience.

Well organized social interactions create mutual trust among students, and a likelihood of reduced cortisol (powerful stress hormone.)

W. Keith Campbell, a psychologist who led research on social exclusion, reports that "social rejection can be a powerful influence on how people act." He found that there was "a direct link between social exclusion, brain activity, performance." Research has also shown that " girls who are socially excluded can perform adequately in the classroom, while boys who are low in the social order tend to perform more poorly." The girls surely feel the effects of their social rejection, but they seem to still be able to perform academically.

Team building encourages:
 * Self assurance
 * Mood management
 * Self-motivation
 * Empathy
 * Managing relationships

Benefits of team building:
 * Perseverance
 * Rules
 * Social Development

Helpful Hints For Team Building:
 * Safety must be the first concern
 * The goal is for students to work together, not to be the first to complete a challange
 * While cooperation should be stressed over competition, it should be made clear that competition is not always a bad thig
 * Meet the needs of specific student groups by changing the basic rules, equipment, or distances
 * Praise students for demonstrating examples of positive life skills, cooperation, or sportsmanship. You can even award points based solely on positive behavior or words.
 * Try not to solve problems for the students in group activities. Exceptions to the rule would be if they are struggling in ways that can't be resolved. At that point, modify the activity or give little hints. Don't make it so easy that they don't have to think for themselves.
 * The best part of group challenges is the discussion that comes afterwards.

Key Points: Social interaction is sometimes about product, but sometimes about process. Indeed, for young learners, the process can be the product. students' ability to manage their emotions and get along with others are among the most accurate predictors of future success in life.

Students who feel emotionally and socially safe in the classroom are better able to learn and retain what they have learned.

Team building activities, including literature circles, study groups, and vertical mentoring, all encourage and develop positive social interactions.

Many team building activities give kids the extra bonus of getting the opportunity to move!

**Chapter 6 Making It Matter**
T**estosterone (aggression chemical) is found in higher quantities in most boys' brains**, and this accounts for a lower threshold for making themselves malleable as learners. As a result: Girls are more likely to learn by pleasing the teacher. Boys can more likely feel "out of it" when learning is "disconnected from reality" and are more likely to become oppositional when it comes to doing homework an following through with assignments.
 * Oxytocin is found in greater quantities in most girls' brains**, and this accounts for why most girls are more willing to please.

Project Based Learning - transforms teachers from "teachers telling" to "students doing."
 * arises from a meaningful question
 * takes time
 * requires investigation
 * is semi-structured, requiring student input
 * follows a timeline with aticulated milestones to be reached along the way
 * requires a tangible end product
 * includes presentation for a real audience
 * includes moments of reflection
 * blurs subject area boundaries
 * blurs the line between slow and fast learners
 * creates a culture of accomplishment in the class
 * conceives of teachers as "coaches" or "facilitators" and students as "workers"

Competition
 * helps build a sense of purpose
 * hones interests and passions
 * leads us to focus and do more than just "get by"
 * for boys - ignites their testosterone-driven desire to compete
 * for girls (if it is healthy competition) - can build self-confidence and willingness to take risks

If you use competition in the classroom, it should be the kind that encourages students to put extra time into studying, preparing, and solving problems.

Ground rules for competition should include the following:
 * It's for learning - not for creating a rivalry or cutting others down
 * all individuals or groups have a reasonable chance of winning
 * all students have a firm understanding of the first two points

Real life scenarios are especially engaging, and culminating projects help to add authentic purpose to students' learning. Students care most when it can be connected to real life and real purposes.

**Chapter 7 - Art Smart**
Music, performance arts, and visual arts provide amazing "brain benefits" that actually help them do better in tests as they learn through the year.

Eric Jensen, author of Arts with the Brain in Mind says, The arts enhance the process of learning. The systems they nourish, which includes our integrated sensory, attentional, cognitive, emotional, and motor capacities are, in fact, the driving forces behind all other learning.

Early adolescence, (which begins in late elementary school) is an optimal time for students to study music.

A direct link has been shown between literacy performance and music lessons.

Reading, counting, speakign, and problem solving is enhanced through performance arts - this stimulates the vestibular system through movement, and helps children to think more creatively.

Boys will participate more fully in artistic endeavors when they aren't competing with girls.

Artistic endeavors can help in the development of brain areas that are responsible for: social skills emotional intelligence motivation self-discipline cognition memory

Music can be used strategically before, during, and after class, as well as during transition times.

Students are motivated by the use of technology with the visual arts. These include: Graphic organizers Drawing and painting on the computer Multimedia Tools Digital Stills and Movies

Benefits of incorporating the performing arts: requires students to work together, express opinions, listen to each other, and create meaning together requires active involvement by all provides a variety of roles and ways to participate driven by student interests, by what they already know, and by what is socially relevant develops new interests in students

"The arts are fundamental resources through which the world is viewed, meaning is created, and the mind developed." - Elliot Eisner

**Chapter 8 - Connecting With Your Students**
The student-teacher connection is valued all over the world and is stressed in many religions. Building strong student-teacher relationships is vital in creating a "safe" community. These relationships are strong predictors of school success. Students with disabilities need an even stronger need for a meaningful relationship with a teacher, in order to experience success. Gaining students' trust is the key - it allows them to take academic risks.

Compliment positive behavior, provide encouragement, and accept mistakes, but refuse to accept half-hearted efforts from students.

Ask yourself...would you like to be in your class?

QUOTE - "What the teacher is, is more important than what s/he teaches." Soren Kierkegaard

**Chapter 9 - Building Character**
Positive character is described as "the inward motivation to do what is right even though no one is watching." Character education is most effective when approached as a schoolwide initiative.

Three Domains of Character**:** Cognition (thinking) - deals with the "what." Affect (feeling) - deals with the emotional interpretation of perceptions, information, or knowledge Conation (acting) - deals with the "why." - deals with the "proactive" as opposed to "habitual" aspect of behavior, and is closely associated with the use of will, or the freedom to make behavioral choices. This relates to behaviors related to: -self-concepy -self-reflection -self-determination -setting goals

Students need help to understand and regulate each component of "character" in order to develop positive character traits with regard to both social/emotional and academic realms.

Your actions speak louder than words. Do the right thing, even when no one is watching. Don't let others' bad behavior serve as a model for you. Choose to do better. One person can make a big difference in this life. You are defined by your choices. Make good ones. Good character makes you a better person and makes the world a better place.
 * The Principles of Good Character:**

QUOTE - To educate a person in mind and not morals is to educate a menace to society." - Theodore Roosevelt QUOTE - Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong; it is character.

Interesting website: The Giraffe Project (www.giraffe.org) - challenges participants around the world to "stick their necks" out for good character

Children are natural helpers; there are physical and emotional benefits associated with being of service to others

Television Violence All but 18 of thousands of studies done since the 50s have determined that there is a link between TV violence and violent behavior. Parents and teachers must make carefully considered choices about exposing children to any media.

Bullying Systematic and sequential instruction in the area of bullying is an essential component in any character education program. Although it might occur, ask students to consider the following: -How did that person feel? -How might you have shown respect? -What is the most responsible thing to do at this point?

**Chapter 10 - The Home Stretch - Getting Parents and Students on the Same Page**
Parental support looks different based on the family's composition. At a minimum, parental support entails being sure that students: -attend school regularly -arrive on time -come ready to learn (includes being well-rested, well fed, and free from unneccessary stress

In the primary grades, school is "an extension of the family." The trust developed between and parent and child then must be transferred to the school staff, as they child grows older. Teachers need parents to help their children understand that the teacher must be valued like an extended family member.

Communication from teachers should be open, direct, ongoing, and cordial.

Purposes for communication include: informing follow-up asking for help sharing information informal exchange active listening

Remember that communication is 80% non-verbal, and only 20% verbal.

Differences between communicating with moms vs. dads:

Generally, mothers are just as concerned about fathers are about their children's success in school, but their focus might be different: Mothers - focus more on how the relationship with the teacher and school might be affecting the child's performance Fathers - more focused on how to improve the child's performance or behavior, in order to be a stronger student

__**Teaching the Female Brain**__ **How Girls Learn Math and Science**

 * Abigail Norfleet James**


 * __Boys and Girls Learn Differently__**

**__Misreading Masculinity__**
Misreading Masculinity by Thomas Newkirk
 * __Paul Savering:__**

The title of this book is a play on words. On the one hand, Thomas Newkirk is talking about our notions of masculinity as manifested in boys’ behavior, but, more to the point, he is talking about the concept of masculinity that appears in boys’ writing. He cautions us to “read” (not “misread”) with enlightenment the types of stories that many boys seem to write and to accept them for the important windows they provide us into boys’ thinking and interests. He documents the important contributions free writing provides for the healthy development of boys. Free writing allows boys an outlet for their energy and a vehicle by which they can process their thoughts about themselves, their worlds, and the resolution of moral and social issues that are important to them. He suggests that boys write from their own experiences and fantasies. Their writing may reflect their need for power (especially if they feel that they don’t have any power in their real lives), their need to express their physically active lives (and their frustration with the repression of that activity by so many authority figures in their lives), their fascination with topics that appeal to them and make them laugh (sometimes to the embarrassment of their teachers and parents), and their attraction to television shows, videos, and video games that depict violence, power struggles, and the triumph of good versus evil. They also demonstrate in their stories an affinity for other boys and an affirmation of male bonding and loyalty, which is uncomfortable for them to do in spoken or physical forms. Newkirk implores teachers to read boys’ stories with enlightened awareness, with open mindedness, and with tolerance for the often violent and repetitive topics of their stories. He says that the violence of the stories represents their desire for good to overpower evil, for a unit of people to work together for a cause, and to demonstrate mastery over an often confusing and troubling world around them. Newkirk differentiates between terroristic violence that we need to worry about and “innocent violence” that serves to advance a boy’s healthy development. If a story contains threats of violence to a school, to school personnel, to real students, or to specific adults in the community, then he says there is cause for concern and a need for action. If, on the other hand, the violence is generic, classic, or rooted in fantasy, then it is a violence that serves a noble cause. This can be a tricky business, for sure, but the distinction is an important one. Many boys (not all boys—we want to be careful not to stereotype) are attracted to television shows like “Beavis and Butthead” and “The Three Stooges”, to movies like “Dumb and Dumber”, to cartoons like “Roadrunner” (with its slapstick violence), to books like //Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid//, irreverent portions of Roald Dahl, space adventures like “Star Wars,” and to video games that require skill and violent undertakings to proceed successfully to victory through a series of steps and adventures. When they are asked to write (especially when they are asked to choose their own topics), boys often refer back to literary and cultural experiences that appeal to them. These sources are not usually the preferred topics or references of school curricula and teachers; they don’t represent ‘’serious” and classic works of literature or traditional films of high and noble character. Boys can be “put off” by these stiff and stuffy references, which tends, then, to stifle enthusiasm, performance, and creativity. This can alienate boys and cause them to disengage from classroom work. Newkirk encourages teachers to entertain and validate a larger range of cultural references (such as MTV videos, You Tube, and video games that are popular with boys). Newkirk also asks teachers to be patient with a boy’s choice to repeat themes and to fall back on a familiar genre of writing. The main characters of a boy’s stories are often his best friends (identified in the story by their real names). The boys often work together to save a planet, win a game, or win a war. The action often depicts violence, and success requires loyalty and team unity. The boys “have each other’s backs.” Sometimes boys weave girl classmates into their stories, usually with the girl’s permission. This is a way for boys to recognize (in a socially acceptable way) a developmentally appropriate attraction for a girl, admiration for her personality traits, and their acceptance as a member of the team. (If the girl character is mistreated, then Newkirk feels that this is an issue that needs to be addressed by the teacher. If the girl is a strong member of the unit and contributes positively to the resolution of the story’s problem, then her presence in the story signifies a healthy nod to the acceptance of girls as important figures in a boy’s life and to their contributions to a safe and accepting world.) This writing fulfills the “social work” of a classroom community for boys.

Quote: “…action narratives often explain why writing can become so popular for boys. Literacy too often seems unappealing and inactive to boys. It gets in the way of the need to move, to talk, to play, to live in and with one’s body. In one sense, reading and writing represent the choice of language over physical action, the vicarious over the actual. But writing time often provides the most open space (outside of recess) in the curriculum – a space to enact fantasies of power, adventure, and friendship. And as many boys claim, when they are writing these adventures, they feel themselves physically inside the stories. Rather than denying the physical needs of boys, writing can employ that energy- if we keep the space open for their play. “ (p. 178)

On the point of “accepting youth genres”:

“Turning children into precocious, adultlike performers, according to Rousseau, was a great perversion of the natural order – a deprivation of childhood itself. I feel this principle was abandoned in much of the early writing process work, when the model of the adult writer was superimposed upon young writers. Adult writers revise- therefore young writers should revise. Adult writers receive editing help from peers- therefore the same should be true for young writers. Adults write memoirs- therefore young writers should want to do the same… If the developmental principle is abandoned (as I think it often has been), the task of teaching becomes one directional- to teach the craft of practicing writers. We teach about leads and detail, conflict, setting, and other craft issues. But researchers like Dyson complicate this picture by suggesting that children often employ //their// cultural materials toward //their// ends, which may differ in significant ways from the ways adults work.

We might summarize some of the features of these “youth genres,” particularly the work of boys, as follows:

- Fiction becomes a way of assuming freedoms, powers, and competencies that the writer does not possess in real life. It is an act of wish fulfillment, not an accurate and realistic rendering of their actual, constrained experiences.

- The pace of narrative is quick. If there //is// reflection, it has to do with how the protagonists can handle a situation, not how an experience has affected them. The writing seems more cinematic than literary, with the pace of an action movie or cartoon.

- The writing works to celebrate and solidify friendship groups. Friends are mentioned by name, often like a roster of //dramatis personae//, at the beginning of a story. By employing shared loyalties to sports teams and popular youth culture, young writers also affirm their existence as a group, separate from adults.

- The writing often moves to the exaggerated, extreme, and absurd; the slapstick; even the silly. Any mention of the bathroom, underwear, throwing up is good for a laugh. Sound effects, another cinematic borrowing, are also more important than they would be for adults. (pp. 178 – 179)

Quote: “There is often a deeply social subtext to stories that might appear individualistic and combative. For many or even most boys it makes no sense to claim that competition (or conflict) and collaboration are //opposed// ideals; rather, boys regularly collaborate //through// combative play.” (p. 121)

Quote: “Girls’ attraction to violence raises a slightly different set of cultural anxieties. If boys’ violence “normalizes” the use of force to deal with disputes, girls’ violence normalizes their victimhood. In the fictional worlds they enter (through reading //and// writing) females are constantly in danger from stalkers, killers, vampires. To the extent they accept this situation as a given, one might argue that they become complicit in their own victimization. Forms of male aggressiveness can be seen as natural, while vulnerability and fearfulness are the lot of females. On the surface, it seems easier to understand boys’ craving for dominance (they can have a power that is denied them in “real life”) than it is to understand the well-documented pleasure girls take in vampire stories where they are cast as targets and potential victims.” (p. 133)