The purpose of this action research was to implement four close reading strategies (Aha moment, Hmm moment, B.U.R.N. strategy, and R.A.P.) and evaluate its impact on fifth grade African American male students' reading comprehension skills and their experiences with reading at Wisteria Lane Elementary. This intervention study focused on two…

African American males have consistently scored lower than their peers on national reading assessments for the last 50 years (Ladd, 2017). These readers are among many students who find their reading motivation wanes as they matriculate through school. Reading attitudes of middle schoolers are also generally negative. This qualitative case study…

African American males often struggle with reading motivation and reading achievement. The problem addressed in this research study was that low reading motivation in African American males is associated with low scoring on standardized and summative reading assessments. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the reading…

Boys have long been positioned as marginalised participants in the education system, where categorical notions of boys as failing and girls as achieving persist. These ideas have played out strongly in western societies in the areas of literacy and reading, with a convergence of boys and literacy 'crises'. While it has been documented that some…

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a collaborative inquiry group of middle school ELA teachers who were utilizing the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) framework to create a virtual library of e-books, examine students' reading motivation data, and implement classroom practices intended to increase student reading value, motivation,…

This single instrument case study illuminates the aesthetic transactions an adolescent male student constructs in response to an experimental Gothic studies reading unit implemented by his cooperating teacher over a sixth month period in his seventh grade ELA (English/ Language Arts) class. Ray is described as ''lazy' regarding academic reading…

Much has been written about the "boy crisis" in the last two decades in regards to achievement in school and the struggles boys face in literacy learning. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data demonstrate that girls consistently outperform boys in reading and writing (Educational Alliance, 2006). Therefore, the…

This qualitative study used a triangulation of survey, conversational interviews, and observations in an authentic setting to explore the phenomenon of reading motivation from the perspectives of a specific group of individuals. Five participants, all African American fifth grade boys qualifying for meal subsidies, gathered in a local youth…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to describe the motivation to read of elementary African American and Hispanic boys and explore the possible differences in reading motivation using the constructs of self-perceptions as a reader and value of reading. Educational research has repeatedly shown that students from disadvantaged minority…

Houston Real Men Read is chaired by Texas Senator Rodney Ellis and spearheaded by the Houston Independent School District (HISD) Board Trustee Paula M. Harris. Houston Real Men Read is a mentoring program in which men from the Houston community committed one hour, once a month, to read to second, fifth, and seventh-grade students. The program…

Houston Real Men Read, chaired by Texas District XIII Senator Rodney Ellis and spearheaded by Houston Independent School District (HISD) IV Board Trustee Paula M. Harris, is a mentoring program in which men from the Houston community committed one hour of their time, once a month, to read to second, fifth, and seventh-grade students. The reading…

National concern about the reading proficiency of adolescents and the alarming statistics on the literacy achievement of African American males have created much interest in the topic of "motivated literacy" for researchers, policy makers, and educators. African American twelfth graders perform at the same level in reading as White…

Based on more than twenty years' experience working to get boys interested in reading, the author now offers his first readers' advisory volume. With an emphasis on nonfiction and the boy-friendly categories of genre fiction, the work offers a wealth of material including: (1) Suggestions for how to booktalk one-on-one as well as in large groups;…

This article is about a book club for middle school boys. The idea of a book club for boys came from the author's concern about what he had been hearing and reading about boys falling behind in their reading abilities. The purpose of establishing the club was to discover from the boys themselves what could be done to support them in their reading.…

As a middle school librarian in Austin, Texas, the author has been running weekly book clubs for years, which covered many genres that appeal to a wide cross section of kids. When approached by a group of Latino boys from low-income families, the author was inspired to run a Bluford High book club for reluctant readers. The author shares how she…