The ambassador for boys and literacy
At the 2009 CCIRA reading conference, I had the privilege of meeting Jon in the hallway, as well as listen to a two-hour presentation by him and three other authors. The following is a list of various things that he discussed during his portion of the presentation.
His personal background
- He grew up with five brothers and spent 12 years in a Catholic school
- His daughter is writing a graphic novel
- His son Jake viewed reading and work. This inspired John to write the Time Warp Trio series
"We need to let them fly around sometimes"
Throughout his entire childhood Jon and his five brothers were always creating amazing stories. Stories that they would carry with them throughout their lives. Many of these stories prompted his father to refer to him and his brother as knuckleheads. As a classroom teacher, John viewed restless and rambunctious "knuckleheads" with a lot more patience and understanding.
I couldn’t help but recall back to when I was a classroom teacher. Many of the boys that were funneled into my classroom were rambunctious just as he described. I quickly discovered, too, that boys respond much better when teachers can demonstrate patience and understanding.
Other things he mentioned
- He doesn’t like writing just for boys
- He had the entire crowd laughing when he recalled a fun book from his childhood days. The book was titled, The Twits by Roald Dahl. He described the part in the book where Roald Dahl compared the grandmother’s pursed lips to a dog’s bum.
- He described how his son’s entire fourth grade class was required to read Little House on the Prairie and how torturous this was for his son. I couldn’t help but get frustrated with the teacher.
- He discussed how 10 years ago it was much more difficult to talk about the problems and issues revolving around boys in literacy.
- A good quote from Jon – "We need to go and play around with reading, to play around with kids."
- Crossing swords with his brothers (need I say more?)
His suggestions
- The biggest thing is to find books that boys like
- Don’t stereotype genders. Don’t make boys feel awkward or left out.
- He spent some time discussing his new early reading book series called Truck Town. He spent a good portion of the school year sitting in observing students in a preschool class. His observations helped him to create the characters in the series.
Question to Discuss
What knucklehead behaviors have you experienced with boys?
Holli
Wait. Don’t stereotype genders, but we’re supposed to sympathize with the poor, bedeviled boy who had to read a book about a girl? ARGH! Come on! That is classic American literature that delivers a hefty dose of history, too. He’s going to have to read books he doesn’t like for the rest of his school career. Encouraging him not to like a book because it’s about a girl does both him and women in general a major disservice. I love Jon and his books are great–we own many and are working on completing the collection. I just don’t appreciate it when girls are treated like second-class citizens.
vanessa_cruz0615
Boys are different in many ways, as they say. They like to play more than to study, they are more aggressive than girls. They are more into physical activities than anything else. Sometimes they need more attention. But I’m sure with patience and more understanding those knucklehead behaviors will be lessen.
samanthajr
I think that most parents do see their children as knuckleheads for the stories they come up with. I think that they should let them imagine things. With a good imagination you can get into a book easier.
Debby-6-Kids
Oh that is the question of the day to a mom of four boys! What knucklehead behaviors do I experience with the boys? Hmmm, when am I NOT having this behavior? My boys are your typical run of the mill boys. They love to hide things on one another all the time. They love to tell huge ‘fish’ stories as I call them and before they are even done the stories they are laughing so hard I cannot understand what they are saying. Boys are boys and they love to be active and have fun with life. Tapping into how they naturally are is one of the best learning tools we can use.
Mike McQueen
It’s such fun to hear these stories about boys. I hope to get Jon Scieszka to write a post or two for us. When Jon mentioned crossing swords, I couldn’t help but smile at some fond college memories. Of coarse I will spare you any more details, but let’s just say boys of all ages can do silly things!
Chuck
That’s funny Deb. When are you NOT experiencing this knucklehead behavior from the kids? It hard to have four. Imagine how many I have. 40-45 per class. All in their raging hormone years. Even if the classroom is a controlled environment wherein learning is facilitated there are still a lot of knucklehead experiences which I have encountered. Just a few examples:
1. Someone would fart. I don’t know why but to some, it is already funny and not that gross.
2. There would be the class clown who butts in every now and then.
3. Then there is also the know-it-all student.
4. Guess what, there’s also a student who negates everything you say.
5. There are the chatterboxes
6. There are also supervisors (who keeps on standing and moving around)
The list of knucklehead behavior goes on and on.
Maybe you can add to the list.
Debby-6-Kids
Oh, I do not envy any teacher let me just say that. I have often said I really do not know if I could deal with the students day in and day out. At home if I am not feeling 100% then I can always retreat from the kids a bit. I can read to them and then they scoot off and do their own thing. I have the upmost respect for you folks.
keith at ela
Chuck’s list of knuckleheads is a good one. Keep up the good work Chuck. There is one more knucklehead I can think of in the classroom and that is the teacher, who just keeps on demonstrating how clever and knowledgeable they are but actually teaches nothing. They forget that the most important person in the classroom is the student and not themselves.
Chuck
@ debby. That was so funny. You really made me laugh. I just woke up and started the day reading blogs. Reading does make the kids scoot off. And thanks for the comment. It is really a noble job to be a teacher but I think your job as a mom is a 24-7 job unlike teachers like us who can clock in and out during weekdays only. Honestly, your job is harder than mine. Kudos to you as well.
Chuck
@kieth. I think that is the worst knucklehead of all inside the classroom. One math teacher of mine would always say, “An empty can makes a lot of noise!” I guess this applies not just to noisy classes but to teachers that are pretending to to be know-it-all teachers. True indeed, the main stakeholders of the school are the students.