Newsletter – 19 March 2021

The Learning Gap Report 2021 (Lee Walker and Anne Bayetto) has recently been published by Oxford University Press. The report analysed student NAPLAN writing data and revealed that there is a decline in boys writing proficiency by year 7. Some of the key findings of the study include:

• The language that boys use to construct their writing is different to that of girls. Boys tend to use fewer descriptive verbs, adjectives and adverbs in their writing and more proper nouns. Using fewer descriptive verbs, adjectives and adverbs means that writing can be more repetitive and less precise in its intended meaning. Consider the difference between the following sentences: ‘The boy meandered along the river bank, absent mindedly kicking a tin can’ compared to ‘The boy walked along the edge of the river and kicked a tin can.’ The first sentence is more sophisticated and precise compared to the second sentence which doesn’t reveal details that add colour and shade to the writing.
• Boys and girls write about different things. The writing of boys tends to be more action orientated whereas girls are more focused on relationships and feelings in their writing.
• Boys often feel social pressure from their peer group not to publically display their knowledge. This causes many boys to avoid engaging in class discussion which is a critical time for learners to use their vocabularies. Research indicates we need twelve encounters with a new word (speaking, listening, reading and writing) before it becomes part of our vocabulary. By not speaking up as frequently in class, boys are not getting this practice at using new words which limits the size of their vocabularies.

Some ways that schools and families can support and extend the writing of boys include:

•   – Encouraging boys to write about topics that interest them, including action, fantasy and slap-stick humour. Encourage boys to slow the action in their writing down and make explicit how characters feel about their actions and interactions with others. 
•   – Exposing boys to a wide range of reading genres to ensure they are exposed to texts that interest them and also wider range of words. We want students to continually widen their vocabularies and use these words in their writing.
•   – Promoting masculine identities that value thinking, learning, reading and writing. Help boys to see it as ‘cool’ to be smart and to speak up and voice your ideas.
•   – Engaging boys in small groups and ‘one to one’ talk to build their confidence. Boys lacking confidence are often reluctant to speak up in front of their peer group.
•   – Communicating high expectations of learners from both genders.

If you are interested in this research, you can read more at https://www.oup.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/174851/PRIM_LanguageGapReport_2021_LOWRES-002.pdf

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