1. Girls Will Be Girls and Boys Will Be Boys
Matching Reading Strategies to Gender Differences

2. Males Get 70% of D’s and F’s. Make up 80% of discipline problems
Make up 70% of learning disabilities
Make up 80% of those on Ritalin
Are 1 to 1 ½ years behind girls in reading and writing
Make up 80% of HS dropouts

3. Percentage of Males Who Are Undergraduates
Low Income – Less than $30,000
White 46 42
Black 32 36
Hispanic 43 39
Asian 53 51 47
ALL 44 40
Percentage of Males Who Are Undergraduates
Source: U.S. Dept. of Education

4. Percentage of Males Who Are Undergraduates
Middle Income – $30,000-$69,000
White 50 46 43
Black 48 42
Hispanic 51
Asian 57
ALL 47 44
Percentage of Males Who Are Undergraduates
Source: U.S. Dept. of Education

5. Upper Income – More than $70,000 1995-96 1999-00 2003-04 White 52 48 49
Black 41
Hispanic 50
Asian 54 51
ALL
Percentage of Males Who Are Undergraduates
Source: U.S. Dept. of Education

6. The Trouble with Boys January 30, 2006
“Thirty years ago men represented 58% of the undergraduate student body. Now they’re a minority of 44%. This widening gap, says Margaret Spellings, U.S. Sec. of Educ., ‘has profound implications for the economy, society, families and democracy.’”

7. Boys vs. Girls School Performance
Source: BBC News, 2005.

8. Brain-Based Teaching
“Should we keep trying to change our boys, or should we change the educational system in which they are now taught?” M. Gurian

9. The Trouble with Boys January 30, 2006
“Very well-meaning people have created a biologically dis-respectful model of education.” Dr. Bruce Perry
Houston neurologist

10. What are the differences?
Brain-Based Teaching
Male-Female
What are the differences?

11. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Girls
By adolescence, a girl’s corpus callosum is 25 percent larger than a boy’s. This enable more “cross talk” between hemispheres.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

12. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Girls
Because of the greater cross talk, girls are able to multitask better than boys. They have fewer attention span problems and can make faster transitions between lessons.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

13. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Girls
Stronger neural connectors creates better listening skills, more detailed memory storage, and better discrimination among the tones of voice.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

14. Brain Break
Tell a pun or joke.

15. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Girls
A girl’s stronger neural connectors and a larger hippocampus provide greater use of sensory memory details in speaking and writing.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

16. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Girls
Girls’ prefrontal cortex develops earlier and is larger than boys’. Girls have more serotonin and make fewer impulsive decisions.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

17. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Teens
“Teenagers are these emotionally pulsating creatures, so adults have to be ready to guide them, even sometimes doing the work of the frontal lobe by bombarding them with hypothetical situations: If a teen goes to a mall, what will happen to her homework?”
Source: Johnson, Carolyn for Barbara Green “Parents get look at teens’ brains.” Nov. 10,

18. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Teens
“Our jobs as adults is to serve as external frontal lobes.”
Frontal Lobe
Source: Johnson, Carolyn for Barbara Green “Parents get look at teens’ brains.” Nov. 10,

19. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Girls
A girl’s brain also experiences approximately 15% more blood flow, which is located in more centers of the brain than a boy’s.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

20. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Girls
With more cortical areas devoted to verbal functioning, girls are better at: sensory memory, sitting still, listening, tonality, mental cross talk, and the complexities of reading and writing.
i.e. The very skills and behaviors often rewarded in schools.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

21. The Trouble with Boys January 30, 2006
“Girl behavior becomes the gold standard. Boys are treated like defective girls.” Dr. Michael Thompson
PBS Series Author of “Raising Cain”

22. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Boys
Boys have more cortical area devoted to spatial-mechanical functioning and half as much to verbal-emotive functioning.
“Honey, why don’t you want to talk about it?”
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

23. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Boys
“Must Like Dogs”
Starring Joan Cusak and Diane Lane
“An emotional man? Who likes to talk? This is a mythical figure!”

24. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Boys
Spatial-mechanical functioning makes boys want to move objects through the air, such as balls, airplanes, their little sisters, or just their arms and legs.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

25. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Boys
Boys have less serotonin and less oxytocin, which makes them more impulsive and less likely to sit still to talk to someone.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

26. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Boys
Boys have less blood flow to the brain and tend to structure or compartmentalize learning.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

27. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Boys
The more words a teacher uses, the greater chance a boy will zone out. Boys’ brains are better suited to symbols, abstractions, and pictures.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

28. Brain-based Teaching The Minds of Boys
Consequently, boys generally learn higher math and physics better than girls. Boys prefer video games for the physical movement and destruction. And boys get into more trouble for not listening, fidgeting, sleeping in class, and incomplete assignments.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

29. The Trouble with Boys January 30, 2006
“Scientists caution that brain research doesn’t tell the whole story: temperament, family background and environment play key roles, too.”

30. Brain-based Teaching The Big Question?
Based on the behaviors we expect of students in schools and on the differences in girls’ and boys’ minds, how then do they fare?
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

31. Percentage of AP Exam Test Takers Who Are Female, 200390 70 66 64 58 54 50 32 30 24 21 14 10 10
Art History
Lit.
Biology
Env. Science
Physics B
Physics C Elec. and Mag.
Physics C Mech.
Comp. Sci. A
Comp. Sci. AB

33. Two-Part Goal for Teachers
Brain-based Teaching
Two-Part Goal for Teachers
1. Promote the expression and development of a child’s natural ability.
2. Help students compensate for areas of inherent disadvantage or fragility.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “The Minds of Boys” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

34. Enhancing Teaching for Girls
Brain-based Teaching
Enhancing Teaching for Girls
Use lots of puzzles to foster perceptual and symbolic learning.
Promote leadership by using working groups and teams.
Verbally encourage quieter girls.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

35. Enhancing Teaching for Girls
Brain-based Teaching
Enhancing Teaching for Girls
Play physical games to promote gross motor skills.
Take digital pictures of girls being successful at math/science tasks.
Use manipulatives in science and math.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

36. Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Brain-based Teaching
Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Use manipulatives that require boys to use fine motor skills.
Surround the room with books so boys get used to their omnipresence.
Make lessons experiential and kinesthetic—use technology.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

37. Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Brain-based Teaching
Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Use physical lessons so boys can work in a larger space.
Keep verbal instructions to no more than a minute. Don’t layer instructions one after another.
Use male mentors and role models.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

38. Enhancing Teaching for Boys
1 in 9 elementary teachers are male.
Boys have almost no role models of how to succeed in school, except as coaches, which only promotes sports.
80% of girls in Harlem talked about being doctors or lawyers someday
80% of boys talked of being NBA stars
America leads the industrialized world in fatherlessness.
Source: “Raising Cain” PBS Program by Michael Thompson

39. The Trouble with Boys January 30, 2006
“One of the most reliable predictors of whether a boy will succeed or fail in high school rests on a single question: does he have a man in his life to look up to?”

40. Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Brain-based Teaching
Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Expect healthy physicality and aggression among boys at times.
Create opportunities for boys to get up and move around.
Use brain breaks to revive boys during and/or after rest states.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “With Boys and Girls in Mind,” Educational Leadership, Nov

41. Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Brain-based Teaching
Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Use visual dictionaries and play word games, especially on the computer.
Take them to the library and introduce them to male role model readers and authors.
Link screen time with study rewards.
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “The Minds of Boys” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

42. Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Brain-based Teaching
Enhancing Teaching for Boys
One reason boys lag behind girls in reading and writing is because teachers don’t allow boys to read and write in a fantasy realm about what is important to them—aggression, violence, and death.

43. Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Brain-based Teaching
Enhancing Teaching for Boys
Provide reading material that boys enjoy.
texts filled with spatial-kinetic action—sports, science fiction, thriller and suspense
graphic and visual in nature—graphic novels and comics
technical and mechanical books and articles—car, aerospace, skateboard magazines
Source: Gurian, M. & Stevens, K. “The Minds of Boys” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

44. Text-Agree or Disagree
People search 1 2 3 4
Answer
Text-Agree or Disagree 1 2 3 4

45. People search Who were the two sides fighting in the Civil War?
During what years was the Civil War fought?
Give one reason why the Civil War was fought?
Who was the President of the United States during the Civil War?

46. Girls Will Be Girls and Boys Will Be Boys
Whose brain would react better to that activity?
Girls or Boys

47. P.L.A.N. Predict Locate Add Note

48. P.L.A.N. US Map p. 256 picture Four Years w/ V. Pres.
The Living Constitution – Article 2. The Executive
US Map p. 256 picture
Four Years w/ V. Pres. ! X
Equals # of Senators and Reps
What are the Terms of Office?
What is he Electoral College? ?
When is Election Day?
The Executive, p. 256 ?
What are the Qualifications?
What is the Salary? +
Natural-born citizen – p. 257
What is the Oath of Office?
What is Succession? ? !
Affirmation p. 257
Legend: X = familiar / ? = unfamiliar / ! = surprising / + = important

49. Girls Will Be Girls and Boys Will Be Boys
Whose brain would react better to that activity?
Girls or Boys

50. Contact Information
Bill McBride
432 Vicksburg St.
San Francisco, CA 94114
Phone/Fax:
Workshop Info:

51. Half the proceeds go to charity.
Teacher Price-$6.36
Half the proceeds go to charity.
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