Girl Power

After reading the article “Literacy & Identity Girl Power in a Digital World: Considering the complexity of Gender, Literacy and Technology, I agree that teachers are more aware of boys in the classroom. Williams states, “girls received less attention in the classroom than boys and les encouragement for their efforts.” After student teaching I realized just how true this is. Boys are far more apt to speak out and express their opinion. Whereas girls seem to be more reserved and let the boys run the show. Suring student teaching I created a rule that both boys and girls had to speak. I thought that this was fair because girls need to speak out. And if I made this rule, I thought that girls would become more comfortable speaking in class.

Another part of this article that I found interesting is when Williams states, “the gender identity expectations of the larger culture often manifests itself in literacy classrooms over issues of narrative violence and resistance to reading and writing that focuses on emotion and fiction over plot and action.” When I was student teaching, I had a discussion about the way Jack kills the pig in Lord of the Flies. During the discussion, the boys were eager to talk and the girls were very quiet with disgusted looks on their faces. Granted, the way he kills the pig is disgusting, but it was a necessary discussion to have. I responded to the girls by asking them why they looked so sick, and one girl responded by saying that girls just aren’t as violent as guys. While I was student teaching about three major fights broke out in the school and all three fights involved girls. So I brought this up to the class. Even thought girls shy away from violence, I find that it’s the girls in school who seem to be more violent than boys.