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* Do you want boys to write? Start a blog! A primary school in Greater Manchester, England, claims that getting students to blog has helped make writing “cool.”

Pupils at Heathfield County Primary in Bolton regularly write blogs which are published on the school’s website.

Formerly, boys especially were not interested in writing, said the school.

But the number of students blogging has flourished while their results have risen almost seven-fold.

“The enthusiasm levels of the children are really, really high,” said deputy head David Mitchell who has pioneered online teaching at the school which includes blog writing.”

* Eight fights not worth having with your children (Check out #2). Judith Ancer writes:

2. It’s not worth fighting with your kids about what they’re reading, unless they’re not reading at all.

* Local football players visit classrooms to inspire boy (and girl) readers. Reports Linda Stein:

Photo: Geoff Patton.

TOWAMENCIN —     Not even shoulder surgery could keep T.J. Smink from reading to students at General Nash Elementary School.

Smink, a center for the North Penn High School Knights who’s also a baseball player, was one of 70 football team members who fanned out to elementary schools in the district to read to younger children for the annual Reading Super Bowl on Thursday.

Cheryl Neubert, a parent who spearheaded the event in 2005, said the event  has grown over the years to include all 13 elementary schools in the district.

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“A lot of kids look at football stars as their ideals,” [reading specialist Stacie] Moseley said. “A lot of boys, reading isn’t their priority.”

* The Brown Bookshelf, an absolutely great blog, recently ran a terrific interview with author Torrey Maldonado, a public school teacher who has some things to say about boys and reading:

“If we want better men, we must get more boys reading, period. Boys from A to Z connect to Secret Saturdays. I joke and say I use a few magic tricks to grab the interest of guys. Here’s one secret: I wrote Secret Saturdays so alpha male teens wouldn’t feel soft carrying it. And they do. On one hand, a maximum security jail for high school boys asked me to visit because their inmates LOVE my book and, on the other hand, honor roll student-fans phone i

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* The Roots of Reading Planted Here: Judith Ancer, a Johannesburg-based psychologist, makes the argument for raising children in a language-rich environment.

* The Culture of Low Expectations . . . and How It Holds Some Boys Back: An education watchdog organization, Ofsted, concludes in a recent report that some schools “set their sites too low for children from disadvantaged groups.”

Many schools “limit their ambition” for pupils from deprived backgrounds because they do not believe they can perform as well as other children, said Ofsted.

A culture of low expectations often contributed to poor standards of literacy among large numbers of children at a young age, it was claimed, holding them back throughout compulsory education.

* Video Games Boost Brainpower, says research:

Parents, the next time you fret that your child is wasting too much time playing video games, consider new research suggesting that video gaming may have real-world benefits for your child’s developing brain.

Daphne Bavelier is professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. She studies young people playing action video games. Having now conducted more than 20 studies on the topic, Bavelier says, “It turns out that action video games are far from mindless.”

* Tips for Boy-Friendly Educational Approaches: The article, by Jeannette Kavanagh, looks at the literacy gap between boys and girls and offers these eight tips:

To ensure greater academic success for boys, our literacy teaching strategies must be more engaging for boys. We must:

* Allow greater choice in topics and the way assignments are completed, presented and assessed.
* Focus classroom activities on ways to harness boys’ energy.
* Ensure that lessons allow for movement rather than expect hours of sitting still and being sedate.
* Make learning more activity-centred rather than pen and paper
* Increase the range of literacy practices that are taught
* Encourage team effort and collaborative lea

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