Report on Boys’ underperforming in writing across the curriculum
25th March 2019
Nicola Jones
This report will be produced and copies available for:
Head Teacher Bryntirion Comprehensive School - Mr Pawar
Senior Mentor - Mrs Holloway,
Literacy Co-Ordinator - Miss Rimmer
University of Wales Trinity Saint David – Angella Cooze and Ishmael Lewis
(Further copies will be available if required)
This report was written in response to research undertaken over a period of eight days
on how and why boys in KS3 are underperforming in writing across the curriculum.
The report will make recommendations and possible strategies which could be
implemented across the school to raise attainment and the gap between boys and
girls writing skills.
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Outline of key points of theory
The aim of this report is to look at the reasons why boys in general underperform
compared to girls in KS3 and in particular in extended writing. It was noted during
classroom observations that boys generally engage well in lessons and contribute
meaningful information to lessons.
I have gathered information from a range of areas, including classroom observations;
speaking to key members of the SEN department, Literacy Support Officer and
Literacy Co-ordinator. A random selection of male pupils completed a questionnaire
on what they thought of extended writing and this information has been collated and
analysed. I have researched and used critical evidence as to why boys underperform
and whether boy’s development has an impact on how they react within classroom
conditions.
All the information obtained over the eight days has been scrutinised and
recommendations made on possible ways in which to improve attainment levels in
writing skills.
Outline of research undertaken in school/ current practice in school
After speaking with the Literacy Co-ordinator in relation to literacy skills in KS3, it was
apparent that there is a gap between the attainment levels of boys and girls in KS3 at
writing skills. The discussion included that it seemed that boys in general performed
better when lessons were structured and undertook well-informed tasks. The school’s
current level for boys performing at KS3 is 72%. The National average is 79% and the
majority of the boys were performing at level 5+. It was decided that the focus of my
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electives, would be to look at the widening gap between boys and girls at KS3 in
relation to their writing skills.
I observed several KS3 lessons including English, RE and History. (See attached
Proformas). I also met with Mrs Perkins of the ALN department and Hannah Skoines
Literacy Support Officer, where I was able to gain insight into what intervention
programmes are used within the school including Lexia, Wordshark, Rapid Reading
programme and BKSB. I also established how pupils are identified to receive extra
literacy support.
I identified that Mrs Skoines works with those pupils, whose standardised scores fall
between 85-115 (Old Basic Skills). Mrs Skoines has also been recently concentrating
on writing skills with pupils working over a 12 weeks period. This programme works
well, and it slowly looks at building writing skills in the form of using GCSE style
question booklet. The work is similar to what would be taught in class but at a slow
downed structed individual programme which helps pupils build the skills needed to
write effectively at length, this shows that structured lessons work well in producing
written work.
I then was able to observe several lessons where it was noted in the Boys Proforma
(Appendix C, D, and E), that in all lessons the boys actively engaged within the
classroom, contributing meaningful information to the lessons and participating fully
including offering information and hands up. When the writing task was approached
all boys engaged but not to the standard of the girls. It was noted when working the
classroom that the boys tended to write several sentences less than the girls. The
effort levels were that they wrote what was needed and there was no need for any
extra effort. From this observation I decided to create a pupil questionnaire, which
was completed by Year 9A, as to what the boys think of writing and their preferred
method of writing (Appendix B). Unfortunately, due to time constraints there were only
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9 boys in the class to complete the questionnaire and the responses were not as
revealing as I had hoped. I feel that if I have the opportunity to investigate this further,
I will change the questions to obtain more meaningful answers. The information from
this questionnaire indicates that boys think writing at length is “too much effort”, but it
was apparent that the majority of the pupils who completed the questionnaire preferred
group work to independent work. Out of the 9 questionnaires most thought that they
were good at writing but found when writing at length it was not stimulating and was
“boring”. Therefore, the question here is how do we engage boys when writing? The
problem does not stem from the lesson which all boys seem to engage and participate
in, but when the task focuses then on producing written work this is where boys
disengage. This problem can produce a myriad of questions to ponder on, whether
boys lack engagement due to cognitive development between 13 – 16 years of age.
Is it related to sociocultural differences? Or, are we as educators responsible for
stimulating boys into wanting to write more? If I had more time to undertake full
research perhaps these questions could be addressed.
It was ascertained that Mr Mark Vaughn Head of English, has implemented the use of
“Structure Strips” to assist with raising the attainment levels of writing across KS3 and
KS4. This structured approach appears to work and assist pupils in writing more
effectively and in depth. Other strategies which are already in place and works well in
engaging boy’s in lessons and prepare them for extended writing are:

Planned questioning – These questions are planned prior to the lesson and
start with simple closed questions and move on to the How’s and Why’s to
promote deeper thinking.

Hook – Boy's need to be hooked into the lesson and this can be achieved by
using a THUNK task. The task needs to be related to the work or task being
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introduced or taught. This could be started with questions such as, Would you
rather......? Or What is more important....?

Direct Instruction – By using direct instruction boys have a clear view of what is
needed. Further information on this is available (Rose and Shines Principles
of Direct Instruction).

Desk Writing – Mr Vaughan states that this is really effective in promoting
extended writing for boys. Where pupils use a white board and tend to write
more on this type of surface than in a book.

Another strategy which could be used to develop writing skills is that boys enjoy
being competitive and in class competitions for most work/inspiring work etc.,
works well.

Relationships – this is extremely important in obtaining the most out of the boys
within your classroom.
Conclusion: Connecting theory to practice
I believe that the only way in which we can even begin to address this is to understand
boys themselves and how they perceive writing within the classroom. Although the
answers from the questionnaire was inconclusive, it was apparent that all the boys
questioned believe that writing is “boring”. So, for this particular research how do we
change their attitude within the classroom?
According to Gina Holland (2006)
Engaging Boys through boy-friendly teaching and learning practices/strategies
believes that schools need create a, “Boy-friendly climate” (Holland, 2006 p.3), where
boys need to be supported and nurtured in three areas:

Learning

Identity
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
Relationships
Holland argues that these three areas are vital to the academic, social and emotional
outcomes of boys.
Strategies which Holland suggests include: Setting up Boy’s
working party involving pupil voice which, their suggestions could be embedded into
the School Improvement Plan, but care needs to be taken that girls are not left out and
their attainment levels suffer. The whole point of raising the gap is that boys achieve
similar scores to girls and not lower girls’ levels to that of the boys.
Complete learning walks (see Appendix F) the Boys Proforma is available from
https://schoolleaders.thekeysupport.com/ this allows members of staff to observe boys
in lessons and in the school environment to see how they interact with their peers and
staff in a controlled setting.
Holland (2006) also believes that it is important to provide staff professional
development in:
“(a) positive classroom management and organisation
(b) activity-based learning to meet a wide range of achievement levels
(c) developing new practices to assist teachers to improve their understanding of how
to create ‘boy friendly’ school and classroom environments.” (Holland, 2006, p. 7).
There is an immense amount of academic literature on the above problem, as this
issue is worldwide and not just a local problem. There are many books and academic
Journals available on strategies which can be used in the classroom including Bringing
Powerful writing strategies into the Classroom* by Harris, K., Graham, S., Freidlander,
B. and Laud, L.
Harris et al, (2013) believes the answer to raising the attainment levels of boys is to
create an evidence-based approach within the classroom. Harris et al (2013) believe
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that the most effective evidence-based approach is the, “Self-Regulated Strategy
Development (SRSD)” (Harris et al, 2013, p. 539). This strategy includes explicit
instructions through, “Interactive learning of powerful strategies for writing” (Harris et
al, 2013, p. 539) across all genres. Explicit instruction and knowledge is required
including background knowledge and correct vocabulary.
The self-regulated
strategies needed throughout the writing process is no different from what is normal
practice e.g., self-assessment, goal setting/success criteria but also to include selfinstruction and self-reinforcement.
This instruction is delivered across, “Six flexible, recursive and highly interactive
stages with a gradual release of responsibility for writing to students” (Harris et al.,
2013). These six areas are:
1. Develop and activate knowledge needed for writing and self-regulation.
2. Discuss it – discourse is critical!
3. Model it.
4. Memorise it.
5. Support it.
6. Independent performance
(Further information on these areas if required is available on request).
If we look closely at the above titles, some of these strategies are already in place
within the classroom such as the use of, “Structure Strips”, whereby students are
prompted to focus on their own writing and acts as an aid for boys to be aware of what
is needed in each paragraph. The strips are then taken away for independent learning.
There is no easy fix to the problem at hand, if there was, there would be no need for
this report, but perhaps some of these strategies could increase the engagement of
boys writing within the classroom and narrow the gap between Boys and Girls. This
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also coincides with Donaldson's (2015) Successful Futures where he believes all
pupils should be, “ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives”,
(Donaldson, 2015, p. 29). The proposed structure for the new curriculum, “Promotes
progression in children and young people’s learning” (Donaldson, 2015, p. 37).
Engagement is not the only factor to raise the attainment of boys writing within the
classroom, when trying to combat this problem one has to take into account the
sociocultural economic backgrounds of the pupils, we must consider their postcode,
their grouping whether they are FSM, LAC etc., and their ethnicity all these factors
contribute towards performance in school. Hawthorne (2008), states that we still have
to look at developing motivation for boys to write. Hawthorne (2008) argues that If boys
are reluctant to write whilst in education, then in later life boys will find that they are
unable to, “Engage fully with a society that requires proficiency in many written genres”
(Hawthorne, 2008, p.31). Hawthorn undertook case studies and research into this
topic and his results include that there needs to be an interest in a topic, or its apparent
relevance. This was the principal factor that the students attribute to engagement with
writing tasks. During his research Hawthorne’s findings included that boys were
concerned about how they felt that the topics were not relevant to them or anything
that they were interested in or even the need to complete the writing task. Donaldson
(2015) also states, “There is a real danger that we are teaching the mechanics of
writing but giving the children nothing to write about’. (Donaldson, 2015, p. 42). This
at the present time appears to be true with boys’ engagement in writing as they
currently feel that writing is not relevant and “boring” to engage with fully.
In conclusion, as established earlier, there is no quick fix for raising boys’ attainment
in relation to writing skills in KS3; there needs to be a strategic plan with a clear outline
of steps to be implemented. These steps need to be monitored and analysed as a
working document to ensure strategies and plans in place are having an effective
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result, not just in raising the attainment of boys’ but that girls’ attainment levels do not
drop. As my second PTE is at Bryntirion, I would relish the opportunity to research
this area further in more depth.
Bibliography
Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures
https://gweddill.gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf
(Accessed on 26th Marcvh 2016)
Hawthorne, S. (2008) ‘Students’ beliefs about barriers to engagement with writing in
secondary school English: A focus group study’, Australian Journal of Language &
Literacy,
31(1),
pp.
30–42.
Available
at:
https://ezproxy.uwtsd.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct
=true&db=eue&AN=28399415&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 25 March 2019).
Harris, K. R., Graham, S., Freidlander, B., Laud, L. (2013) Bringing Powerful Writing
Strategies into your Classroom Why and How in International Reading Association,
The Reading Teacher Vol.66 Issue 7 pp. 538 – 542.
Holland,G. (2006) Engaging Boys through boy-friendly teaching and learning
practices/ strategies, Available at
www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/content/download/715/.../holland-sabbatical-06.pdf
(Accessed online on 23rd March 2019)
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