English for Real Men

1
English for Real Men

• Extra curricular evenings of writing activities
  at Hornsea School
• for Men only.

2
Why?

• In September 05 we looked at the data and our
  middle range boys were our most underperforming
  cohort in English.
• One of the main difficulties with them was
  getting them to write at all.
• This is a problem they took with them to other
  curriculum areas.

3
Who would we target?

• Established a small cohort of 28 boys in Year 11
  to start with.
• Decided to involve their dads.
• Targeted individuals invitations and letters
  home.
• Followed up with phone calls.
• Mentored sixth form, then other adults.

4
How? English for Real Men

• A special evening exclusive
• A totally male atmosphere writing is not just
  for girls
• Not just an English event staff from other
  areas and sixth form boys
• Great support from the management
• Definitely not a them and us situation.

5
What? English for Real Men

• Asked to bring an older male relative (human) or
  teacher
• Would they take it more seriously with just men?
• Would they have more confidence to write with
  other men?
• Would they want to outsmart their dad / the head?
• All proved true.

6
Blokey English

• Not a teaching situation staff did the
  activities alongside the boys
• No reference to exams
• No worrying about technical accuracy
• Focus on imaginative, lively writing
• Shared outcomes
• We wanted everyone to leave knowing that they
  could write well and have fun doing it.

7
On arrival

• Displays of recent news that we knew the boys
  were interested in
• George Best
• Cricket triumph
• Gruesome football injuries

8
Blokey stimulus material

• Kes the bit with the football match
• All the dads know it
• Character list given
• Some examples of the kind of writing we wanted
• They connected well with this.

9
Mens magazines

• A high powered faculty meeting trawling through
  these
• Found an article in Nuts on a beer lorry catching
  fire
• Made an activity sticking arrows and labels to
  language features
• Led into writing task in similar style.

10
CHIPS

• Greasy on the outside, sticky even, crunchy
  exterior, but soft and warm on the inside
• An essential part of the evening very important
  to the boys.
• Taken with Peter Kay in the interval.
• Yorkie bars theyre not for girls.

11
After chips

• Set up a situation that was local The Great
  Chip Kidnap
• Involved the head and deputy in comic way
• Review of a music video
• Chili Peppers or Queen
• Reluctant boy writers wrote pages about Freddie
  Mercury.

12
Girls Evenings

• Response to requests from the girls
• Similar format but different material
• Representation of women in music videos
• Pink and fluffy
• Raising self esteem
• Using IT Dove website

13
Is this quantifiable?

• Impossible to know what real difference the
  evenings made.
• We believe it made a difference.
• 21 of original 28 boys targeted for this
  intervention achieved their C in English good
  result for this cohort of fairly disaffected
  middle range boys.

14
Impact on whole school results?

• 2004 51 5A-C from target of 51
• 2005 64 5A-C from target of 52
• 2006 64 5A-C from target of 56
• English for Real Men was one of a range of
  measures in place at the school.
• This ran alongside single gender arrangements in
  our borderline groups.

15
November entry

• 9 boys achieved C or B in November (8 were over
  target)
• Parallel girls group did really well(16 C, all
  but one over target)
• Those successful went on to do Literature
• Combined band 3 cohort exceeded target (0.5)
• Girls came in way over target (0.9)
• A significant number of these are now doing A
  level English.

16
Comments from the boys on the evening

• It felt easier to write about things you see than
  have to imagine them.
• Several asserted they did feel more confident
  about writing afterwards.
• It was useful to work with other men.
• Dads views were just as interesting.

17
One dads view

• I sometimes find it difficult to engage with X
  and his homework because he either thinks I am
  criticising or I dont understand the context.
  Doing something like this enabled me to
  participate with him and for us to engage and be
  creative together. We do this with other aspects
  of our life together but not in school work. It
  could have been done a bit earlier