Abstract of

First Person
Tuned Out but Turned On: Boys' (Dis)engaged Reading In and Out of School

Sean Cavazos-Kottke

The author reflects on contexts of language arts instruction that alienate boys from active engagement with academic literacy practices. He considers the impermeability of the language arts curriculum to students' vernacular literacy practices as a key factor in many boys' rejection of reading for academic purposes. Informed by experiences as a classroom teacher and a literacy researcher, the author shares the story of his own evolution from literature zealot to literacy consultant. He notes that as his classroom role changed to teacher as facilitator of individual students' literacy development, he observed many boys' re-engagement with reading as they saw increasing convergence between reading for academic and for recreational purposes in their literacy lives.

Abstract from Cavazos-Kottke, S. (2005, November). Tuned Out but Turned On: Boys' (Dis)engaged Reading In and Out of School. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(3), 180–184. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.49.3.1