ABSTRACT
When boys are asked to retell a story they have heard or read, they are likely to focus on the literal and material problems of stories, on explicit components of plot and setting, and on informational elements. They like to name features, not explain them, and seem reluctant to go “further and deeper.” Boys themselves explain that their impatience is fueled by the belief that if something has already been said or done (particularly if said or done well enough) there is little point to doing it again. It is they, rather than their female classmates, who are more likely to respond to assessment questions by asserting, “I already told you that,” or “As I already said....” Thus, when we ask students to construct meaning, and in so doing, to position themselves as partners with an author, we may be creating an inherently discomfiting situation for some of the boys, who go to text typically to “find out” and not to “fill in.” We may be able to induce more students, boys and girls alike, to read between the lines if we give them the sense that they have a separate, and expert, job to do—to collaborate with the author of a text as a translator, go-between, or “editor.”
