Dangerous animals, extreme sports and adventure stories are helping to supercharge literacy skills for boys through a new learning program powered by a grant from Advance Queensland.
Literacy for Boys, an online interactive learning program designed specifically for boys, secured $100,000 in funding from the Queensland Government in round seven of the Ignite Ideas Fund.
Founder and director Tanya Grambower said the grant would help boost engagement with more Queensland schools and improve the literacy skills of a generation of young boys.
“The lack of literacy among boys across Australia is alarming,” Grambower said.
“Poor literacy not only makes the classroom experience incredibly difficult on boys, but it can harm employment opportunities and impact life well beyond school. Literacy for Boys has the power to improve how Queensland boys learn to read and write.”
Grambower added that the program grabs students’ attention and holds their interest by targeting topics boys find fascinating.
The 2018 NAPLAN national report revealed girls outperformed boys in all literacy testing areas across all ages.
An 18-week trial of Literacy for Boys at Eaton’s Hill State School in 2018 showed reading, comprehension and spelling results improved by 12 months.
The program currently operates in six Queensland schools and has 800 individual users.
As a result of the funding, Literacy for Boys is set to expand across Australia and explore en tearing the overseas markets.
“Literacy for Boys is every teacher’s dream because the content is aligned with the Australian curriculum and covers reading comprehension, grammar, spelling and punctuation,” Grambower said.
“Teachers want their students to succeed in school and Literacy for Boys is a tool they can embrace to ensure boys get ahead in literacy. Better results in literacy lead to better results in other classroom subjects. This generates improved self-esteem and self-confidence.”
