The author conducted an action research study in his ninth grade English classroom in order to help the boys in his class to be more engaged. He decided to enable students to make more choices in the reading and writing activities so that both boys' and girls' literacies could be valued. He used independent reading and literature circles to help boys find books that met their diverse interests, and designed writing assignments which enabled students to choose topics which matched their out-of-school interests. Boys and girls benefited from such choice. He observed boys, especially, engaging in more literate behaviours-such as talking about books and sharing each others' writing.Growing up, I loved nothing more than to read. In grade school, I felt much excitement when the Troll book club forms were passed out by my homeroom teacher. I would rush home at the end of the day and flip through the colourful pages, counting the change and dollar bills I had collected from my measly allowance. I budgeted my money and figured out how to buy the most books with the least amount of money. (A skill that is useful now as a teacher!) I put my money and my order form in an envelope every month and waited impatiently for the new books. I loved the local library and bookstore just as much.When I entered high school, I was in Honours English classes and took AP (Advanced Placement) Literature during my senior year. These were my favourite classes and I excelled at them. I wrote stories in my free time and longed to be a published author. I continued to buy books and read them in my free time. I became obsessed with the horror and mystery writer, Dean Koontz. My desire to be a writer continued, and because of Koontz, became specific in wanting to be a mystery writer. I also began to buy books written to instruct mystery writers, wanting to know everything I could about writing the stories.My history is not unique-but it is uncommon with boys. I did not dream of sports, and while I did play video games with my brother, they were not the focus of *21-

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Background/Context Portfolio assessment is a popular form of authentic assessment, but often portfolios become simply folders full of papers rather than student reflections on their work. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The author conducted a study aiming to help the ninth-grade students in his English language arts classroom be more reflective about their reading and writing portfolios. Research Design This study was conducted as a teacher research study in two parts. The first part studied the effect on the reflectiveness of students when using a 10-minute one-on-one presentation with the teacher instead of a cover letter. From the data received from these first-semester presentations, the teacher-researcher categorized the students’ statements into reflective and nonreflective categories. In the second part of the study, the teacher used these categories to teach students to speak more reflectively during their second-semester presentations. Conclusions/Recommendations The author found that students can be taught to be more reflective about their work and that this newfound reflectiveness helps students take more control in their literacy education.