Are You Done Yet?

If you love to read, there’s nothing better than sharing a book. Love for a particular book spreads like a virus in my classroom. When one kid loves a book, everyone else wants to read it. This year, I learned how to use the reading virus to inspire my latent readers.

Let’s look at the case of Peter (not his real name). Peter was an under-achiever and a shy, lackluster kind of kid. I wasn’t surprised that he was in the gifted program, but I was surprised when I found out his third grade test scores were below proficient.

I talked to Peter's mother early in the school year. She was concerned because during third grade, he had lost his desire to read. Indeed, as we came to the end of our first reading session, he had not met his reading goals and had only read a few short books.

Desperate, I said to Peter, “Tell me what you like to read, and I’ll get it for you.” He shrugged--funny, he always shrugged at everything. I started calling out book titles. Harry Potter? No. Lemony Snicket? No. How about Encyclopedia Brown. Shrug. Aha! A shrug means maybe. He read the two Encyclopedia Brown books in my library and then asked for more—sadly, I had none.

So, I wrote a grant for a box of books, many of them Encyclopedia Brown mysteries, A-Z Mysteries, and Goosebumps. Peter read about four of them, and then he gave up again. What could I do?

Then I figured it out when I was reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Peter kept asking “Are you done with that yet?” Annoyed by his nagging, I finished the book and gave it to him—Here, have it! But then I realized the trick. Peter just wanted to read what I was reading. I needed to sell him on each book.

The Schwa Was Here. I read it during our silent reading time—often chuckling at the funny parts. Someone would invariably say, “What’s happening now?” I wouldn’t tell them, just give them sketchy plot lines. Every day I read this book, Peter would ask me, “Are you done with that yet?” I promised him I would finish it over the weekend and kept my promise. He read it in a few short days.

It happened again with Schooled. “Done with that?” he would ask me daily. Finally on a Friday, I promised him I’d finish it over the weekend. Giving it to him on Monday, he was done by Thursday.

Finally, I had found a way to hook Peter on reading. But more importantly, my kids took up the same philosophy. We had sign-up sheets for the popular books, and kids would promise to finish books over the weekend so the next kid on the list could start reading it on Monday.

This has evolved into the way we read everything. We share our books, make recommendations, sign up for the next one. The kids are excited. They know they’re a part of something big—they are a part of a literary world where the biggest commodities are great characters and great stories. I can hardly wait for the next kid to say, “Are you done with that yet?”