A few kids have taken me aside privately just to let me know that, fyi, "this book is pretty good."
I've been trying to stay hands-off and have them come to me or use some classwide Q&A time to discuss questions or hard/odd words. I know this looks a bit dodgy on paper and maybe even in practice, like I'm sending people out into space with a book and just taking their word that they're understanding everything. Like I don't even care that they may not be sure of what's going on. I don't interject much about The Big Message or Noticing Thishere Part unless a natural segue appears (or my instincts says they can handle one) because I think some books just have to breathe.
And if people who don't like to read are reading, then I think I should back the heck off and let them do that. I have 20 worksheets that align impressively with state standards and promote higher thinking, worksheets that allow students to consider the content in new and theoretically engaging lights, but - hey - I'm not going to be the one to say, "Stop reading." We can monkey around with finding passages that allow us to infer more information about Atticus or Piggy or Snowball any time, including when the reading's done. It's not every day that people are nose-deep into pulp. I wouldn't interfere for the world.
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