Post-its

I

He reads in the ugly brown reclining chair with the quilt tucked in around his half-naked body. He reads a chapter book, a designation we use to refer to a book that doesn't contain pictures and isn't a movie or TV tie-in, a book with discrete chapters and a sustained narrative account. He reads for a half hour. I set the kitchen timer. We're forcing him to read for this length of time, but it's a different kind of forcing than when we force him to do his chores or when we force him to eat all the food on his plate—he enjoys being forced to read. The kitchen timer beeps. I walk down the hall to the study, tell him that although the half hour is up, he's free to continue reading if he likes. He says he would prefer to stop. But he can't find his bookmark, he says, the Post-it Note he affixes above the last sentence he's read so he'll know exactly where to pick up tomorrow night, so he won't accidentally reread a sentence he's already read. I tear a Post-it from the pad and hand it to him. He evaluates his progress: page 122, only 55 more to go. I ask him how it's going. He says it's going fine. Better than some, he says, not as good as others. He stands, asks me to please get out of the way because his TV show is starting and he needs to get across the house to the living room. I stand with my back pressed against the doorframe and watch as he canters down the hall.

There's the missing Post-it, stuck to the back of his underwear.

Ii

I asked him if he would tell me what's going on in his book right now.

He said he didn't know what I meant. Going on?

What's happening at this point in the book. What's going on with the characters right now.

He said he couldn't say. He's not trying to think about what the words mean, he said, but only what the words say. He said he's mostly just reading the letters of the words.

I said expand/explain.

He said it's that he's not putting the words together. That he's reading the words separately. That he's reading each word in isolation from all the surrounding words.

I asked him if he realized he's doing only maybe half or maybe even less than half of what the reader's job is supposed to involve. I told him the words are there to all come together for the reader in order to tell a story, maybe to create an HD or even a 3D world in the reader's mind's eye. Following along with the story, falling head over heels into the world of the book, is the most fun part of reading. I told him he really should start trying to read in a way that would allow him to follow along closely with the story so he can actually get to hang out with the characters and get to know them and get to figure out what they're up to and maybe start getting really excited about what they might be up to next.

He said that's not the way he reads. The way he reads is good enough for his age level. Seven-year-olds are supposed to mostly read only the words.

I said expand/explain.

He said seven-year-olds are supposed to read one word then forget about that word then read the next word then forget about that word then read the next word then forget about that word and on and on until they get to the last page then read the third-to-last word then forget about that word then read the second-to-last word then forget about that word then read the last word then forget about that word...