~ Define "Reading" ~

I'm beginning to think it's inevitable. During our half hour of silent reading, I look up from my book/stack of papers/student I'm talking to and notice M (or C or A or whoever) is sitting at their desk, with their book closed on top, staring into space, writing notes, or making faces at their friend across the room.

My first response is a throat clear. Occasionally the delinquent reader will jump a bit, make eye contact with me, and go back to their book. I don't have to interuppt what I'm doing, which is especially important if I'm talking to another student about their book.

However. The throat clear rarely works, epecially the week before spring break. So I go to response two. I say their name softly. The student glances up, and we have this little exchange:
"A., reading, please."
Student holds up their closed book with a look stating that their teacher is obviously among the most ignorant people in the universe for asking them to read when they clearly have a book within sight already.
"Ok, now open and read, please."
Loooooong sigh. Student flops book onto desk, opens it, and at least pretends to read.

In some rare cases, this still doesn't work. Which forces this resourceful teacher to pull out all the stops. In a move borrowed from Jim Fay's "Love & Logic," I pat the student on the shoulder and quietly say, "I can see you don't really want to read right now. That's fine. You can make up your reading time later today." Occasionally, the student is silly enough to take me up on it. They quickly find that, shockingly, we're just so busy with learning and such during the day, the only time left to finish thier reading requirement is during recess or lunch. After the first month or so of school, they all know what "make up your time later" really means. Problem solved. For now.....