Like anyone else, young people want things to be easy and fast. They rush through assignments given them by literature teachers—if they read them at all. On the first day of school, the teacher must establish ground rules: Incomplete homework results in a zero grade, and so on.

When you have assigned a reading, you must initially check for completion. One effective way to do this that I use in 9^th and 10^th grades is the graded discussion. Here’s how it works: The night before class, I write down a list of students’ names and a long list of thought-provoking questions about the material. In class the next day, students respond to each question by raising his or her hand, and if it’s a reasonable response, I put a check mark by the name. I try to ensure that all students get many opportunities to respond. They may enlarge on a previous response or ask a related question. They may not repeat material we’ve already covered. That night, I assign grades based on the number of each student’s responses. Teenagers like the activity. It tends to become lively, and it ensures that everyone adds to the discussion. No one gets to snooze in the back row.

Like all students without exception, I dislike quizzes. They are boring and take up valuable class time. There are other ways to ensure that students complete reading assignments. For instance, high schoolers want to appear knowledgeable in front of their peers. In order to capitalize on this perfectly acceptable trait, I sometimes ask different students to find and read a short passage that they found amusing. One can find instances in Pride and Prejudice on every page–but not, obviously, if one hasn’t read the assigned chapters.

One has to hold students accountable for completed assignments. On one memorable occasion, I began discussion of an assigned work with a 12th grade class. It became rapidly apparent that no one had read the material. I closed the book and quoted Lady Catherine de Bourgh: “I am seriously displeased.” I assigned an in-class essay on the material and retired to my desk for the rest of the period. It never happened again.