Voracious

This year I am trying out a new way to teach/manage literacy called "The Daily Cafe." We have a C.A.F.E. Menu board that we keep our strategies as we learn and use them (C for Comprehension, A for Accuracy, F for fluency and E for Expand Vocabulary).

This week one of the strategies that I was teaching that would help our fluency was "Voracious Reading: the more we read, the more we learn." To introduce it, I was going to have the kids act out some animals who eat voraciously, then connect that back to how our brains should be "hungry for books" and we should just read and read and read and never stop, just like these "voracious" animals.

Great plan, right?

Well here's how it went:

Mrs. Wright: Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to please close your eyes. Now, imagine a BIG dinousaur in your mind (a few muted shrieks and giggles). Imagine what that dinosaur looks like when he is eating. Now, open your eyes and show me what that dinosaur looks like when he is eating.

Students: 3 just stare at me, and the other 18 all start slowly working their jaws around, like a cow chewing it's cud.

Mrs. Wright: Friends, I want you to think about a FEROCIOUS dinosaur! How does a T-Rex eat it's food?

Students: Same slow chewing motions with a few growls.

Mrs. Wright: (Thinking fast). Ok, ladies and gentlemen, let's try a different example. Um... Put your hand on your head if you know who cookie monster is....

The cookie monster analogy worked a lot better.