What are all those RODENTS doing in our classroom?

At the doorway... on the whiteboard ledge... 

On our work tables!

Even on our laps!

 Hey! Waaaaait a minute!!!

Those cavies are not real!

Wall posters: "SIP" and "CAVIES"

They're part of our reading strategies unit, "Reading Strategies for Work and College." This "mini-course" is designed for high school students who want to add new "tools" to their "toolbox" for understanding the challenging texts they will need to read on the job or in a college class.

The orange poster summarizes what good readers do BEFORE they begin reading. They "take a SIP" by Skimming, Identifying vocabulary, and Predicting or asking questions.

Then, they grab a pencil or pen and read. But, it's not just putting the words before our eyeballs.

That's where the acronym "CAVIES" come in. 

(Cavies are actually a family of rodents that include the familiar Guinea pig. What better way to have a memorable acronym than to have an cavy infestation?)

An acronym is a word that is also an abbreviation... like "FBI" or "NBA." Our acronym, CAVIES helps us to remember the six reading strategies to use while we work through the text.

C= Connections (What do I connect with here? What do I already know about?)

A= Ask questions (I wonder...? I'm curious about... What about  this?)

V= Visualize (make a movie in your mind)

I= Infer (make predictions as you go)

E= Evaluate (Is this true? Is this valuable information? And, of course, "Is this gonna be on the test?")

S= Summarize and Synthesize (Put it in your own words).

So far, we've practiced with C, A and V, as well as SIP, on three different non-fiction articles. It is amazing how much more we can remember from what we read when we bring the CAVIES into the act.

And then, there's this:

Of all the cavies in our classroom, Sister Patrice says the one above offers us some important wisdom as young adults. He was on our class's agenda on Friday. Can you see what he is saying?