CAFE Book Study - Chapter One

I've decided to re-read "The CAFE Book" by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.  It has been a few years since I initially read it and I was happy with how I implemented in into my class but I have come to realise that old habits are sneaking back in and mainly (confession time!!) it's because it is easier for me and not for the benefit of my students - I guess we can all relate to that at some stage of our career.  But I want to do what's right for my students so I'm going to spend this school holidays re-reading and refreshing my reading programme.  

The questions I am answering for each chapter come from the CAFE Book Study that appears on the 2 Sister's website.

Chapter 1 - Introduction: The Beginnings of the CAFE Menu Assessment System

Reflect on your current teaching practice.  How do you differentiate reading instruction for your students to ensure each child is receiving instruction at their level?

Reading instruction in my classroom is ability grouped according to instructional reading age.  While this makes choosing a text easy, it becomes difficult when there are a variety of needs within that one group.  For example, one student may need to work on fluency, another may need to work on decoding strategies and another might need to work on inferring or making connections.

What reading assessment do you currently use?  How do you use this assessment to inform your instruction and set student goals?
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The school requires that we use PM Benchmark kits for students reading under 8 years of age and PROBE for those reading above this.  We also have students complete the STAR reading test twice a year (middle and end - although I would love to just do it and the beginning and end of the year as the data would be more useful).  This data is used to form my ability groups based on their chronological reading age.  I also note down areas to focus on for each student, such as fluency, decoding, comprehension areas etc.  Students then have this information shared with them and set their own goals.  At the moment their reading goals tend to be around reading mileage rather than what they need to work on but as they gain more knowledge about the strategies that good readers use, this should change.

The CAFE Menu of strategies reflects the skills we've researched and used in our own classrooms.  Look through the strategies on the menu.  Reflect.

I would agree with the strategies on the menu.  They tie in with the work of Alison Davies and Sheena Cameron.  I have recently started doing shared reading with my class a lot more (other than the poem of the week) and this has helped build up the student's confidence with the strategies that good readers use.  I will post an example of a shared reading lesson at a later date.  As I have struggled to be able to fit all of these strategies into my teaching programme I have decided to come back and re-read this book to see what changes I can make to do better.

 
Pages 6-8 highlight the core elements of the CAFE system: the conferring notebook, the individual conferences, small-group instruction, and purposeful whole group instruction.  How does this compare to your current reading block?

I have a conferring notebook (confession time - I don't use it - eeekkkk) but due to the change in schools and expectations I haven't really used it this year, and do you know what?? I acutally miss it.  It had everything I needed to know about my students reading at the tip of my fingers, not having to flick through planning sheets to find what I was looking for.  The individual conferences therefore haven't been what I want them to be either but I do currently do small-group instruction and purposeful whole group instruction.  Yay two out of four!!

Good-fit books are essential to productive independent reading.  What can you do to get good-fit books in the hands of your students?  How do you define a "good-fit" book?

We use the "I-PICK" from the Daily 5 in our classroom.  Students are constantly being reminded about using the "I-PICK" strategy when choosing a book from the class library or school library.  Students are regularly offered feed-back from students when they feel a book is too hard for somebody and at this stage of they year I am confident that most of them can choose a book that they are able to read.  A "good-fit" book is one where the student can read most of the words, read fluently, understand what is being read and most importantly interests them.

 
The end of Chapter 1 discusses the concept of instructional fairness.  What does instructional fairness mean to you?

This is something I have really struggled with this year as I have such a wide range of reading abilities within my class (from 5 years to 15 years).  I try and see my lower ability students more than I would see my higher ability students because the higher ability students are already readers and they only need to see me once a week to guide them and make suggestions.  My lower ability readers I try and see everyday which can be a struggle to sit them all in.  I believe instructional fairness is about giving the instruction time to the students who need it most rather than giving all students equal time (which would get you no where and would be pretty hard to do).

On another note, the other day I was coming down the stairs to go out on duty at lunchtime and I caught this little guy reading.  Now this boy was not a reader at the beginning of the year and lunchtime for him was the best time of the day because he got to play football with his mates.  Well here he is reading in his lunchtime!!!!!  He's reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  It was our read-aloud novel for the term but I love how he has got a copy from the school library and is re-reading it to himself.  He is so proud of himself as he says it is the biggest book he has ever read.  Everyday he comes up to me an tells me how much he has read.  He is becoming a reader right in front of my eyes.  Super proud teacher!!!!