CAFE Book Study - Chapter Three

Chapter 3 - CAFE Step-by-Step: The First Days of School

At the beginning of the year, the CAFE board should be up with the headings posted, but no strategies on the board.  This is because the children's learning must be anchored to the strategy prior to it being posted.  The menu highlights the strategies most likely to be introduced by the end of the year with primary students.  Examine the CAFE menu, look at your curriculum, and determine what strategies you feel are most essential to your students' learning.  Keep in mind student assessment will also impact this decision.

I believe that all the strategies on the menu are essential for my students' learning.  They all link to the New Zealand curriculum and what I would expect of a reader in my class.  Of course not all students will need to work on them all but the running record data and OTJs will provide evidence of what strategies should be taught.

Pages 30-37 highlight three different strategy lessons used on day 1.  Read and discuss what you notice taking place during these lessons.  Pages 31-32 list possible choices for 1st day read-alouds.  What texts will you use on the first day?

During these lessons, the teacher is modelling to the class the strategies being introduced.  A new strategy is added each read-aloud but the teacher continues to model previous strategies.  When a strategy is introduced it is recorded and placed onto the CAFE menu.  When the teacher is talking about that particular strategy they point at the board to anchor it in the students' head.

First Day Read-Alouds I would like to read:
The Exceptionally, Extraordinarily Ordinary First Day of School by Albert Lorenz
Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind by Judy Finchler
My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook

Pages 39-47 introduce the seven steps from assessment to instruction.  Keeping the assessment you currently use in mind, read through these pages and reflect on what this will look like for you.

To assess individual students, I will complete a running record and conference with them about their reading likes/dislikes etc.  I envision having a discussion with the students about their running record results.  From this we will be able to set goals using the CAFE menu.  I would expect students to be able to discuss their goals with their parents, classmates and other visitors to our class.  My conference book will have documentation and anecdotal notes that support our discussions and noticings.  Students can then be grouped according to their reading needs rather than their reading ages (while still reading texts at a suitable level).  Therefore instruction is aimed at what the student specifically needs to work on.

You will need to have a structure in place for the whole class while you are working with students individually. 

I will use the Daily Five literacy structure.  It has worked for me for the last five years and I absolutely love it and the results speak for themselves.  I am going to re-read the Daily FIve book before the end of the year (for the fifth time) as I am changing year levels and it will be good to rehash and reflect.

It is often helpful to have a list such as the one above when using the seven steps the first few times.  Practise this process with 2-3 students and then reflect on what took place.  What did you learn about the students?  How does this process differ from your past practice?  What benefits do you forsee will come from using this process, along with the conferring notebook?

Well since it's term 4 I wont be trying this out this year but I will definately try it and reflect on it early next year.