CAFÉ
Engaging Second Grade Students in Assessment and Instruction (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 2: Consolidation / FluencyStage 3: Literacy for Growth
Ages:
7-9
Grade Range:
2ndFood Groups:
Primary: Reading Fluency & Expression, Reading Comprehension Strategies Secondary: Vocabulary
Transcript
The authors that wrote the Daily 5 book have also written a book called CAFÉ, and it doesn't focus as much on the literacy framework specific, what it does focus on is how to teach children comprehension strategies, goals and strategies. The goals being comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expand vocabulary. So these provide you with mini-lessons, at the beginning of the year once your Daily 5 framework is setup in place and the children are independently able to be at the centres and just be at the rotations, now they're taught how to implement a variety of strategies based on what their reading needs are. It's not as much about your reading level as what your strategy is, what is it I am working on to become a more successful reader. So if your goal is comprehension there are a variety of strategies that are introduced in a whole group format. Also during individual lessons of course too, the students know that that's what I'm working on. So when I go to read to self, I know my goal is to improve my comprehension, or my ability to understand what I read, so therefore I need to backup and reread, and I know how to do that because it's been taught to me in a series of lessons. And that's what I'm checking with them about when the other students are at rotations. It gives us an opportunity at teachers to pull strategy groups as well, so if there's a series of students working on accuracy, which is I can read the words, someone might be at a lower level than another student, but they're both working on taking the word apart and looking for familiar parts of the word. So regardless of level, the students are focused on the same strategy, which allows you to provide, I feel, a more cohesive small group lesson. As well, there's fluency, so students are taught how to become more fluent readers, what it looks like and sounds like to be a more fluent reader. There are a variety of strategies, of course, that are associated with that specific reading goal. And lastly it's expand vocabulary. Expanding vocabulary is the specific reading goal, again with a variety of strategies that are introduced whole group to the students, and then when you're doing your running records or reading assessments with the children, and you're having a teaching point with them, you're referring specifically to a strategy, they know then that's what I need to work on and that the teacher will be checking in on me in a week or two to see how I've done with that. And, as well, when they're involved with the 'read to someone' part of the Daily 5 framework the students' responsibility, prior to going to read to someone is to come to the CAFÉ board, the strategies are posted with the students' pictures beside, so it's quite clear to them and to their friends what they're working on. We don't talk about levels in the classroom now, we talk about specifically about reading goals and reading strategies. So some of these students might be multi-age students, there might be some first graders and second graders that are actually working at very different levels in reading. I have really liked this approach to teaching reading because it gets us away from thinking about all reading at the same level or having reading groups that are stagnant, and you're not moving and it's not fluid, that the Blue group stays together for the entire year and they're all reading the same thing at the same time, regardless of their strategies, regardless of what they need to work on to become better readers. Whereas this way, the implementation here, allows us to focus more specifically on them. And I also really believe it provides them with excellent reading vocabulary themselves, they really have ownership over what it is that they need to do. As young as first grade they're able to tell you, "my reading goal is accuracy and I'm looking at word endings so that I can read words more accurately". So again, combined with the Daily 5 program, it's provided a really successful literacy framework for the last couple of years.
Related References
The Daily Café: http://www.thedailycafe.com/ The Café Menu: http://www.thedailycafe.com/CAFE_Menu_New.pdf Conferring Sample Chart: http://www.thedailycafe.com/Conferring%20Sample%20Chart.pdf
Activity Objective
The goal of CAFÉ: Engaging Second Grade Students in Assessment and Instruction (Virtual Tour) is to use a method developed by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser to provide appropriate practice with reading aloud, to promote speed, accuracy, and proper expression in reading and to help students consolidate sight vocabulary in order to increase decoding automaticity.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Through explicit instruction and modeling of each reading strategy, students will develop a greater understanding of strategies used by successful readers. - Under each heading record a definition of the term in student-friendly language. Comprehension: I understand what I read; Accuracy: I can read the words; Fluency: I can read accurately, with expression, and understand what I read; Expand Vocabulary: I know, find, and use interesting words. - Conference with students during The Daily Five, a framework for literacy independence. - Encourage students to select "good-fit" books; books that are at their reading level and of interest to them. - CAFÉ is a formative assessment and should guide small group instruction and help you plan for ongoing instruction.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
Read to Someone: A Component Of The Daily Five
K - 6th
Running Records: Assessing and Improving Students' Reading Fluency and Comprehension
K - 3rd
Estimation Station: Developing Critical Thinking Skills (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
The Daily Five: Fostering Literacy Independence in Second Grade (Virtual Tour)
2nd
Reading Power: Building Comprehension Skills (Virtual Tour)
1st - 4th
