Transcript

Here is my CAFE Literacy Menu. It's like a big menu of strategies that will help my students become better readers. They get to choose and use the strategies that they really need at that point. In the first grade, you will have students that are just starting to read, whereas you might have others that are excellent readers. You have to find ways to help them become better readers at whatever point they're at. 

Here, you will have four different types of strategies and thats what the CAF menu means. The Comprehension strategies, the ones that help with decoding, then we'll have the Fluency ones, which are for those students that are at a certain level and they need just to read more smoothly and a little bit faster, and read in a way similar to how we speak. Finally, Expand Vocabulary, for those students that are at that point where they want to learn new words and use them when they're writing and speaking. 

When they're using a certain strategy, they have their names, and then they are able to move their names depending on the strategy they think is helping them at that moment. I have discussions with them. We talk about it. "Tell me about this strategy? Why is your name here? Which strategy are you using? How are you using it?"

The CAFE menu is a very useful book that will tell you how to introduce each one of the strategies. The CAF menu has many strategies, these are the ones that I use in the first grade, and there are many more that you could use in other grades. 

The reason why I like this program so much is because when you are a new teacher, it is very difficult to set up your program. It sort of guides you and is a way of knowing what to do and how to do it, and have lessons. Then you can just go ask, you get more experience, you start doing your own things and changing things and doing things here and there. But its a very good way to have everything in one place so I know what to do and all the things that are important to help students become better readers. 

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