The CAFE Book - chapters 4 and 5

One of the most powerful structures is the one on one conferences with the forms and organization that the authors have developed to make them run smoothly and effectively. The authors look closely at these conferences in chapters 4 and 5. “The Sisters” explain, “These forms and this conference structure enable us and our students to look beyond the moment to the concrete, practical steps that can be taken today, tomorrow, and this week to move students forward as readers” (p. 54). Again, the students play an active role as they think about their continual progress.

The conferences each have a specific target strategy to focus on. Rather than emphasizing which book students are reading and when they will finish, their focus is on strategies. However, I still want to include at least a little bit of talking about the books they are reading because some of my students love sharing about why they love their current book. Yet, I do see the author's point about why strategy goal-oriented focuses are most beneficial as well as having time effective conferences, so I would definitely have to make sure that I don't spend too much time talking about plots.

One area where it is apparent throughout the whole book that "The Sisters" have mastered is organization. As I mentioned yesterday, when I first saw all the components in the notebook I thought it was a little overwhelming. However, with these chapters, I realized why each piece helps keep the teacher and students on track to make sure that all students are progressing as readers. Some of the forms include a conference calendar where teachers list their priority conferences for the day, as well as a tracking sheet to help the teacher make sure that none of the students are getting overlooked. I like that the individual forms for each student not only keeps a record of what happens in the conferences but there is also built in accountability for the students as the teacher observes whether or not the student has done the assignment from the previous meeting.

Another fun idea mentioned in chapter 5 is that the students have table talk notebooks (spiral 3x5 notebooks) that they take home to share ideas with their families. This is a great way to incorporate home-school connections. The example they mentioned was having new words listed to share with families.

Check in tomorrow to get a glimpse of their whole class and strategy group components.