Intermediate CAFE in the Classroom

This summer I read about and was intrigued by the possibilities of using The CAFE Menu in my classroom. I started the year working out a plan to be able to build my menu board by introducing strategies one at a time throughout the year. I had to think of a way to be able to flip the signs so that they could reflect the language of the week in my immersion setting (link to see my writing menu with the same concept). As the year evolved I decided that my older students needs were mainly comprehension and ended up taking down the other three sections of my menu in order to save wall space. I have been trying to experiment and decide exactly what adaptations I need to make when using the CAFE menu concept in my 6th and 7th grade language arts classes.

Luckily, the instructional coach at my school was able to order the DVD, Intermediate CAFE in the Classroom: Helping Readers Thrive in Grades 3-6. The DVD came at a perfect time after I have already gotten my feet wet with the concept. It served as a good way to focus my reflections and reevaluate how I have been using it and how I can use it more effectively. The 117 minute video shows a wide variety of lessons. For example, it represents the different grade levels, different lesson configurations (whole group, small group, one on one), and different reading levels. I appreciated that through their examples I could see types of students. Through the needs of their students and the decisions they made based on individual needs, I could imagine how the same concepts would work with my own students.

I was also able to reflect on how the one on one conferences fit with the ideas of others that I have been reading lately, especially Patrick Allen's Conferring and Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer. I especially loved seeing how "The Sisters" guided students from different reading levels in selecting goals and setting up plans. The students left with a sense of ownership in the process.

I always love to see ideas that I read about in action. I took pages of notes while viewing the video. I will immediately be implementing some changes, as well as reflecting on the big picture, what I will start to do different in future years with the introduction and set-up. For example, I love that they do not necessarily build the board from scratch with older students. This would work so well in my classroom. There were many points in the video such as this that made me pause and wonder if they had not mentioned that in the book or if I did read it and just was not at the right stage in the process to have that idea register. I am planning on taking a day during winter break to reflect about reading, and the notes I took during the video will be a key component in my considerations.

Reading Workshop Reflections

We are now five weeks into the year and just wrapped up our fall conferences. The first quarter has been flying by. Last week I finished up administering QRIs in English and Rigby running records in Spanish (for those who were still within the level range available for the assessment). This weekend I have been able to analyze my data and decide my students' strengths and needs as I transition from setting up expectations and administering assessments to small group instruction and one on one conferring.

I have also been reflecting on the CAFE Menu in general. For my middle schoolers who are already reading above grade level, I am planning on having them participate solely in book clubs and independent reading. At this point, I do not think that it is necessary to provide CAFE Menu strategy lessons because they are already comprehending what they read and utilizing many of the skills. Up to this point they have been getting exposure to the concepts through our whole class lessons.

However, over the last couple of weeks I have been reflecting on how it is hard to fit in all the components that I thoughtfully considered as I was developing my literacy block this summer. This weekend an idea popped into my mind that maybe I do not need to do the whole class CAFE lessons. It may be better to use them solely in small group settings, as needed. Yet, I am not completely sold on this concept because I also like the idea of all students in my room getting exposed to the different areas. As it is, I already narrowed down the items on the menu. I kept all of the comprehension strategies, but I reserved some of the items to only use on an as needed basis in small group meetings. For example, many students are at the stage as readers that they do not need as much support in accuracy. They have already developed these skills as readers.

Initially I am planning on cutting back on my whole class lessons, which will make more time available for work in their reader's notebook using Buckner's ideas. The time will also be utilized to extend the independent reading/small group instruction time on some days. I will also be able to dedicate more time to much needed book talks, an area that has been scheduled in but then often skipped over when there was not enough time to do everything. I know making book talks, a hallmark of reader's workshop, a priority is essential. I can't continue to skip over them in my lessons.

Whereas, The CAFE Menu concepts will be essential for my students who still need assistance with comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary, established students have different needs. With book clubs I will make sure that they continue to utilize strategies to comprehend more challenging texts. Some of my students have expressed interest in classics, such as Jane Austen and Shakespeare, but they are not accessible for them to read on their own. I may integrate some of these books into their book clubs later on this year, so that that they will challenge themselves as readers with the support of their peers and an adult.

I am excited to start this new phase of beginning small group instruction. I am comfortable with the goals that I have for each of my students and the groupings. The area where I need to closely monitor and adjust is during Spanish weeks. It was easy to group my 7th graders according to need because I know about them as readers from last year. A large portion of my 6th graders are beyond the scope of the Rigby assessments we have, and I have not had a chance to really get to know them as readers in Spanish yet.

Getting a better grasp on my new students' Spanish literacy needs and continuing to adjust and adapt the components of my reading block to best utilize the available time will be my primary goals over the next few weeks. I will also have to keep a close eye on making sure that the expectations for independent reading time continue to be apparent as there is a chance for a higher level of distractions with the noise generated from small group instruction.

The importance of analyzing literacy data and utilizing it to guide instruction is one of the threads on the discussion group about Jennifer Allen's new book A Sense of Belonging.

Literacy Menus

One of the projects I have been working on while I am gearing up for the new school year is my literacy menus. While I know that I will adapt and adjust as needed, I am planning on jumping right in and trying out the concept.

For reading I am using The CAFE menu, although I decided to just call it Reading Menu since the acronym does not end up being the same in Spanish and so that it complements the writing menu title better. I highly recommend The CAFE Book to learn more about the reading menu. I already created the poster headers for the menu, as well as each individual strategy that I will add on to the wall visual as the year progresses and they are introduced through mini-lessons. This is one place where I strayed from the book, I am pre-making the visuals rather than having students write them on sentence strips. When I was reading the book I got the idea of also creating a writing menu.

I am using our state writing rubric and guide to revision as the basis of my writing menu. It was easier to translate to Spanish because the state already provides the rubric in English and Spanish. Because part of my plan is for students to become more familiar with the state's rubric, I decided to stick closely to the language they use when introducing concepts. In the conventions area, there is not always a direct translation since the rules are not always the same between the two languages.

Below is my rough draft writing menu in English and Spanish. I may end up changing some of the wording, but at least I have a starting point. I will be introducing most of these concepts with Jeff Anderson's ideas/format. While I want to stay closely aligned to the writing rubric language, I may alter it at times if the current language does not fit the mini-lessons I see necessary to move my writers forward.

Writing Menu Handout

The CAFE Book - Appendix

My final post about The CAFE Book is about the very informative 60 page appendix filled with useful forms and reference materials. There is an accompanying CD with the documents as well, making it easy for teachers to access. They even thought ahead to have fillable forms using Adobe Acrobat. The only downside is that they cannot be saved; they have to be printed out.

The helpful information in the appendix includes launching suggestions, typical schedules, the CAFE menu, and various forms. One of my favorite components is a table with sample needs and strategies. It reminds me of the list that I love so much from Beer's What to Do When Kids Can't Read with suggestions on reading behaviors and specific needs. The other piece that I absolutely love takes up the majority of the appendix to break down each of the strategies on the menu to define them, explain why students need them, give a secret to success, how to teach it, and troubleshooting. This will be an invaluable section and complements other reading resources that I have well.

I am excited to incorporate a lot of the ideas from this book in my classroom next year.

The CAFE Book - chapters 6 and 7

The whole class component described in chapter 6 was familiar to me, and it seemed pretty standard for the other ideas that I have heard about for reading and writing whole class mini-lessons. The main highlights were to make sure that they were brief but frequent. The authors also outline systematic steps for successful instruction with example lessons for different needs. Along with one on one instruction, whole class is one of the most important components to the framework.

The concept of strategy groups was one of my favorites from the whole book. I could really relate to their comments that it is better to group students by their strategy needs rather than their reading level because within levels students have diverse needs. I can clearly see this in my classroom, and I cannot wait to see the impact that it has on my students' growth. It is also easier to imagine flexible grouping with this strategy as opposed to guided reading groups by level.

I was also glad to see the following comment, “Many of our intermediate readers also participate in literature circles and book clubs in three- to four-week cycles" because as I read the earlier chapters I thought about how I would not want to give up this component in my classroom. It was nice to see that the authors have already blended the concepts together rather than setting it up as an either/or situation.

Before strategy grouping begins teachers take plenty of time to establish routines so that students not in the group can work independently without redirection. This concept and how to implement it remains to be the most helpful piece of information that I gathered from The Daily Five.

While strategy groups are a great idea for students with similar needs, the authors point out that not every student is in a strategy group. It is fully dependent on whether or not they need it at any given time or if the teacher is meeting the students' needs through whole class and one-on-one components.

As with other sections of the book, the authors give many thorough example lessons for strategy groups, making it easy to visualize how the various groupings work toward the same student goals.

The book gives an in-depth overview of the CAFE menu making it easy to visualize and imagine how all of the pieces come together. It give me a lot to consider this summer!

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.

The CAFE Book - Chapters 2 and 3

Throughout the book I love how there are mentions of Daily Five to get a clearer picture of how the concepts in the two books work together. Chapter two outlines an important component of the CAFE menu, the conferring notebook, which includes assessment data, daily observations, and teaching and learning. At first it seemed like a lot of different forms and paperwork. I wondered if there was a way to do it more efficiently, but as I read the later chapters of the book I could see why each form was essential.

I was also excited about the data/information that the framework of the notebook gives about each individual student. Last year I created a form for anecdotal records that I was pleased with. I had similar forms set up for my class this year, but for whatever reason I ended up not using them. This system will help assure that I keep regular records of student goals and growth to have tangible details about how they develop over the year. The form is even better than what I had been using because it is set up to have a clear link between observations and instruction. Last year I was working with students in a scripted program and was not able to do that much different regardless of what I noticed with the records.

In the third chapter, the authors discussed another essential part of the framework, the CAFE menu bulletin board. The board starts out blank at the beginning of the year, aside from the description of each of the words in the acronym. As strategies are introduced the bulletin board is filled out. There is also a spot for students to put their name under the section that is the focus of their current goal. The authors use post-it notes with their names, but I want to try having a name card for each student laminating that they can post with a tack and shift around as their goals change. It is nice that the bulletin board provides consistency throughout the whole year rather than just being a launching tool. Another great aspect of the bulletin board is that students play a large role in adding the strategy cards. The bulletin board needs to be in close proximity to the meeting area because the teacher refers to it often by touching the strategies discussed as one more step to get students familiarized with the tool.

Other examples of students playing a large role in their learning is that the teachers reiterate goals often so that students internalize their goals and demonstrate that they have a clear understanding of what they are working on. When they still are not very sure about their current strategies the teacher explains them again as many times as necessary. Patience is key.

The rest of the book explains each of the pieces in detail to get a clearer picture of how all components play a vital role to the framework.

The CAFE Book - overview and chapter 1

Yesterday I received my copy of The CAFE Book. I was so excited, and I started reading right away at every free moment that I had. Yesterday and today have been cloudy and rainy, so they were perfect days to stay inside and read. I ended up finishing it this morning. I have so much to say about the book that I decided to post all this week on different sections of the book so that I don't have one huge post.

When I first saw glimpses of the book on Stenhouse's site, I mentioned how I loved that the introduction made me feel like I could easily be sitting on the beach with "The Sisters" having a literacy conversation with them. In their book "The Sisters" express feeling this way about other educators who provided the same sense of books as conversations, "It felt like those teachers were sitting with us over a cup of tea, telling us the stories of their teaching with humor, grit, and eloquence. Our teaching heroes were now real people to us, willing to share their successes as well as their struggles in a style that let us know we were all in this together, part of an incredible community of teachers who were learners, too" (p. 128).

Aside from feeling like I was part of the conversation, I really appreciate that the sisters invite readers to make the ideas in the books their own and share their experiences with others. For example, they say, "We've talked about and written the story of how CAFE came to life in our classrooms. Now, through the power of the Web, we can't wait to read and see the story of how it comes to life in yours" (p. 128). They are always mentioning that the actual implementation is always evolving for them and they welcome interactions with other teachers who try out their ideas and make them work for their own rooms based on their students and schedules (p. 12).

I could closely relate to so much of what "The Sisters" said, and I can see myself in them as they describe their earlier years of the process it takes to go from theory and best practices to actually feeling like they are coming to life in the classroom. While I was able to skip some of their process since I came into education at a different time than they did and never taught during the time when whole class instruction was the norm, I still see myself feeling the sense of having a feeling of disconnect between my actual classroom and what I want it to look like. I constantly reflect and try to make changes to move closer toward my vision, but it is a long process, and it was refreshing to see them validate this feeling and realizing that I am not the only one who was not able to instantly have everything work like magic.

The CAFE menu provides a framework for teachers and students to have a common language about effective reading. Students become familiar with what Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding vocabulary mean as well as strategies to make sure they are using them effectively to improve their reading. They explain, "What it does is provide a structure for conferring, a language for talking about reading development, and a system for tracking growth and fostering student independence" (p. 5). Each day this week I will reflect on additional chapters of the book.