Cafe: Chapter 7- Strategy Groups

I'm following along with The Cafe Book study over at We Read, We Blog, We Teach. Jana's post is fantastic today so I'd recommend checking it out!

Chapter 7 is the last chapter and one of my favorite parts about The Cafe- Strategy Groups. This is definitely one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" moments- grouping kids by strategy rather than reading level. Of course, I still have kiddos together roughly at the same level because they have similar needs, but it doesn't matter what book a student is reading- they can always practice the strategy they need.

Before strategy groups can start, you need to assess and confer with individuals and begin Daily 5. During the assessments, keep track of who would fit into strategy groups together. The Sisters usually start these groups in mid-October, or about 6 weeks after school begins. They start with the most at-risk students and create groups based around the students' needs.

They have students all choose a book and quietly read aloud at the same time. They listen to each student in turn. Then they teach the mini-lesson that they would like the students to use. They have them practice alone or with a partner, and then they make a plan for next time and encourage students to use the strategy during read-to-self. The structure is very similar to the individual conferences. The great thing is that you can use these groups to plan for partner reading so they can practice together and students know who they can go to for help.

If you are interested in more information about Cafe, head over to The Daily Cafe website run by The Sisters. They have a section specifically on Cafe and some freebies to get you started.

Cafe: Chapter 6- Whole-Class Instruction

I'm following along with the book study over at We Read, We Blog, We Teach.
*I'll be posting my thoughts on Chapter 7 later today!

Chapter 6 is all about Whole-Class Instruction. The Cafe Menu has all of the strategies that you will teach your students roughly in order, depending on your students' needs. 

This was my board for second grade. We covered a comprehension lesson every day plus an accuracy lesson and then either a fluency or vocabulary lesson, as suggested by The Sisters. Check for Understanding is at the top of the list in Comprehension, so that is one I taught right away. The skills get a little harder as you go down the list. Now, if I was teaching K or 1, I might do more accuracy strategies because that is what those students are working on. Intermediate teachers might do more of a focus on comprehension and fluency since many students already have those accuracy strategies. Never hurts to review, though!

My team has also matched these strategies to our basal curriculum so sometimes we do go out of order. 

The Sisters recommend teaching the lesson to a whole group and allowing them time to practice with partners. Then they have a student write the strategy on a sentence strip and put it up on the menu. Students are encouraged to practice the new skill during independent reading. They review it the next day and connect it with other strategies that they have been working on.

Here are some questions that Jen over at We Read, We Blog, We Teach asked in her post about this chapter (my answers are in red):

• I absolutely LOVE the look of the CAFE menu bulletin boards I have seen.  If you don't have the space in your classroom for such a large bulletin board, how are you planning to list the strategies for all to see?

I have used a small bulletin board, cement block wall, and a whiteboard to display my Cafe Menu. It can go anywhere- I might use my cabinet doors this year. If you do have a limited space, I'd recommend pre-cutting the sentence strips so kids can't write forever. ;)

• I have a 90 minute literacy block.  With all I need to squeeze in, will it be possible to have 3 whole-class strategy lessons a day?  How are you fitting in your strategy lessons - will you plan on having 3 a day?

I usually do three a day. I schedule them all over the place. I usually have one strategy lesson immediately after Morning Meeting. This one is usually about 10 minutes- either a quick lesson or review. I have one before we start Daily 5, and another after Round 2 of Daily 5 before lunch. It doesn't have to be around Daily 5 time- it can be when you have 8 minutes before recess or 10 minutes before math.

• I used to start my literacy block with independent reading (and I would conference with one or two students during this time).  If my students should be practicing the CAFE strategy taught during independent reading, should I move my reading time?  For those of you that have tried CAFE already in your classrooms, when do you have your students reading independently?

I start my literacy block with a mini-lesson and then do Daily 5. I have three rounds of D5 during the day which is separate from my basal time. My students choose their independent reading time during one of the three rounds of D5. If I had older students, I would still start with a mini-lesson and then have the independent reading time. Maybe a strategy lesson to break things up in the middle of the time or else at the end.

• Do you have your students create their own strategy cards?  I have seen a lot of premade cards (that will look great on a bulletin board), but the sisters really recommended having the students create them.  What do you do in your classroom?

I write the first one to model to students how the cards will look and then I have a different student write the cards each time. I LOVE my handwriting but I know it's important for the kids to write them. I have the kiddos with good handwriting make the important ones, though!

• I'm thinking I will somehow mark our cards each time we connect to a card we have already discussed - to give a visual that shows how interconnected the strategies are - and how we are never "finished" with a strategy.  Have any of you done this?

I haven't done this but there are a lot of connections! Maybe you could use a shape on the card for each connection- like ones with blue stars are all connected. It would be fun to have string attaching them together.

I did want to remind you that The Sisters have several Cafe Menus available on their website. There is an Emergent Menu, Transitional Menu, Cafe Menu, and Spanish menus available here. 

There are also fabulous ideas for teaching the lessons on the Interactive Cafe Menu here.

Chapter 7 (the last one!) coming soon!

Cafe: Chapter 5- Eavesdropping on Some Conferences

I'm following along with We Read, We Blog, We Teach and their Cafe Book study but I'm a day early for this one since tomorrow I am sharing some free finds on Freebie Friday.

In Chapter 5, The Sisters let us take a peek at some conferences that they have with students. There are LOTS of examples of how to teach different strategies for beginning and advanced readers. 

I learned that you should definitely have sticky notes on hand when you are teaching Cafe strategies. ;) They use them all.the.time.

Another intriguing idea was a "Table Talk Notebook" where kids write down new words that they come across to share with their parents at home. They use a spiral-bound pack of index cards which makes it easy to keep in their book box and fits easily in their backpack.

One of the things I am excited to share is that The Sisters actually have three Cafe menus. The original, an emergent, and a transitional menu. The two newer menus are great for kindergarten and primary grades. I *think* you can find them here: Cafe Menus. I'm pretty sure these are public on The Daily Cafe site. The menus area also available in Spanish at the same link.

This chapter was definitely short- Chapter 6 is "beefier." It's all about Whole-Class Instruction!

Cafe: Chapter 4- Conferring with Children

Sorry for the late post today- I have a sick kiddo who is now down for a nap! :)

First of all, Laura is blogging over at We Read, We Blog, We Teach and has some amazing freebies for this chapter.

I think that this chapter is really fundamental in using the Cafe method effectively. There are small group and individual conferences that are used to teach the strategies so, naturally, the individual conferences are so important. You confer with individual students to work toward their own goals.

The main "schedule" of an individual session is:

• Observe and listen to the student reading aloud. Any book will do. Jot down the title of the book while thinking about the focus of the conference.
• Teach/reinforce the strategy they are working on. Record two things to work on (usually a comprehension strategy plus one from another area).
• Let them practice.
• Make a plan for the next step and encourage the student to keep up the good work! Write down what you will focus on next time and write the new appointment in the calendar section.

There are special forms from The Daily Cafe site and The Cafe Book that you can use for individual conferences. You can get them with or without icon prompts. I haven't been using the ones with the icons but I just might now that I saw Laura's freebie. 

The Sisters include a script for "Coaching Toward a Target." They show about 5 minutes for a conference but mine go a bit longer. :) They also stress that those times aren't set in stone- they take longer sometimes. And the will occasionally meet with a child twice in one day if needed.

There is a fabulous appendix and CD that show you step-by-step how to teach each of the strategies on the Cafe Menu. That alone is worth the $20 for the book! They are also available on The Daily Cafe website if you are a member.

It's time to move to a new strategy once the student has shown mastery of the strategy they are working on a few times. The Sisters use a check mark when they feel that a student is using the strategy successfully. They also say you could use "Touchpoints" (a rating scale from 1-4). My team uses +, v, - because that is part of our grading scale. A "+" is proficient, a "v" is working towards mastery, and a "-" is needs improvement.

I really like that they realize that some kids need more conferring than others but caution teachers not to overlook their "Tiger Woods" kids- even he needs a coach!

I usually have three Daily 5 rounds each day and can meet with 2-3 small groups (all in one round if possible) and then have 1-2 round of individual conferences. Sometimes I have a small group and then meet with individuals in every round. 

The next chapter offers a sneak peek into their conferences.

Cafe: Chapter 3- Cafe Step-by-Step

In Chapter 3 of The Cafe Book, we finally get down to the nitty gritty. What do you teach those first days of school? This chapter has a fantastic book list for first week read-alouds and scripted commentary from The Sisters on how they would teach the first important mini-lessons.

Before school starts, teachers should set up their Cafe bulletin board. I've had mine on a whiteboard at the side of my room (see photo below), on a brick wall, on a small bulletin board...and this year I'm toying with having it on my back cupboards. It can go anywhere and take up any amount of space.

The headings at the top are CAFE: Comprehension "I understand what I read," Accuracy "I can read the words," Fluency "I can read accurately, with expression, and understand what I read," and Expand Vocabulary "I know, find, and use interesting words." You can see mine in a photo from two years ago.

I have heard that some teachers switch up the letters and talk about the "FACE" of a reader instead of the "CAFE." There are two reasons why I personally use Cafe. First, I think comprehension is the most important so I like having that one first. Second, our cafeteria is called "The Lake Cafe" so my kids understand what a cafe is and how it can relate to a menu, etc.

In the book, you can read all about how The Sisters use read-alouds beginning on the first days of school to introduce important strategies. They usually teach Check for Understanding, Cross Checking, Tune In to Interesting Words, and Back Up and Reread for the first few days and constantly revisit them while they are reading to the class.

When you introduce a strategy, The Sisters suggest you have a student write the strategy on a sentence strip and add it to the Cafe menu. There are about a million adorable printables that you can find to print out the strategies if you'd like, but I love having the kids write them. It gives them a sense of ownership.

I'm not sure if you can get to this page on The Daily Cafe site if you aren't a member but there is an interactive Cafe Menu with lots of helpful links/ideas for each strategy.

The next part of the chapter is about assessing individual students.  You can use whatever reading assessments your school uses to read with students. Then you discuss your findings with that students after hearing them read. One of the most important things that you should say to students is "Tell me about yourself as a reader." They even had us star that at the Daily 5/Cafe workshop. When the child looks at you like you are crazy (or they might offer an answer- bonus!) then you can tell them the strengths that you discovered while they were reading. With the student, you choose a goal and strategy for them to work on. Start with one or two things. They write their name on a sticky note and put it up on the Cafe board. You can see my kiddos' goals on the stars in the photo. While they are putting their sticky notes up, you can fill out the Individual Reading Conference Form in the child's tab and begin a list of students who should be in a group together on the Strategy Groups form at the beginning of your binder. I keep a running list as I assess students so I don't forget which students should be in the same group. When the student comes back, ask them to remind you what their goal is so they can remember, too! 

Cafe: Chapter 2- The Cafe Notebook and Record-Keeping Forms

I'm following along with the Cafe book study over at We Read, We Blog, We Teach. Today I'm sharing my thoughts on Chapter 2, which just happens to be my very favorite part because it's all about organizing and office supplies. ;)

There were a few discussion questions that Katie posted about Chapter 2 that I will try my best to answer.

 

Discussion Question: How have you previously tracked students and kept track of data during your reading/writing workshop time? If you currently are doing something to the Sisters, what did you do before that?

I used to have file folders for each student. They were a place I kept everything I needed for conferences and assessments. They had first grade assessments (ones we used to check the students' skills coming into first grade), running records, trimester assessments, pretests, etc. They also had test scores from the NWEA MAP test we take. It was hard to keep them organized since it was easiest to throw the papers in the file. It was also easy to never look at them again, which wasn't very conducive to guiding my teaching.

Enter my Conferring Notebook/Brain/Pensieve that you can read about in this post.

As I was reading about how The Sisters select their notebooks one major thing jumped out- they search for the most beautiful notebook they could find. I love beautiful notebooks! :) When they are working with teachers, they often have Notebook Parties. We have those at our school, too! Before a meeting, the primary team meets and makes a big mess of scrapbook paper and stickers. You can see what I made last year in this post here. I'd definitely recommend it- we had a blast and we love hauling our notebooks and plan books around because they have been beauti-fied.

Back to the Conferring Notebook- Section 1 of The Sisters notebook holds Teacher Notes. A calendar and keeping track form are first. A tip from The Sisters: when you make copies of these, hole punch the calendar on the right side of the paper and the keeping track form on the left side or vice-versa. That way they are facing each other to make it more user-friendly. The calendar is used to write down "appointments" you make with small groups or individuals. The keeping track form is to keep an at-a-glance list of the dates you met with individual students.

You can read more about The Pensieve at The Daily Cafe website that The Sisters have created.

Discussion Question: What are your must have notes that you like to keep on your groups and individual students? Have you ever done something similar to the calendar to keep track of appointments with your students?

I used to write in my plan book which small group I was going to work with each time. It ended up to be meeting with each student in a small group two days a week but it was consistent and I wasn't meeting the needs of kids that should have been meeting with me more than twice a week.

Section 2 of the notebook holds individual tabs for each kiddo. In each tab, there is a Cafe Menu (to highlight the skills that students have mastered) and two conferring forms- one for reading and one for writing. I don't use the writing conferring form since I have a separate writer's workshop time.

Discussion Question: How do you plan on setting up your binders, or what do you plan on doing if you will not be using the notebook approach to monitor progress?

I will be using the same binder I have been using. I love that I have everything at my fingertips- assessments, notes, etc. I keep it with me all.the.time.

Do you have a particular type of binder or dividers that you use? Where do you tend to get them from?

I love, love, love my personalized binder from Zazzle. I'd recommend signing up for their e-mails, they have some really great deals! There is also a coupon code on The Daily Cafe website.

Cafe: Chapter 1- Introduction

I'm following along with the Cafe book study over at We Read, We Blog, We Teach.

Stephanie blogged about her thoughts from Chapter 1 here and I thought I would share mine.

One of the first things that The Sisters talk about in the chapter is the fact that their basal that they had to teach from wasn't meeting the needs of their students. Do you have a basal? We use Storytown by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. We've had it for a few years now but we did realize that it was fine for those average readers but our kids who were above or below grade level needed more.

At our school we do two reading blocks. One is "flex reading" where kids are put into groups by ability level. The other is a homeroom block where we have a heterogeneous group. We originally used this homeroom block for our basal and then supplemented materials for our shorter "flex" groups. After a few years of this, the first and second grade teachers got together because we knew there had to be a better way. I had been using some of the Daily 5 and Cafe strategies in my flex group because I was working on a project for my Master's Degree. We looked further into The Sisters' plans and decided that this is what kids needed, but it would mean a fundamental shift in the way we had been doing things. 

The first and second grade teachers proposed that we begin teaching basal in our flex groups so that we could use it for the main curriculum in the grade level groups but that we could also tailor it to meet the needs of our above and below grade level readers. We formulated a plan and brought it to our principal. I'm so glad she made us really work out how we were going to use our reading time because we all were on board and took ownership of how we were going to teach reading from now on.

Now we teach our basal in flex groups. The higher readers read the story maybe once or twice in the week and then use the skills and strategies that are taught in the basal in other literature. The below grade level groups read the story with guidance and work on the skills and strategies in texts at their levels. We aligned the Cafe strategies to correlate with our basal strategies and use those to teach our whole group Daily 5 lessons before the kiddos break into their choices. We work with small groups in our homerooms to focus on those strategies and others. We know our kids inside and out. They are getting their needs met in any class they are in. We feel better about what we are doing and why we are doing it. 

Phew! That's a long story but I'm so glad that we changed what we were doing. We really feel we are putting kids first now, instead of the scripted one-size-fits-all basal. 

Tomorrow Chapter 2 is due! Here is the calendar from We Read, We Blog, We Teach if you'd like to read along, too!

Winner and Cafe Book Study

The winner of last week's giveaway is...

Mrs. Jordan!

I will be e-mailing you shortly!

This week I'm following the Cafe Book Study over at We Read, We Blog, We Teach. If you aren't familiar with The Sisters, Daily 5, or Cafe, I definitely recommend checking out the blog or the links.

 I have been using Daily 5 for several years in my first and second grade classes. My team was lucky enough to get some professional development money to help us pay to see a two-day workshop by The Sisters a few years ago and we LOVED it. We were even talking about heading over to Chicago to see them again it was so good. 

The Daily 5 is a management tool to help you organize your class to allow you to use small group instruction to target different groups of readers. The Cafe, however, is the meat of the small group lessons. The Sisters have created four categories (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expand Vocabulary) of traits that good readers possess. You use the lists under each category to create small groups of students who need to learn that specific trait. The Cafe book is awesome- it teaches you everything you need to help those kiddos!

I will be reading along with the book study and sharing my ideas here. 

Reading Pensieve

I wrote in an earlier post about how much I love using the Daily 5/Cafe method in class. I had tried Daily 5 in my homeroom and it was working well but something wasn't quite right. Luckily for me, The Sisters (Joan and Gail) were coming to do a 2 day workshop about Daily 5 and Cafe that summer and it was literally just a few miles away from my house. Yes, it was pricey, but my whole grade level team decided to go and we actually got some professional development money to offset the cost. It was the best money I've ever spent. Two days with other teachers, Gail and Joan (who are hilarious, informative, and SO kind!), and meals and snacks...heaven. I'd go again in a heartbeat and I recommend their workshop (especially the 2 day) to my teacher friends.

Check out the Daily Cafe website for more information about their books and methods.

One of the main components of Daily 5/Cafe is small group and individual reading instruction. The Sisters organize their paperwork and all of their notes in something they call a Reading Pensieve. If you remember, Harry Potter's mentor Dumbledore had a "pensieve" that he kept all his most treasured thoughts in. That's basically what this binder is- notes about your students as readers.

I wanted to share with you my Reading Pensieve (or "My Brain" as I sometimes refer to it with my students) so you can get an idea of what is inside. The Sisters have downloads for most of the pages I am referring to but you might have to be a member. They are also available in their book, The CAFE Book, which has a CD of printables.

Here is the cover of my Pensieve. I custom-made and ordered the binder from Zazzle.com. It was pricey but I have a birthday dangerously close to the start of school and there is a promo code here and if you sign up for the Zazzle e-mails the deals are even better.

Here is what's inside:

I've kept some essential tools in my pencil pouch in the front- highlighter, pen, etc.

The main tabs are "Keeping Track," "Whole Group," "Small Groups," "Reading Data," and "Students."

In the "Keeping Track" section, I have a calendar for the year. This allows me to make appointments with students and small groups- and keep them! If I tell a student I will meet with them in two days, I can write that in my calendar and remember to follow up.

In the "Whole Group" tab, I have several lesson plans that are available on The Daily Cafe to help me teach my mini-lessons in a whole group setting.

In the "Small Groups" section, I have lots of notes about the different small groups I teach during Daily 5. Above, you can see that this group was working on chunking and blending. I write a quick note to myself about what they did and then, to the right, the members of the group and how they seemed to do with those skills that day. I use a + if they seemed to understand, a check if they did okay but might need more reinforcement, and a - if they will definitely need more help with this strategy.

One photo I don't have is what is in the Reading Data tab- this section is basically for the students' reading scores on running records and the NWEA MAP tests for easy access for me.

In the "Student" section, I have a tab for each student in my class. In each one I've put a Cafe menu, another printable from the website to collect data when I meet with individuals during Daily 5.

One document I did not take a photo of is my check-in sheet for Daily 5. During Daily 5, the students can choose from five different options: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading. In my class, students must choose Read to Self sometime during our three rounds. They can only do Listen to Reading twice during the week. I keep track of their choices using an Excel spreadsheet I created. I typed in each student's name, laminated it, and then jot down their choice each round with a Vis a Vis marker. I have a code system: R is Read to Self, RS is Read to Someone, W is Work on Writing, WW is Word Work, and L is Listen to Reading. Would you like a copy? I have a Google Doc just for you! Please note- this document only has enough spots for three choices each day since that is how many we have in my class. Also, I only keep track of their choices on a weekly basis (which is why I laminated the sheet and can wipe it off easily) because I found it was wasting quite a bit of paper to keep track longer.