A new book study coming soon....

Ready to get your Reading on?   Coming mid-June....

THE BOOK WHISPERER

Be sure to get your copy now and be ready for the book study!
Hoppy Reading!

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

How's Daily 5 & CAFE working for you?

Howdy! Lorraine from Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies here. Tomorrow I start back to school.....no students yet, just staff development and setting up my classroom.

Many of you started school already and have started using Daily 5 and CAFE.  So tell us, how is it going?  Did you start Daily 5 the very first day or wait for a few days in?  What would you change?   What advice would you give those of us who have never tried Daily 5 & CAFE?

Comment with your reflections & advice!  Thanks in advance for sharing!

CAFE - Chapter 7

Hello, everyone!  I excited to lead the discussion today.  I am Jana from Thinking Out Loud.  

I taught seventh and eighth grade social studies for four years before moving to reading for two years.  Just as I felt I was getting my feet under me, I was asked to be a literacy coach.  I have been doing that for four years and love my job.  Working with teachers is just as rewarding as working with students, and I still get work with students...best of both worlds!  As soon as I finished my Masters in Reading, I started the National Board process and achieved National Board Certification in reading two years ago.  Why am I telling you this?  Because I want you to know how much I LOVE, LOVE teaching literacy.  One of my favorite aspects is working with small groups, especially strategy groups.

Chapter 7 - STRATEGY GROUPS

We have all heard of the 'spray and pray' method (otherwise known as only teaching whole-group lessons).  We also know that it doesn't work for every student.  There is not a way to meet the needs of every student using only whole-group instruction.  However, if you combine whole-group instruction with individual conferences and strategy groups, you can meet the needs of all of your students.  The Daily 5 sets the structure of your literacy block, so you can meet with students in strategy groups while the rest of your class participates in authentic reading and writing activities.

What is a strategy group?  How is it different from guided reading?

Strategy groups are small, flexible groups that are formed based on the strategies students need instruction on and practice with instead of being in the same group because of reading level.  These groups are truly flexible.  As soon as a student has mastered the strategy, he or she is moved out of the group.  The strategy determines the frequency of which the group meets instead of meeting every day with every group.  Some groups need more practice time and less instructional time with teacher.  Some groups will need to meet with the teacher every day.

What happens during a strategy group?  

• Students come to the group and begin reading a book from their book box aloud quietly.  As the students are reading, the teacher is listening to find out if they are using the strategy about to be introduced during that meeting.
• The teacher verbally reinforce the group's goal.
• The teacher models the strategy for the students.
• The students practice the strategy with their independent books while teacher listens and coaches.
• Review the strategy as a group.
• Decide if students need to practice individually or with partners.
• Plan the next meeting.

How long should the group meet?

The Sisters answer, "The approximate age of the students is the approximate number of minutes they can sustain higher-level thinking with group instructions." (page 115)

If the students aren't reading the same book, what can are some tools I can use to help teach the strategy?

The Sisters answered this question on the companion site for the books:  Materials.

When do I start pulling groups?  How do I manage strategy groups?

The beginning of the year (around the first five weeks) is spent assessing and conferring with students and getting the Daily Five running smoothly.  Since strategy groups are flexible and may not meet every day, an easy management system is needed to keep track.  On pages 111-113, the Sisters share their Strategy Groups form.

Looking for more Daily 5 and CAFE resources?  I have a Pinterest board that the authors of this blog have been pinning resources to as the book study occured and we will continue to pin resources.

 
Now it's your turn.  Talk to me about strategy groups:  Do you implement them?  What are your concerns?  What are your successes?  If you have questions, this is the place to ask them.  I may not be able to answer, but one of the wonderful people who have been following and commenting will be able to help you.

I am so glad that you have joined us for our first two book studies over the Daily Five and CAFE.  Stay tuned for our next book study.  We love having you here!

The CAFE Book - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - Whole Class Instruction

Hi!  I'm Jen from Runde's Room, and I'm so excited to be discussing chapter 6 with you.  I teach a split grade 5/6 class (have taught a split class for 9 of my 11 teaching years), so one of the main reasons I chose this chapter is that I'm always looking for ways I can combine my classes so that I'm not teaching two separate classes whenever possible.

The CAFE Instruction Sequence:  It's Your Choice

In this section, the sisters discuss the order and choices of order to teach the strategies on the CAFE menu.  They have listed the strategies in the order they have used them in class - strategies near the top of the lists are used more frequently than others.  Strategies near the bottom of the list are more sophisticated and are usually only taught in the upper elementary grades.  It's good to know there is choice and flexibility in the order we choose to teach the strategies.  I have also seen flexibility in the actual headings themselves - some of the bulletin boards I have seen rearrange the letters of CAFE to spell FACE - and call the bulletin board "The FACE of a Reader".  

The sisters recommend teaching three whole-class strategy lessons a day - including one strategy from each of Comprehension and Accuracy, plus one more from either Fluency or Expand Vocabulary (all strategies in the CAFE menu are listed on page 143 in the appendix of the book).  Fluency and vocabulary lessons can easily be integrated in whole-class read-alouds, or during Daily 5 stations like Listen to Reading, Read with a Partner, or Word Work.

Some questions I was left with in this section are:

• 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 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?

Principles for Whole-Class Lessons

In this section, the sisters walk us through a typical whole-class strategy lesson.  The first thing I was blown away by was the figure of a typical literacy block schedule.  This schedule has over 3 hours of literacy instruction!!!  I have half of that - one 90 minute block to fit it all in.  I did really like how the strategy lesson was sequenced (more in the next section).  I also really liked that a student took the ownership to create the strategy card to be placed on the bulletin board.  

The importance of review and going back to the strategy was reinforced in this section - going back the next day, and throughout the year - something we all know is key to students mastering the concept.  Students are also encouraged to try out the strategy during their "Read to Self" portion of the Daily 5, and share their finding with the class.  I loved this because sometimes students don't even realize they are using the strategy until they hear a classmate discuss it - then the light bulb goes off, and they think, "Yeah - that's what I'm doing, too!".

Whole-Class Lesson Elements

The progression of steps to follow when introducing a new strategy are as follows:

1.  Identify what is to be taught, and share "the secret to success" with the strategy.  (The secret to success for each strategy is also listed in the appendix).  

2.  Teach the strategy - this should only take 1 - 5 minutes - students need the time to practice the strategy.

3.  Students practice with partners.  Students should already know who their partners are - this is one of the time-saving strategies I know I'll have to have in place.

4.  Select a student to write and illustrate the CAFE Menu strategy card.

5.  Review the strategy - during the wrap-up of the lesson.

6.  Encourage practice during independent reading times.

7.  Post the strategy AFTER independent practice.

8.  Continually connect new strategies to strategies already on the board.

Some of the questions I was left with after this chapter are:

• 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?
• 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'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?

The rest of the chapter gives a sample lesson for each of the 4 CAFE categories.  It was comforting to see how some of my favorite "tried and true" lessons will easily fit into these mini-lessons.  I became even more excited to delve into the CAFE world after reading this chapter ... but I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the whole timing of it all.  For those of you with a shorter literacy block (like myself), I would LOVE it if you would tell me some of your thoughts and plans to squeeze it all in - especially if you have already incorporated CAFE into your classroom.

I just wanted to leave you with one more thing:  I've started a pinterest board full of CAFE ideas for this chapter.  I've only just started it, so I will be adding lots of new ideas to it as I keep on planning this summer.  Check it out and give it a follow - you may find exactly what you've been looking for.  You can take a peek by clicking HERE.

Thanks for following along!

CAFE - Chapter 5 (Conferences)

Hi, everyone!  I'm Dana from 3rd Grade Gridiron.  

I'll be discussing Ch. 5 from the CAFE book titled "Eavesdropping on Some Conferences."

I think the most important thing to take away from the chapter is:

conferencing with the kids should be about reminding them of their strengths and weaknesses in reading.  Some kids get so bogged down in what they're doing wrong, they never give themselves credit for what they're doing right!

Another important aspect of conferencing is:

helping the kids devise goals and strategies to become successful readers.  Instead of students getting frustrated and shutting down when faced with reading challenges, they will know strategies to get around these obstacles.  

Depending on each child's needs, you may conference with students 1-3 times a week.  And each time you meet with them, check out their goals set from the last conference.  

*Are they getting better?  

*Are the strategies working?  

Meeting with the kids and keeping track of their progress can help them become more confident and gain more responsibility for their own success!  

Do you hold conferences with your students?  How often?  Any tips for others that have really worked for you?

The CAFE Book - Chapter 4

Reflections on Chapter 4: Conferring with Children

Hi! I'm Laura Candler of the Teaching Resources website as well as the Corkboard Connections blog. I'm a former upper elementary teacher who loved teaching reading with the reading workshop approach! I'm thrilled to join the summer book study on The Daily Five and The CAFE Book, and I'm especially excited to be able to reflect on today's chapter on conferring with children. I'm also happy to share two freebies with you that you may find useful as you implement these strategies.

As I began this chapter, my first thought was, "Where was this book when I was learning to implement reading workshop in my classroom?" Conferring with children was the most difficult piece to implement because it's so individualized. When I was starting out, I had many questions about what to do. What exactly do we say when we meet with each student? How do we plan for our conferences? What do we record for future reference? How often do we meet with them? Thankfully, all of these questions are addressed in Chapter 4! It's a long chapter, packed with great strategies, so let's jump right in! I'll share my reflections on each part of this chapter, and then I'll pose a few discussion questions. I hope you'll share your thoughts with us at the end of this blog post.


Rethinking Conference Protocols
The first paragraph in this section really spells out the essential elements of the whole chapter:

"The reason we confer with students is to help them work toward individual goals. The goals come from the assessments at the start of the year or previous conferences, and they become the focus of each conference with children."

In this section, the sisters outlined the structure of each reading conference and provided icons to help us remember what to record on our conference forms. The CD that comes with the book includes a blank copy of the conference form that you can print out and use in your classroom. The icons are a wonderful addition to the form, but I knew that I would need a written reference at first. So I created this CAFE Conference Quick Reference Guide to help me remember what to record next to each icon. You can download it for free from my Reading Workshop page on Teaching Resources. I would suggest keeping it at the front of your Pensieve, otherwise known as your conference notebook.

Another aspect of this section that I liked was the information about how to help kids develop goals based on the CAFE menu: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanded Vocabulary. These four areas are critical to reading development, and it makes sense to introduce these terms to students and use them as the focus of reading conferences. These terms become part of the shared literacy vocabulary in the classroom.

Discussion Questions: What kinds of information have you been recording during reading conferences? How do you feel about the five areas suggested by the icons? Do you think that recording this much information would be too time-consuming or quite doable?

Moving from Conferring to Coaching: A Shift in Thinking
I loved the suggestion that we shift our thinking from "conferring" to "coaching." When we are working with individual students and helping them to meet their own goals, we are definitely moving into a coaching role. I found the step-by-step list on page 56, Coaching Toward a Target, to be very helpful in terms of providing guidelines for the amount of time to spend on each part of the conference. I also found the suggested wording to be very beneficial because sometimes it's hard to know what to say to move from one part of the conference to the next. However, I did feel that I would have difficulty adhering to those time limits and trying to accomplish this much in one short conference!

Discussion Question: What are your thoughts about the steps and time limits outlined in the "Coaching Toward a Target" overview page?

The Seven Elements of Successful Conferences
I was grateful for the elaboration provided in this section about what to do during each part of the conference. I'm going to list the seven elements below with a bit of reflection about each.

1. Check the Calendar for Appointments - I loved the idea of having a monthly calendar page in the front of the conference notebook for recording appointments over time. When I saw the sample calendar page, I thought of the School Year Calendars pages that I create each year. You can download the entire set for free from TeachersPayTeachers. I think you'll find the pages to be just the right size for storing in your conference notebook.
2. Prepare for the Conference - This step is critical for planning how we might best use our time to coach each child. Taking a moment to review our notes from previous conferences will help keep us focused when we meet with each student.
3. Observe Child and Listen to Reading - Step 3 is where the actual conference begins. We tiptoe over to the student, observing how that student is functioning during independent reading time. Then we invite the child to read to us quietly, and we listen to see whether the strategies we have taught in previous conferences are being applied.
4. Reinforce and Teach - In this step, we explain what we have noticed and try to move the student forward a bit with the strategy. (Note: Have you discovered the Ready Reference Charts in the back of the book and on the CD? These charts are AMAZING! Flip to page 154 to take a look. There are over 30 charts that explain in a step-by-step manner how to teach each strategy for mastering the CAFE menu items. This part of the book alone is worth gold! Use these charts to help you figure out how to teach the specific reading strategy needed during each conference.)
5. Practice the Strategy - We listen as the child practices the strategy, and we coach as needed.
6. Plan - We share our plan for how the student should practice the strategy before our next conference. During this time, we also let students know when we will meet together to see how they are progressing.
7. Encourage - This is the most important step of all! We end the conference with encouraging words to show students that we notice the improvements they are making.

Discussion Questions: What do you think of these seven elements? Do you feel that they are "essential" as the title of this section suggests? Are you already doing these things? If not, which ones do you want to add to your repertoire of conference strategies? 

Thanks for joining me to discuss and reflect on Chapter 4 in The CAFE Book, Conferring with Children. You are going to love Chapter 5, Eavesdropping on Some Conferences! In this chapter you'll see how the elements in Chapter 4 work together in conferences with real children. It's like being able to peek into the sisters' classrooms to see exactly how they teach comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary.