Unfortunately today's post on Chapter 3 is delayed due to some unforeseen circumstances. We will do this chapter a little differently until the post goes live. I would like all of you to share your thoughts on Chapter 3 in the comments and we will do the discussion through the comments for now.
Thanks for your patience and understanding!
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34 comments:
I guess I will start the ball rolling on this chapter. :) Last year I set up my strategy board - changing it to FACE of a Reader instead. I started in November, and we have the same type of strategies every year, so I had them up to begin with on the board. My kiddos chose goals, but I didn't have them do the sticky note name thing on the board.
I'm thankful that the Sisters have that list of picture books that help with different focus lessons. Last year I searched online and found other teachers also had posted many different resources to have additional help with choosing.
At this point I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I will start this this year. Daily 5 will start with Read to Self the 2nd day of school - going to do the shoe lesson the first day of school, then move into it. My district has OCR, and Getting Started Day 3 (I believe) talks about the strategies - so was going to introduce the board at that point starting off with the 6 strategies that the kids have used every year since Kindergarten.
I love that they give a step by step approach to student conferences. Last year I didn't have the CAFE book, so I just used the CAFE menu that I found online to have student choose a goal - I like how everything is ready and handy to write on with the CD. I think this year I need to focus on discussing the findings with the students - to help them take ownership of their learning... I'm so used to discussing data with my team mates and math data with the students, that this year it should be easy to expand that into reading.
Thanks for listening to me ramble.
Emily
I Love My Classroom
"Give it a go." I have always struggled with being spot on teaching strategies. This chapter helped me realize that even if the identified strategy that I have asked my student to practice isn't the immediate pressing need, I will conference with that child again within 48 hours and I will realize that; I loved the CAFE step by step strategies for the first few days. I know that once I have worked this for a short time with the book as my guide, I will become more confident to continue independently. Isn't that the model we strive for in our lessons? "I do" - real lessons and anecdotal forms done by the sisters, "we do"- use the book as my coach and then "I do". My CAFE board is going to be an intregal part of my daily lessons. This chapter really drove home the point that students have to use the CAFE board as a resource. It can't just be a wall decoration- it has to be interactive.I loved that there are no secrets from the child. The student is aware of their strengths and what they need to work on. If students know why they are doing something and given a chance to practice and then have a check-in- they are going to buy into our CAFE/Daily 5. I have to trust my students and that is an area I am very excited about.
I love this book! It perfectly explains my personal struggles with teaching reading, and I now understand why I haven't been very successful. I like how the sisters really break it down step by step. I have never used this before, but I can finally understand. I can see it. I just now need to start writing out my own plan and put my pensieve together.
My C.A.F.E. book is in a box in my new classroom that I haven't gotten to yet, so I am not 100% on this chapters topic. :) (I did read the book and have gone back through certain parts multiple times throughout the last few years, so I am not a total slacker) :) I think that my biggest challenge here is the conferencing. I meet with every student every day in my guided reading groups. I am not ready to move completely away from that model because I have seen too much success in the growth of all students. What I love about C.A.F.E are the strategies and as the "this is what I see... Now what" inde at the back of the book. I am wanting to use reading strategy notebooks that are really interactive like the way that math interactive notebooks work. Has anyone done this with the CAFE strategies?
The other peice that I did was put together the notebook and it is a great way to keep track of data and be able to share with parents at conferences.
I really like having a list of strategies to teach with picture books. I have given DRAs before, but didn't really go over the information with my students. I can see how that information gathered can help me drive our goal selection and instruction for my students. We don't typically administer the DRA at the beginning of the year...I wonder if I can look at the response sheet from May and know that the child needs help with comprehension or fluency? I like the fact that they had intermediate students keep a log of their goals in the literacy binder, too.
I feel better after reading this chapter. Looking forward to Ch. 4.
Loving the book study! I am learning a lot and getting lots of ideas from both the book and the discussions. Thank you for all of your comments. I'm new to Grade 4, as well as, Daily 5 and CAFE.
A little off topic...sorry...but I was wondering if any of you have a membership to the Sister's website?
I think that the strategies in conjunction with posting them on a bulletin board has been my favorite aspect of the CAFE model. I honestly don't know how many times I refer to it each day!
I think the conferencing and having students more interactive with the strategies really helps them develop as readers and get to know themselves as readers.
I also greatly appreciate the Sisters stating that there is no right strategy to teach at a given moment. Perhaps for too many years that has been insinuated or even dictated through prescribed programs...
Anonymous - in response to your question about the website membership...I do have a membership. It kind of seems spendy, but it has been worth every penny for me. However, there are many free things on the site and you can sign up for a free Tip of the Week, which I really enjoy and it has helped me use the site more advantageously. Good luck!
Has anyone tried a writing menu as well as a cafe menu in their room before? I teach 6th grade LA and am thinking of doing both menus in order to have everything posted so it will be referred to more often.
Jill:
I saw that members have access to the interactive CAFE menu (non-members do too, but they have access to a VERY limited selection of the menu offerings). I was thinking about buying a 3 month subscription for $40 just for that. Do you know if it gives you LESSONS for each of the CAFE topics? That's where I'm struggling. The book gives excellent examples, but I need more.
Chapter 3 takes the guess work out of lesson planning those first few days of school. It's a gift from the Two Sisters. :) It so very hectic those few days,that it is comforting to have the Cafe at my finger tips.Regarding DRA and IRI,we just tested our students again this past spring in MAPS..so I will be using these as benchmarks for my students.
Tina regarding the writing piece..Ladybug's Teacher Files has VOICES headers that you can print out,they actually look like CAFE..if you check out the website Writing Fit It,there is a great array of lessons for the 6 Traits of writing..also check out my blog Teise's Tidbits,I just posted some other resources for the writing piece if you are interested.
Thank you all once again for sharing. :)
Mrs. K: the sisters' website is so immense I can't remember where it/they are located, but they do have lessons posted that lend themselves well for each of the strategies. They even have them cross-referenced! I am almost positive you will have access to the entire website with a subscription. I have the year sub because I knew I could never get everything I needed or wanted from it in 3 months!
Tina: I created my own writing menu 2 years ago when I saw part of one in a photo on the sisters' website, but I could never find a complete photo. It was only a glimpse and I knew how successful the reading one was. I'm drawing a blank this morning, but I'm pretty sure I only used three headings - Conventions, Ideas, and ? (I'm so sorry, but for the life of me I can't remember my last heading!). I really liked how the two menus went hand-in-hand. I'd be willing to share my headings and ideas for strategies if you are interested...I'll be heading into my classroom this week. Good luck!
Thanks Debbie for the writing website - I'm anxious to take a look at it. I can use all the help I can get for teaching writing!
Hello everyone! I am enjoying the book study on both the Daily 5 and the Cafe books. All of your comments and suggestions are so very helpful. I am new to 5th grade and to Daily 5/CAFE.
Tina: I love the idea of doing the same thing with writing. For me, it is one of the subjects I love personally, but I find it so difficult to teach. Writing Fix is a great site, I get ideas from it often.
Jill: I would love to look at your headings and ideas for strategies if you would be willing to share.
You are all a great inspiration, thanks so much.
Tammy Hubbart
For the writing menu...I saw on Pinterest... "Voices" as the header...
Voice, Organization, Ideas, Conventions, Excellent word choice, and sentence fluency
Chapter 3 has great ideas on how to start the whole group instruction for CAFE and why those particular strategies are best to start out with. Makes perfect sense! I will be using this starting this week for sure, since we go back August 1st!Wendy Zwart, thanks for the tidbit on Pinterest's writing header "VOICES"...
Jill - I would love to see some of the strategies you use for the writing menu!
Thank you ALL for the ideas! I am so excited to create a writing menu to go along with the Cafe menu. I want to stay up all night figuring it out... :)
I also do VOICES - the kids love it, but more important they remember it. Now I just need an acronym for math...
Like Fancy Nancy, I meet with my reading groups each day and find lots of success with it. This chapter was so helpful in explaining the conferencing aspect. I am not ready to give up my reading groups but do think I can implement the CAFE portion one or two days a week in lieu of groups. I will continue to meet daily with my intensive reading level kiddos though.
I love that the sisters give lesson ideas! It was an "aha" moment for me about posting the strategies and stepping back and reteaching/ emphasizing them to the intermediates. When I taught first grade we were explicit in this. However, I learned through DAILY 5 how much the students forget or teachers don't explicitly state objectives and teach the basic skills. I was amazed at progress when I took the time to teach again (even though it sounds so below grade level). I am looking forward to seeing the lightbulbs go off. Going to try VOICES as well.
I love the notetaking strategies and I think students will refer back to the bb with the cafe and writing strategies. I am also using the VOICES strategy and found a lot of good information on pinterest.
This chapter also outlined the conferencing part of reading, with which I struggle, very explicitly. I would like to chat with someone who has implemented Daily 5 and Cafe in an intermediate classroom (6-8).
I built my CAFE Menu on my ActivBoard. Lack of wall space and fire code makes it difficult to post it as a bulletin board. It's tight, but works alright for my fifth graders.
Love the FACE of a reader idea. Might borrow that one! Thanks also for the VOICES. I was thinking of a writing board too.
Emily - For math this year I am trying this out...
M - Math practise - daily review/math facts
A - At your seat - questions based on the mini lesson
T - Teacher time -mini-lessons/concepts taught here
H- Hands on - games, art, foldables, activities based on the concepts
Based on ideas found here:
http://funin4b.blogspot.ca/2012/04/math-stationsmaking-it-work.html
I blogged about Chapter 3 here: http://frommymixedupfiles.blogspot.com/2012/07/cafe-chapter-3-cafe-step-by-step.html
I've tried a math one but we call it "Stars."
S-Study Facts
T-Teacher time
A-Assignment (comes from Teacher Time)
R-Response Journal (math prompt)
S-Skills Practice (games)
Thanks to all of you for inspiring me and motivating me to be a better teacher!
Thanks to those of you who have expressed interest in my writing menu - it's not fancy or "pretty"... You will definitely need to adapt it to your grade level, as I used it this past year with my 3rd graders. (I had a very challenging class with many academic, social, and behavior problems, in addition to many of them at the poverty level or coming from generational poverty.)
I use the headings of Conventions, Ideas, and Organization.
Conventions: I use capital letters, punctuation, good grammar, and good spellings.
Ex. of strategies: use end punctuation, spell word wall words correctly, chunk for good spellings, use capital letters at beginning of sentence, use capital letters for proper nouns
Ideas: I write my ideas clearly.
Ex. Of strategies: use details, use describing words
Organization: My writing is well organized and makes sense.
Ex. of strategies: Say It/Write It, back up and reread, use beginning, middle, and end, use correct letter format, use paragraphs for new ideas
After reading all of your posts, I definitely want to revamp my writing menu, especially so I can create some type of acronym! (something to think about while I'm cleaning today...) I'm with you, Emily, now I just need an acronym for math! (the Sisters do have some things on their website for Daily Math)
Thanks again for all the ideas and inspiration!
To see my summary, go to http://classroomcollective.tumblr.com/post/28271208424/cafe-chapter-3
Hmm... I was wondering when only beginning to implement the stamina for Daily 5, when do you have the time to do a good assessment and it seems it would take quite a long time to get through 32 students. Any advice? Should I base the first set of goals on what I know from the previous teacher's assessments? Thanks for the book study! I am anxious to jump in when school starts in 2 weeks!
To all who are thinking about math: check out Calendar Math. Great ideas for daily review. I believe it comes from one of our contributors.
Went to school today with my husband to move furniture. Now on to bulletin boards. I have figured out the daily 3 and cafe lessons for the first week. I am going to follow the format at the end of cafe book but have adjusted it to my program. Our basal's first unit is friendship so the books I use for D3 and Cafe will be the preview of that unit. We begin on Aug 20 here in eastern North Carolina but I have been out since May 25. I am ready to go back now and these book studies have been very helpful. It would be good to keep a board going for early questions. Btw, picture book author studies are a good way to go with mini lessons--it really grabs student attention and if a story is too long for a lesson the students will snatch up the book to finish it. They will often go hunting in the library for more by the author!
Tracy: In my experience, building stamina has to come first. I start assessing kids when the class has built at least 10-15 min. of stamina. Assessing kids individually takes time, period. I've yet to find a way around that. It's usually a good three to four weeks before I start conferencing with kids for individual goal setting and pulling groups. However, by then we've added several strategies to our CAFE menu, my Daily 3 is well-established, and the kids and I have had time to build a bit of a relationship. It's an investment of time that really pays off in the long run!
Hi everyone!
The best thing about this blog is that I get my questions answered and often other questions that I haven't even thought of yet! I really like the reading schedule better as I can stop and digest info rather than reading it all at one time.
I started D5 and CAFE last year and got off track when I panicked about taking grades. We have to upload grades every three weeks to Edline, and I just couldn't figure out where my grades were going to come from. To be honest, I'm still having trouble with that and would love some suggestions. :-)
We complete DRA's at the beginning and the end of the school year, and I usually complete the first round sometime before the end of September. This gives me time to get to know each student and his/her strengths and weaknesses. The DRA is just another piece of data for me, and I do find it very helpful in parent conferences as well as student conferences.
If anyone is contemplating buying the subscription to the Sisters' site, I highly recommend it. I didn't have it last year, but I've already used it so much this summer in preparation for this coming year. A favorite part that I found were the "parent pipelines" that outline great info for your students' parents.
Hi
I've gotten lots of great ideas and insight from reading all your comments.
I'm hoping you can clarify something for me though. If you are implementing D5 (well D3 for me) and are spending the first few weeks building stamina and training their memory muscles in procedures, when so you fit in CAFE lessons? My time for reading instruction is really limited (I teach in the UK and don't have large chunks of the day allocated to reading and writing) and I can't figure out how to launch both D5 and Cafe concurrently. Any thoughts?
ClassroomCollective.com: Amy, that was an AWESOME post!!! You broke down the chapter in an easy to follow format...FANTASTIC!!! Thank you for sharing:)
Jill: You rock!! THANKS! I also feel the same way you do...so thanks for sharing your personal feelings, concerns, and excitement:)
Ashely James: I agree! Thanks for sharing your personal struggles.
Hi Claire,
I'm not sure if this helps, but I do a mini lesson before each of my Daily 3 breakouts. So if we were still building stamina, I might do a mini lesson on a comprehension strategy and then have the class practice that strategy when they are practicing/building stamina for Read to Self. Then when you call them back to the group to check-in on how they did, they could also do a quick group or partner share about how they used that particular strategy.
Good luck!
Ashley,
I find that grades are the hardest part of the Daily 5 and CAFE. Is your district on a standards-based grading system or a points system? If they're standards-based, you could grade based on progress towards goals. If you're on points, students could track and reflect on their D5 activities and you could count that as a grade..... maybe?
Thank you for all of your great comments and ideas! I like the FACE of a Reader, info on the Writing piece ideas - VOICES, CIO and may incorporate them. The Math Strategy Board ideas were interesting too. I loved the website info people gave too.
lbbeck1701, did you submit your CAFE Menu flipchart for ActivBoard to Promethean? We use ActivBoard and I would love to have the CAFE Menu on a flipchart. Thank you
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