The success of Daily 5 has led us to want to expand our learning and our quality teaching with our students.
Gail and Joan had a similar journey. They were so amazed, just as we are, at how independent their students had become and the extended amount of time their students had following the introduction of Daily 5 to practice reading and writing. They had time to spend with small groups and students who were struggling. They then started coming up with new questions in their teaching practice, just as we have been as well! So, they set about developing another research based methodolgy.
They had concerns and questions about assessment. They knew the skills that were being taught but were worried about how little follow through they seemed to have with students after connecting the two.
Gail and Joan have come up with CAFE as a basis of wha they felt was missing.
C - Comprehension
A - Accuracy
F - Fluency
E - Expanded Vocabulary
The acronym CAFE also reflected the desire to have a selection of strateges for students to choose between when accessing the menu.
Gail and Joan believed that this new structure added coherece to their work with students.
I really relate to the honesty of their accounts. I too relate to Gail's story of being great at taking assessment and tracking student progress and they challenge in taking it to the next level of really knowing what students needed to learn, it wasn't clear or concise or manageable. This frustration led to the following questions:
1. How do we organise all of our assessment data so that we can make it work for us?
2. How do we keep track of each child's strengths and goals so that we can maximise our time with each child?
3. What about flexible groups? Is there really a way to make them flexible?
4. How do we present strategies so that students can access them when needed and practice them until they are proficient?
Joan goes on to explain the simpleness of the CAFE approach, ith the core elements being;
1. Teacher keeps notebook with key record keeping forms including calendar, individual student conference forms and strategy group planners. (Kate and I have been experimenting with evernote on the Ipad, making this a digital notebook and I hear the Sisters are developing an App to help with this as well)
2. Students meet with teachers during literacy sessions to conference, be assessed, receive explicit instruction, set goals and to follow up on previous goals. The teacher keeps track of progress and schedules future conferences on the calendar and the student posts their reading goals on the CAFE chart.
3. Teachers plan small group instruction based on clusters of studens with similar needs in one of the CAFE categories. These groups are flexible and based on needs rather than reading levels.
4. Whole group insruction is based on needs that emerge for many students, often using texts from whole class read alouds or other shared material.
The research base for CAFE is quite extensive and outlined well in Chapter 1. I found it most interesting that Pressley and Taylor's research indicated that the more whole class teaching offered, the lower the academic achievement in any school. There is a growing body of research to support this.
Gail and Joan do not consider CAFE a finished product and acknwledge the work of teachers all around the world refining and enhancing the system they developed. My aim at MACC is that we would continue that journey and that we refine and develop CAFE to suit our context.
I look forward to moving through our book study and from Kaelene with a summary of Chapter 2. In the mean time, I'd love to know what you think about the following ideas.
Did Gail and Joan's story resonate with you? Have you had similar concerns?
What are you most excited to learn about as we go through this book study?
Happy Reading!
Deb
14 comments:
Looking forward to tomorrow and getting into CAFE with my little ones. The sisters approach is user friendly and one which I am ready to tackle. The journey we at MACC are embarking on enables us to work with students on their individual needs at wherever they may be on the spectrum of their personal literacy journey. Interested to use their methods for recording and looking forward to sharing ideas and seeing how others are implementing ideas into classes and the way specific strategies each student is working on is recorded on the CAFE chart. What works, what needs refining. Exciting times at MACC ahead for us all.
I definitely related to the sisters! I felt that while I was going through the motions of teaching my students how to read, I wasn't meeting their needs as well as I could be. I assessed them for reports but struggled to use the data to target my teaching to specific individual needs rather than just whole class, or guided reading group instruction.
Implementing the CAFE system this year has given me a whole new purpose for listening to students read - I no longer do it just because that's what I thought I was supposed to be doing, now I have a clear purpose for conferencing and I use the information gained to help my students select individual goals. The list of strategies has also improved my knowledge of reading strategies immeasurably and allowed me to better assist my students. The pensieve has also ensured my assessment is no longer in 'safe places' all over the room!
I'm most excited to learn about how other people structure their time to ensure they get the most out of this great system. I'm slowly improving my speed and can now get to 3-4 students per day (on a good day), however am still struggling to find time to fit in strategy groups. I'd also love to learn about how other people find the balance between 'rebooking' those students that really need our help (and in an ideal world could really be conferenced with daily!) and still extending those readers that are already reading well beyond their age level, by meeting with them regularly as well...
Can't wait to continue this journey with everyone! Exciting times ahead!
Great post Deb. I know I have felt similiar to the sisters at times. Feeling like I wasn't meeting their needs as well as I should have, especially when working in groups.
I have a similar opinion to Amy, enjoying how much using CAFE enables us to meet the students individually and cater for their needs as a reader.
I was previously using an exercise book to keep my reading 'notes' on each student which was easy to refer to, however the pensieve has given me more direction with my teaching of reading. It is also great when job sharing to know that you are using the same strategies and wording with the students.
I also get to 3-4 students however I have not started 'strategy groups'. I would like to see how they work in other classrooms.
I am most excited about learning how to be a better teacher. How to learn more about working out where the students are and how to move them along to where they should be.
This journey is so challenging but also fulfilling. The results of the assessments we have used speak for themselves and that is without factoring in the shift in attitude towards reading from the students.
I love what Kaelene said in her comment about ...'The journey we at MACC are embarking on enables us to work with students on their individual needs at wherever they may be on the spectrum of their personal literacy journey...'
I agree with Amy and Georgia also in the traditional delivery of whole class literacy or guided reading that it has been a struggle to meet individual student's needs. Tracking is so tricky and I know Deb you've mentioned before how much 'busy' work can come into keeping the class working whilst the teacher targets one-on-one or small group instruction time... I love how as a Junior School the teachers are all revved up about doing the best for the students - at the end of the day that's what we're all about...
I like the CAFE approach of the child thinking 'hmmm what will I choose today?' - lots of research and current opinion to back up the need for student choice and engagement on twitter lately...
I am looking forward to delving deeper into the reading material of CAFE and learning more about the underpinning philosophies behind it all as well as seeing it all come to fruition in the learning spaces around us.
I also look forward to reading each chapter summary and the questions raised because I like hearing as colleagues how each of us think and process ideas and have our own unique take on Daily 5 and CAFE, yet can come together and collaborate as a whole - I think that is maybe a metaphor for the appraoch in the classroom also: students on their own unique journey of literacy yet working together as a cohesive unit collaboratively and cheering each other on!
What struck me about cafe was the practical and honest way it was birthed!!! It is a working document which comes from experience and years of classroom practice. The most brilliant aspect of Cafe for me is the focus on teaching reading strategies rather than piling kids in groups because they've reached a certain level. I love the four categories and the specific strategies that are in each. It makes the instruction so much clearer and meaningful, putting ownership back on the kids for their learning.
I am so excited to be delving into the CAFE realm with our entire Junior School. When reading the book earlier in the year I was thrilled by it's step-by-step practicality. The sisters have thought of everything including templates for the CAFE "pensieve" and support pages (including activity ideas) for each CAFE strategy. My Year 2's have embraced CAFE this year, and readily refer back to the strategies we have already learnt.
I am really looking forward to discussing with everyone how they use their pensieve and how to more effectively use my time during the Daily 5 to read with individuals and strategy groups (I'm with Amy and Georgia and haven't gotten to strategy groups yet!).
Looking forward to rereading the book and being refreshed in my approach :)
Re: pg 3 - how was that for a humiliating experience? I can think of lots worse. Seriously though, a few thoughts taken straight from Boushey and Moser(2009)
Students must spend most of their day with material they can read - pg 9.
Fair is not always equal - pg 11. This is certainly in line with the argument that student achievement is inversely proportional to whole class instruction.
Teachers are conscientious and want to do things "right" and well. They desire a scaffold that will support them in this endeavour - pg.12
Seeing that I was introduced to Daily 5 by people in the know, I got straight into CAFE and as such suffered no pain trying to figure out what to do with the data. I am also happy to share that I have managed to do writing strategy groups mainly around various forms of punctuation. My current concern is Reading strategy groups and I am looking forward to reading about how they work and start using them pronto!
Teaching literacy, for me, had always been a bit hit and miss. The experiences of Joan and Gail ring true because, I think, most of us have experienced a level of frustration in meeting students and their needs, particularly in having the strategy that will help them most.
The way that Joan and Gail have approached the whole system is that students need to know what the learning looks like, sounds like and feels like. They model the strategies in a strategy lesson showing and explaining what it should look and sound like. Students are given time to practise,while also reviewing them constantly with students.
This is then backed up in conferencing, discussing with the student what they have improved upon or what goal they need to work on.
The specific strategies that Gail and Joan have otlined are excellent and involve using many different cues to help students remember, such as the story telling rope to retell a story.
My next goal is to set up strategy groups to start focusing on these strategies in a more targeted way with a small group.
The pensieve organisation is excellent.Its very practical. I'm with Amy, on getting around to rebooking students that need follow up.
Looking forward to reading what others are doing.
kate
Veronica took the words right out of my mouth! The same points struck a note with me. I really appreciate the way CAFE makes the reading strategies and goals accessible to the students. It's all well and good for the teacher to know what strategies they need to work on or should try, but it's useless if the child doesn't know them and can't access them when needed. CAFE answers this.
Wow I can see from just reading the first chapter of 'The Cafe Book' how practical it is going to be and I love practical concepts. Knowing that the strategies the sisters are presenting in this book derive from the real needs of caring, dedicated teachers who just want to make sure optimal learning is happening in their classroom is definitely something I can relate to. I am sure all teachers question just how effective their teaching actually is in all KLA's.
I love the quote "Different children have different needs as readers, but that all readers, regardless of age, need instruction and support that helps them become more independent and self-reflective in their work.(pg 2) How true is that? Can I hear someone say Amen?
Both Deb and Veronica highlighted in their comments about "the more whole-class teaching offered, the lower the academic achievement in any school." As I read the chapter I also highlighted this sentence. Doesn't it scare you into how important it is to give instruction individually and /or in small groups?
Using the Cafe strategies, the sisters claim that it will "ensure growth for all students." Now that is a massive claim that I will be very happy to put to the test with my beautiful kinders.
After reading with some of my top readers in our D5 session today, I am wondering what wisdom others can share on the CAFE strategies you're encouraging your fluent, accurate readers to focus on?
For most of the year I have been focusing on expanding their vocabulary. This is still highly relevant, but today I found myself saying to a student who read a GFB perfectly, "Amazing reading. I'd like you to just keep going the way you are, keep doing what you're doing because it works". Anyone having similar situations?
I’m very excited to start the new CAFE strategies with my kindy class at Mount Annan Christian College. I love that Gail Boushey and Joan Moser were not content with the current assessments for their students and made a new assessments to coincide with the Daily Five. Its a practical, simple way to integrate assessment into daily reading. I love that students are still in control of their own learning and with the teacher set goals. I think through students setting their goals it create more independent readers.
I am very familiar with the frustration of identifying where students are at, knowing their strengths and areas of need, but feeling helpless at being able to meet each need in the busyness of the school day, week and term. Before we know it, the year is over and I just have to hope that my students made some progress in their reading from what I managed to do with them. This new approach to teaching and assessing literacy development excites me as it makes sense, has been tried and tested and is manageable in the school day. It also seems to lend itself well to a job sharing position, as we can pick up from another teacher’s notes and follow on from those.
I am encouraged that the sisters emphasise that it is a ‘work in progress’. Too many times I feel overwhelmed by requirements to fit so much into one day. The fact that this system can be shaped to fit individual classrooms takes away the pressure to fit a set mould. I feel encouraged to try different strategies and learn from things that don’t work for me and my class, as well as from my collegues, and to make the changes my students need to learn and succeed at reading.
Wow, so great to hear all your thoughts and to find the common threads in our thinking. It's obvious that none of us have felt that the way we have done things in the past has been perfect and that we are all excited that there could be a better way. Gillian, that statement based in research regarding " the more whole class instruction offered, the lower the academic achievement in any school" has been playing over and over in my mind since reading it.....dare I say haunting me! What a BIG challenge this is to us as teachers. It implies that we have got some stuff wrong, that it's not about filling up little minds and delivering instruction from the teacher only. The impact of that research along with some of the Hattie info Mike presented us with last term really forces us into change....the problem is we are starting to understand it and believe it, but how do we do it? How do we let go? How do we unlearn what we've always known and thought worked well and perhaps did work well for previous generations? So many HUGE questions tied up in it. I'm thankful we discovered D5 and CAFE and that it's giving us some practical strategies or how to rise up to what's needed by this generation of students we are working with!
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