CAFE and Daily 5

Here is my CAFE menu board.

I use the CAFE board to show students all the areas of good reading.  When I teach a specific comprehension, accuracy (decoding), fluency, or expanding vocabulary strategy I add it to our CAFE board.  Then when I conference with students we put their names on star Post-It notes for them to mark what strategy they are specifically working on.

I teach a CAFE lesson prior to starting Daily 5. My lesson will last any where from 10 to 15 minutes.  Students then use their Daily 5 card to select what Daily 5 activity they will do for the first 30 minute rotation.  After 30 minutes, I ring a bell two times, which signals students to clean up and meet me on the rug.  Then, I will teach another CAFE lesson or I a writing lesson. (10 to 15 minutes)  After the lesson, students use their Daily 5 card again to select what Daily 5 activity they will do for the second 30 minute rotation. 

What do I teach for my CAFE lessons?

A while back I found a teachers website that had a Beanie Baby for each of the comprehension and accuracy (decoding) strategies.  I LOVE this as did my students.  So when I embraced Daily 5 and CAFE I did not want to lose this.  However, with the CAFE board, I no longer had room to display all the Beanie Babies. I came up with a solution!  I added picture of the Beanie Babies to each of the CAFE menu cards.

**The link to the Beanie Baby Reading Strategies, is off of my classroom website. I am NOT the creator of these strategies.  The lady who created them no longer has them up on her website.  The last I heard she was working on publishing them, but has not done so at this time.**

http://aschilb.emsd37.org/reading/ReadingSTR.htm

I do not teach all of the CAFE strategies that "The Sisters" have laid out in their book.  I do use Cross Check, Tune into Interesting Words, and Read Good Fit Books.  I also do not introduce strategies in a specific order.  I introduce what the majority of my students are needing at the time. 

I use trade books for interactive read alouds/shared reading, anchor charts, science and social studies big books (content area) to teach and model each of the various comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and vocabulary strategies. 

My goal is to slowly upload some of  my "go to" lessons that I use to introduce these strategies. Please keep checking back often!