WOW!!! This book is fantastic. Basically, the book describes a strategy or plan for assessing and instructing individual students in reading. It sounds complicated, but that's the beauty of the program, it's not! It's simple, organised and doesn't require lot's and lot's of paperwork or time.
CAFE is an acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expand vocabulary.
It works around students working on individual reading goals, whilst completing literacy rotations. The sisters also have a book for literacy rotations, which is known as The Daily 5 (Something I cannot wait to read!) but CAFE would work with any literacy centre activities. The reason why we do CAFE as part of small group work is so that the learning is student centred and students aren't just off doing 'busy' work so that we have time to assess them.
Differentiation is something we all strive towards, and I'll be honest, I have no idea how to actually differentiate in the classroom. This strategy is differentiation at it's best, students working towards individual goals that are set by them, acknowledge by them, and they receive individual instruction, small group instruction (According to strategies not reading level) and whole group instruction. This plan completely takes over guided reading.
I noticed a lot of talk about Daily 5 and CAFE on American blogs, but had never heard of these strategies or seen anything like it. I can't wait to get my own classroom and see what CAFE looks like in the flesh.
I have created a basic document that outlines the very bare basics of CAFE (Click here) but I really recommend reading this book. It's super easy to read, comes with a CD with all the forms you will need, and outlines step-by-step how to implement the program.
Please let me know if you know anyone using this program!!
Jaide xx
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