CAFE Appendix pp.171-190

My last blog from this book! I am excited that I tried it and also know that I want to do it differently next time.  In order for a blog to really empower and move everyone contributing to it and reading it, we have to be on an RSS feed to my understanding.  I will work on that as it seems that most of you are going on, reading my post, and then posting your post.  The idea is to give each other feedback and enter your own feedback which will take some time to master I am sure.

Final thoughts:

• This last section was one of the hardest to comment on as the strategies are some of the most "basic" in terms of attacking text.
• I did enjoy seeing the hands-on approach of using a flyswatter, using sticky notes, colored tape, colored highlighters, rubber bands, flipping the short vowel to a long vowel, etc.

I hope you have enjoyed our blogging experience.  Thanks for joining in with me!

CAFE Appendix pp.151-171

Again, I do not have much to offer on these pages, but my mind is spinning thinking of the management side of how we could get this to work at TJ....

1. I would love to have each of you videotape yourself with your Flipcam with a student for a writing conference.  I think it would be a great way for us all  to give each other feedback.
2. What do I love, love, love, in this part?  The chart on p.153 that takes you from what student behaviors you are seeing to some possible strategies AND some alternative strategies!
3. Do any of you have any of those "checks" made of wood for check for understanding? 
4. I love the retell rope on p.157!  We need to get some of those for our PK-2 retelling  We must model for them what we want them to include (Characters, setting, problem, event 1, event 2 next, event 3 then, event 4 finally, ending which circles back to solve problem)
5. I love that they include some of the tried and true tricks like KWL and QAR.
6. Do any of you use the clear acetate sheets to help kids use text features?

I love walking away from a reading and having a couple of ideas we might all be able to try!

CAFE Appendix pp.130-150

Well, when I created this blog schedule last September, it seemed like a great idea to blog about the 60 or so pages at the end that are full of forms and schedules.  I am now not quite in agreement with myself :)

Here are my take aways for these 20 pages :)

1. If it really takes up to 26 days to Launch CAFE, would it be helpful to work with a partner to do this?  For example, Core would work with 1st or 2nd, Title would work with K or 1st, SPED with 3rd, etc....?
2. As we start to look at CAFE for next year in PK-5, how does that impact our overall specials schedule and our intervention time with Title I and/or SPED?  From what I have seen, you all have plenty of minutes in your daily schedule to make sure to get all of the components of CAFE in.
3. Do we all have a big, laminated copy of the "The Literacy CAFE Menu"?  It would seem to be something that we need in our lesson plan book and on our walls.
4. I would love, love, love, love, to use Google calendar with all of you.  Do I have any takers?  It seems like such an easy way (once you are trained) to organize yourself and your conferences.  I am sure Marcia would help us with it if we were interested.

CAFE Chapter 7: Strategy Groups

I am so excited that this is our last chapter!  I have really enjoyed reading this book, but now I want to get out in the classrooms and see it "happening".  I think this book reading and blog will create bigger conversations for us for 11-12 and beyond.

I love that they started this chapter with a hair/hair color analogy.  For MANY women, changing the hair cut, hair style or hair color causes lots and lots of anxiety.  This same anxiety is experienced by many teachers when we talk about guided reading groups vs. strategy reading groups.  I have wanted to work on this area for a long time and I hope this opens up a dialogue among all of us.

I am not as old as these authors are, but their experiences mimic my experiences starting in 5th grade guided reading groups in Houston in 1995.  We had tons of classes on running records and finding out exactly what DRA level the student was at (38, 44, 50, etc.).  Then my job was to find time during the day to divide them into three groups (even if we really needed more like 4 or 5) to meet with for short periods of time to read books from the guided reading book closet.  I would go in there and choose books at the right "level" and that seemed appealing.  Then we would sit down and read together (but not ROUND ROBIN) at my kidney-shaped table.  I felt very successful on the exterior as my schedule was organized, my levels were figured out, and my kids were all in small groups reading books at their level.  Perfect, right?  Wrong.

I remember meeting with my principal and saying that I didn't think it was working.  Not every kid needs the same amount of table time.  Not every kid at a 38 is at a 38 for the same reason. Some had English language learner issues, some had fluency issues, and some had comprehension or lack of comprehension issues, but yet they were still all 38s?  Also, it seemed that the skill I was working on with one group worked better with the book that another group was reading?  Also, it seemed that I needed a concrete list of skills by area (fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, etc.) and then could move through them like a scope and sequence and move the kids in an out of the groups if my "formative assessment" showed that they needed extra help or no.  Wow, and that was all in 1995.....

When I left Iowa City about 6 years ago, our LARS (Title I specialists) were on their way to converting our guided reading groups in our SINA schools to strategy groups instead.  I didn't get to stay around to see it happen, but I have to believe that it improved reading instruction and learning.  When teachers are able to get that specific about what kids can and cannot do, the teaching and teacher improves in my experience.

Are any of you trying strategy groups instead of leveled groups?  I think this is a powerful strategy that we could even look at across grades and not just within one grade/classroom?

The CAFE Book Chapter 6: Whole-Class Instructuion

My goal for today's blog is to make is short and sweet.  After I looked back over my previous 5 chapters' blogs, it became clear to me that I was writing a Cliff Notes for the chapter and not really a blog.  So hear we go...

• I love the idea of mini-lessons, but my gut also tells me that this can be dangerous with an inexperienced and/or ineffective teacher.  How do they know what mini-lessons to teach?
• What if we followed Renee's suggestion and worked as a school on 4 strategies to do consistently across PK-5?
• Check for understanding
• Back Up and Reread
• Tune In to Interesting Words
• Cross Checking
• I like the bulletin board on p.93 that shows the strategies in a visual way by comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary.
• The whole-class lesson elements that really stuck with me are:
• Secret to success cannot be a secret!
• Let students write the strategy cards for buy-in.
• Review, review, review...
• Recognize the student who helped with the strategy is another "teacher in the room".
• I love the shoe lesson.  It is a yearlong anchor that should be referenced continuously to encourage successful reading and reading choices.
• Have any of you played the Inferring Game?  How did it go?
• I like the visual chart of summarizing text and sequencing main events.  I would think it would have to cut back on unneeded details that children share??
• Do any of you use the "Class Word Collector"?  It sounds fairly simple, but I am not sure if the vocabulary would stick??

CAFE Chapter 5: Eavesdropping on Some Conferences

This chapter was a little hard to blog about.  I am still really learning the lingo of the strategies so I chose to chunk it by strategies and then comment.  Feel free to respond to your favorite one or post something else if you prefer.

Goal: Comprehension/Strategy: Check for Understanding (Beginning Reader)

• This brought back memories of listening to my ELL kids read.  I liked the visual of sticky notes to keep her accountable and to reference in the next conference.  I sometimes worry about focusing on fluency or WPM as it can give a false sense of reading success.

Goal: Comprehension/Strategy: Check for Understanding (Advanced Reader)

• We don't have many ELL students at all, but I have to say that this coaching session was pretty abstract and highly verbal which are big red flags.  I would love to see "Who and What" in some visual way that would keep her accountable and focused.  Do you worry about checking for understanding during your whole class read aloud?

Goal: Accuracy/Strategy: Flip the Sound (Beginning Reader)

• I love this!  I have heard other tricks like "when two vowels go walking, the first does the talking", but I have never heard of this one which is VISUAL.  Have any of you incorporated this?

Goal: Accuracy/Strategy: Flip the Sound (Advanced Reader)

• So, this makes me wonder how you can do these conferences whereever the students are sitting?  At times you need a whiteboard, markers, or sticky notes.  I am not sure about this part.

Goal: Comprehension/Strategy: Summarize Text (Advanced Reader)

• In my experience, many students struggle with leaving out all of those details and just narrowing the focus to the main events.  I like the idea of breaking up the task by chapter and then editing them into a summary.  This seems like a big 2nd or 3rd grade skill. Do those teachers have any tricks to share?

Goal: Accuracy/Strategy: Cross Checking (Beginning Reader)

• I love that included a kindergarten example here!  I think most of our primary teachers instinctively use beginning sounds and pictures in books to build up confidence about reading.  Giving it a fancy name like "Cross Checking" is a great way to build PK-5 language across the building.

Goal: Accuracy/Strategy: Cross Checking (Advanced Reader)

• I like to see the carryover with this skill in the upper grades.  As the vocabulary in their books gets harder, it is important for them to realize that they still need to fall back on previously practiced skills.

Goal: Fluency/Strategy: Reread Text

• I like the idea of this because I do believe we have some students who do not hear fluent reading/are read to at home.  I also think we have cut back at school on how much we read aloud to students.  I am still, though, not sure about modeling non-fluent reading for students.  That might take me some time to buy into!

Goal: Expand Vocabulary/Strategy: Tune In to Interesting Words (Advanced Reader)

• This part reminded me of how our non-proficient readers in many cases have limited vocabulary and limited experiences outside of school to develop it.  We still must move forward and there is no fast or easy way to cram vocabulary in a meaningful way with children.  I wonder how she gets from the "I don't know what silo means" to knowing it.  Dictionary?  The mini-notebooks to carry back and forth to the home are a cute way to keep communication open and add vocabulary practice, too.

CAFE Chapter 4: Conferencing with Children: Principles and Examples

Rethinking Conference Protocols:

• We must keep in mind that the reason we confer with students is to help them work toward individual goals.
• I wonder how comfortable all of you are in individual conferencing with students.  What training have you had? What forms do you use?  How do you use that data to guide instruction or interventions?
• This focus on using the form with today's conference info and conference info for the next time is a great way to build responsibility for the students.  It would be a great tool for the SPED and Title I teachers to use, too, to communicate with the classroom teachers.  Would anyone be willing to share how they "do" this in their classroom?
• I also loved the visual icons of the pencil, eye, brain, arrow, target, and next sign.

Moving from Conferring to Coaching: A Shift in Thinking

• I love that concept of moving from an individual conference to a coaching session.  Much more productive!
• Are any of you using the "Coaching Toward a Target" form?
• It looks like they take about 4-5 minutes.  That sounds very manageable.  I only wondered at the older grades how you would "see" or "hear" application of a comprehension strategy during their oral reading?  Any ideas?

Seven Elements of Successful Conferences

• Fair isn't always equal with children.  I think it was Mary that noted how the higher achieving students sometimes don't like that they don't get to have guided reading as often as the others.  How many times do you get to conference with each student in a week's time?  I am guessing once with the proficient and above and twice with the non-proficient?
• I love the Debbie Miller quote about Hercules. I know how hard it is to manage a literacy block from my own teaching experience.  It takes lots of organization and patience.
• I have never tried the idea of doing the conference where the child is at.  I always called them to my table.  What works for you?
• So, my big question is how do you decide what strategy or two to focus on, model, and follow up on with each student?  Do you have a checklist?  Is it in your grade level literacy expectations?  The sky is really the limit in many ways with fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary.
• Coaching is beautiful to watch.  Do you feel like you are coaching or assessing?
• I like the point about taking the observations from the coaching sessions to fine-tune small group or whole group mini-lessons.
• The recommendation is for the teacher to see four to five touch points of successful application of a strategy.  Is that feasible or is our scope so wide that we move on before that point?
• I agree that it would be a relief to not focus on the time during the conference as the format allows for a teacher to really reach each student every few days at the most.