Quantcast
Channel: Seashells and Swings » Reading & Writing
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 5

Daily 5 CAFE Menu

0
0

Updated Daily 5 CAFE Menu

Daily 5 / CAFE Menu updated. Tailoring Daily 5 to meet the needs of my fourth grade students | Seashells and Swings

CAFE vs. CRAFT

Last year I started off my year by teaching the popular Daily 5 CAFE Menu and structure for reading instruction.

Last summer I attended the CAFE training by the Sisters, but the Daily 5 day was sold out. So I read both of the Sister’s books, The Daily 5 and The CAFE Book. And, of course, I relied on pinterest to see how all the other teachers implemented this system in their classroom.

Again and again I came across the Ladybugs Teacher Files site. Have you seen her stuff? She’s a talented graphic artist and a fifth grade teacher! Amazing. She changed the CAFE (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand Vocabulary) to CRAFT (Comprehension, Respond to Text, Accuracy, Fluency, and Terms and Vocabulary). I LOVE that she included Respond to Text because especially in the upper grades, students have to be able to write a paragraph or even a longer essay in response to what they read. Teaching this skill requires LOTS of practice and in my opinion, it’s what makes 30+ students in an upper elementary classroom accountable for keeping up with the reading.

Ladybugs Teacher generously created free CRAFT headings that you can download from her site. And I bet you won’t stop there. She has lots of beautiful and bright classroom decor and organization ideas.

Daily 5 / CAFE Menu updated. Tailoring Daily 5 to meet the needs of my fourth grade students | Seashells and Swings

Click on the image or download them here

Aren’t they beautiful? I took advantage of those free signs and used them last year.

(Last summer I did all sorts of research into finding more Daily 5 and CAFE ideas. Check out my Daily 5 / CAFE  pinterest board at the bottom of the post if you need more inspiration.)

And while I love that my students became more independent and responsible readers, I wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. I did not find time for the Daily part of the Daily 5. I found time 3-4 times a week, but I let social studies and science content over run my morning literacy block.

MENU vs. CAFE vs. CRAFT

This year, I really want to find a way to incorporate MORE writing and more accountability into the Daily 5. During my research, I came across this MENU bulletin board from Third Grade Thoughts.

Daily 5 / CAFE Menu updated. Tailoring Daily 5 to meet the needs of my fourth grade students | Seashells and Swings

Check out Stephanie’s explanation of the MENU categories on 3rd Grade Thoughts

I like that Accuracy and Fluency are not given separate categories. To me, with older students, they’re two sides of the same coin. As you’re working on being a more accurate reader, learning about decoding larger words, etc. you are becoming a more fluent reader and vice versa. Those two headings were always hard to distinguish between and I struggled to explain the difference to my students as well.

I also like that Stephanie included Meaningful Reading. It looks that here you can put some of the behaviors that Daily 5 teaches, but does not include in the CAFE menu. Things like choosing an appropriate book, sitting in one spot during reading time, organizing materials, etc.

Finally, CHART

However, I still don’t feel like either of these two options is a perfect fit for me. So I’ve come up with a list of categories that I think are necessary for me to implement Daily 5 in a meaningful and powerful way for my students this year. A way that will help ensure everyone’s success and hold my students accountable

Here’s what I’m thinking:

  • Comprehension – I like to use that word rather than “Understand” text. Yes, the students must understand the text, but I think it’s important to regularly use as much Academic Vocabulary with my students. C
  • Accuracy / Fluency – these two are still very important, but I see no need to separate the two. A or F
  • Vocabulary / Academic Vocabulary – at my school site this year, we are really pushing the instruction of academic vocabulary. In fact, I’m part of a summer committee that is creating a master list for all academic vocabulary words to be taught k-5 in our classrooms this year. V or AV
  • Respond to Text / Explain in Writing / Write about Reading – because I’m trying to come up with an acronym, I figure I can use the R. E, or W here in order to create a word. But again, Writing about Reading is going to be a huge push in my classroom this year. R, E, or W

And finally, something I think that might be new to teachers using the Daily 5 structure is

  • Responsibility / Organization  / Habits – The daily 5 system does a great job of explicitly teaching reading behaviors (building stamina, choose an appropriate book, read the entire time), but it’s never part of this CAFE board. It’s usually separate and has it’s whole list of dos and don’ts. Separating the two might be necessary for younger students, but I think for older students it should be part of what we look at and discuss each day. Students should be reflecting on their reading behaviors just as they reflect on their comprehension strategies. R or O

So now I have a bunch of letter floating around and I need to create an acronym.

I’m not terribly excited about it, but so far I’ve come up with CHART – Comprehension, Habits, Accuracy (fluency), Respond to Text, and Terminology or Terms and Vocabulary. I really with I could use Vocabulary or Academic Vocabulary but my anagram skills are not that strong.

Now all I’ll need is to download some cute clip art and create my CHART bulletin board headers. Wish me luck!

If you’d like more inspiration, follow me or my Daily 5 / CAFE board on pinterest.

The post Daily 5 CAFE Menu appeared first on Seashells and Swings.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 5

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images