CAFE™ is an acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary, four research-based components critical to reading. We developed it as a guide and system to focus our instruction, help students set reading and behavior goals, monitor their progress--and do it all without losing our sanity! As teachers, CAFE™ enables us to stay focused on children's needs and goals as well as keep records that help us plan focused individual conferences, manage flexible, small-group instruction and teach whole-class lessons.

This CAFE™ menu identifies the skills and processes we've researched and used in our own classrooms, but isn't intended to be a comprehensive list of strategies proficient readers use. We encourage our colleagues to use them as a starting point, the basics of comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary. It's a flexible system that can be tailored to meet the needs of individual classrooms, schools, districts, and state standards.

One goal we have for this site is to produce and download video demonstrating each strategy at different grade levels. For now, we have included two different models of the CAFE™ Menu. One is our newest version; the next is aligned to Washington State Standards with reference to the WASL question stems.

Literacy Cafe Menu (PDF)