FAQ: I am getting ready for parent conferences. Can you tell me how to use the CAFE Menu in the conference?
A: Whether doing Student Led Conferences or traditional Parent Teacher Conferences, the CAFE Menu is always an integral part of our literacy conversations with families. For each conference, we use our Pensieve (or conferring notebook) which has a CAFE Menu behind each child's divider sheet. Using the menu, we share with the families their child's strengths as a reader and their goals, which are based upon conferences and assessments.
For Student Led Conferences, we also have each child point out their name, which they have placed on the CAFE Menu bulletin board in our class, and show how this connects to their individual CAFE page in the Pensieve.
Before leaving the conference, we spend a moment or two modeling for parents how to support their child's goals at home. We run off the specific Parent Pipeline aligned to their child's goal(s) and also have a CAFE Menu for each family ready to send home so they can post it on their refrigerator. We remind them that their newsletters will highlight the strategies we are working on in the classroom so they can provide ongoing support at home with their child.
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