Partnering with Parents: Communicating Cafe Menu Skills and Strategies

We can't help but think of parents often this time of year, as we prepare for conferences with them. One of the things we've done to help make our conferences go more smoothly, especially when it comes to discussing literacy, is to include information on the Daily 5 and CAFÉ Menu in our newsletter that goes home twice a month to families. This week, we've got a free template for you based on our newsletter design. We hope it gives you some ideas for adapting your own communications home to focus a bit more on literacy learning.

We also have a great link from Reading Rockets with terrific quotes, ideas, and strategies for families that you might want to use in your newsletters home.

http://www.thedailycafe.com/public/373.cfm

Frequently Asked Question

We received a question from a subscriber this week asking how we use the CAFÉ menu with parents in conferences. We've added a new "Frequently Asked Question" that addresses this issue, explaining how we use the CAFÉ menu to demonstrate how we set goals with students and look for emerging strengths and skills as readers.

http://www.thedailycafe.com/public/374.cfm

New this week for members

Interested in becoming a member of The Daily Cafe? Click here for more information.

For those of you who have been following our ongoing series on the CAFÉ Menu, this week we have an explanation of how to demonstrate Expanding Vocabulary with a focus lesson on "Tune In to Interesting Words". This is the third lesson we typically teach when introducing The Cafe Menu to our students.

Beginning the Literacy Cafe Menu, Lesson 3 - Expand Vocabulary, Tune into Interesting Words

As we introduce the Café Menu to our students, we find a consistency with the order we introduce the first strategies. We typically introduce Comprehension, Check for Understanding and Accuracy, Cross Checking as our first two strategies on the Café Menu. Expand Vocabulary, Tune in to Interesting Words, is most often the third strategy we expose our class to at the beginning of the school year, or whenever we choose to introduce The Café Menu to them. The first lesson under Expand Vocabulary, Tune in to Interesting Words, regardless of the age of students, sounds something like this:

http://www.thedailycafe.com/members/372.cfm

Introducing Small Guiding Readers Groups

Whew! For many of us, we've finally finished the fall assessments. But what's next when it comes to linking these assessments to our instruction plans? In this discussion with K-2 Multiage Teacher Carrie Osterloh, Joan and Carrie talk about how to use these assessment to begin forming flexible groups . Carrie and Joan also talk about how the groundwork of Daily 5 through the first six weeks of school have built the independence among students necessary for these groups to succeed:

http://www.thedailycafe.com/members/313.cfm

Kindergarten

Calling all kindergarten teachers - if you have all of your "Dailies" up and running, you might enjoy this video demonstrating how to help children learn check-in procedures:

http://www.thedailycafe.com/members/241.cfm

Until next week!