It can be difficult for those of us with lots of words to pare them down to what's essential. To help us, we examined lesson structures from many of our favorite role models, Gerald Duffy, Lucy Calkins, and Michael Pressley.

What resulted was a structure, which when loosely followed, helps us when preparing and presenting a whole group lesson. We keep in mind that the average age of our students is the average number of minutes they will be able to sustain attention. So with this structure and that time frame in mind as a goal, we are able to deliver short, focused and intentional lessons.

Here is the structure we follow.

1. Identify what is to be taught and share the "secret to success" with the strategy

2. Teach and/or reinforce the strategy

3. Students practice with a partner

4. Select a student to write and illustrate the CAFE Menu strategy card (or reconnect the learning of the day and anchor this to the CAFE Menu card)

5. Review the Strategy

6. Encourage the students the practice the strategy during independent reading time.

You can also find this structure with more details in The CAFE Book on page 95-97.

Keeping a lesson structure in mind while teaching makes us feel confident that we are addressing the needs of the learner.