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[Two videos on the CAFÉ are available for purchase as part of our DVD Workshop Kits, designed for use in professional development settings with full-color viewing guides. For more information, click here.]

CAFE - Accuracy - Blend Sounds and Chunking (VIDEO) Chunking and blending sounds are two strategies that really help support emergent readers. In this video, Joan meets with a small group of Kindergarten students as they practice using both strategies at once. She also draws attention to a third strategy which Caleb uses; flip the sound. We've found that when we teach . . . more . . . CAFE - Joan and Gail debrief a lesson using multiple strategies (VIDEO) A good lesson often looks simple to the viewer, which is why it's fun to hear Gail and Joan debrief, reflecting on the detail and thought that went into this lesson on chunking and blending sounds together. One thing they noticed as the lesson progressed was the level of sophistication the group has achieved in using these strategies which help them achieve their accuracy goal. . . . more . . . CAFE - Fluency- Adjust Reading Rate with a small group (VIDEO) "Here is the passage. Now when I say go, read this as fast as you can." This is what fluency meant to us when we began teaching. It was all about speed, even though as early as 1908, Huey reported that fluency was reading aloud with accuracy, appropriate speed, expression and comprehension. Now we understand and endeavor to impart to our students the true meaning of fluency. . . . more . . . CAFE-Fine Tuning a Conference-Inference (VIDEO) One way to reflect on our practice and fine tune it is through the conversations with other teachers. In this video, Heather has Gail listen in and offer feedback on her one-on-one conference with Grace. Gail's feedback is specific to the structure of the conference and what is being taught. She also discusses when to move a student onto another strategy. Prior to listening to this conference, you may want to run off the "How to Confer" Download that is linked below and watch the conference with that structure in mind. . . . more . . . CAFE - Check Understanding, second in a series (VIDEO) This video is the second in a two part series looking at a small group of students in Carrie's room learning the Comprehension strategy of Check for Understanding. . . . more . . . CAFE - Recording Goals in the Pensieve (VIDEO) Are you wondering how we use the forms and what kind of notes we jot down in our Pensieve (assessment notebook)? In this video, Gail and Cindy take a few minutes to reflect on a conference Cindy just had with one of her students. . . . more . . . CAFE - Pam Reviews Cafe with her class whole group (VIDEO) This video features Pam reviewing some of the Café strategies with her class. We like her explicit explanation of her metacognition and how she thinks aloud for them so they can, in essence, see inside her head as she uses strategies while reading. She asks children to engage with the lesson by trying to figure out the strategies as she uses them. Each child has a copy of the Café Menu to refer to. After modeling, she asks . . . more . . . CAFE - Small Group - Check Understanding (VIDEO) Small group instruction is a powerful way to take full advantage of our time in the classroom teaching children. When we first began our journey of teaching small groups, we put children together by levels, so they all had the same text. The challenge was, even though it was a small group of students who read at the same reading level, they all had different needs. We had just taken the whole group problem of different children with different needs and made it a small group problem! This video gives a glimpse into Carrie's room as Joan models for Carrie how to group children by need, . . . more . . . CAFE - Whole Group Using 3 Strategies (VIDEO) In this video Janet models 3 strategies in combination. Author's purpose and Text Features help deepen comprehension, and paying close attention to pictures helps expand vocabulary. The story she has selected supports the strategy instruction beautifully. Watch how she introduces these 3 strategies, involves the students in the learning, and then wraps up the lesson for the children by identifing the strategies and their use. . . . more . . . CAFE - Expand Vocabulary - Tune in to Interesting Words - Small Group(VIDEO) One secret to expanding vocabulary is to tune into interesting words. In this video, Joan and Carrie, a K-2 teacher, meet with a small group of students. Together they learn and practice the strategy of paying attention to words that are interesting or unique and then using prior knowledge and context to figure out the meaning of the word. The selected text is a poem. Poetry can be a great resource for teaching strategies. These students are reading at different independent levels, but are able to learn . . . more . . . Introducing Small Groups to Guide Readers (VIDEO) Whew! For many of us, the hustle of getting our fall assessments done is finished! 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 assessments to begin forming flexible groups. . . . more . . . Daily 5 - Check for Understanding - Partners Reading(VIDEO) Check for Understanding is the workhorse of comprehension strategies. It is the one we consistently use, either consciously or unconsciously throughout our lives. It is so critical to comprehension that we teach it and revisit it during whole group and small group instruction, as well as during individual conferences. One of the places we encourage children to use this strategy is while they are Reading to Someone. . . . more . . . CAFE - Debrief Check for Understanding and Coaching (VIDEO) We often stop and reflect on our own learning after teaching a lesson. Joan and Natalie just revisited "Check for Understanding" during Read to Someone in Natalie's K-2 multiage classroom. Joan introduced checkmarks, to help remind partnerships that besides reading, they have another important job to do, which is to think about their reading and "Check for Understanding." . . . more . . . CAFE - Whole Group Cafe Lesson in the Fall (VIDEO) What if your students have already worked with The Literacy Cafe Menu? Will it look different in the fall? This video features Pam and her students, early in the year. . . . more . . . Daily 5 - Caleb Shares His Writing (VIDEO) Wrapping up a session of Daily 5 with a purposeful and focused sharing time is a powerful way to review the strategies taught during the day and to review strategies previously covered. Sharing time also provides students with an opportunity to reflect on their own work, share their progress, and celebrate the growth of others. In order to keep interest high, we typically follow a few different sharing formats. . . . more . . . CAFE - Joan takes you on a tour of the Pensieve, or Conferring Notebook (VIDEO) One thing our colleagues are most curious about is our conferring notebook, or as we have nicknamed it, our Pensieve. This tool holds all of our most important thoughts and notes as we work with our children via whole group, small group and one-on-one conferring. Coming up with the "perfect" system for keeping anecdotal notes is a little like shopping for the perfect purse or briefcase. You know what it's like…you open it, take the stuffing out…imagine your own things in the various pockets and compartments, buy it….only to feel months down the line that there must be a more perfect version out there, and the hunt begins again. . . . more . . . CAFE - Check for Understanding - Whole Group lesson (VIDEO) The comprehension strategy 'Check for Understanding' is one of the first strategies we teach all of our students on the first days of school, along with "3 Ways to Read a Book" and "Good Fit Books" for our older students. This is one of the strategies we refer to as a "preteaching" lesson. We teach this strategy and reinforce it often, since it is a strategy readers do on their own and when reading with a partner. In this video, Joan team teaches with Natalie in her K-2 multiage class. Together they practice the Check for Understanding strategy in front of the class. This strategy lesson happens to be anchored to Read to Someone, which is a critical link in the success of Read to Someone. . . . more . . . CAFE - Joan and Daniel talk about goals for Maria (VIDEO) In this third of a three part video series, Daniel and Joan work together to set goals for Maria, one of Daniel's youngest ELL learners. After discussing what she already knows, they decide to move her forward by using something Maria is very interested in...the letters in her name. . . . more . . . Cafe - One-on-one Conferring (VIDEO) This is the second video in this series, and we got excited when we watched it for the first time because it is a perfect example of a teacher really knowing and understanding more than their confidence level will let them believe. Daniel is a new kindergarten teacher. Joan offers him a conferring sheet that will scaffold his one-on-one instruction because he has a desire to glean more information from his observations and assessments in order to guide his teaching. You will notice as you watch that Joan doesn't really provide him with new information regarding Maria, but articulates and organizes what Daniel has already shared to confirm the direction he already believed was necessary. . . . more . . . CAFE - Assessment Area (VIDEO) Joan is going to take you on a tour of the assessment area in her classroom and show you the system she uses for organizing her assessments. How she stores the data she collects so she can use it for instructional purposes really works for her. If you are looking for a way to organize and store your assessments, wondering what to do with assessment sheets once they are filled up, or hoping to design an assessment area for yourself, this video may be helpful. . . . more . . . CAFE - Conferring with Maria, a beginning reader: Part I (VIDEO) In this first of a three part video series, Joan and Daniel (a featured teacher on our site) confer with Maria about the letters in her name. Names are important and unique, and many kindergartners come to school with a real sense of urgency to be able to spell, write and read their own names. The conference focuses on the letters and sounds in Maria's name and really meets her zone of proximal development since she knows all the letters in her name except for one. Watch as Joan layers the conference with new learning and a look toward future learning. . . . more . . . CAFE - Inferences - Connor talks about his book (VIDEO) This video shows a conference between Christie and Connor, one of the 4th grade boys in her class. Uninitiated, Connor begins by summarizing the chapter he just read in Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen. Christie asks questions to clarify some of the story details, and then brings the conference into focus by complementing Connor on what he is doing well as a reader. The conference shifts as she coaches him to reflect about the inferences he is making to help with comprehension. We like how Christie hel . . . more . . . CAFE - Accuracy, Flip the Sound (VIDEO) Flip the Sound is a powerful accuracy strategy that not only helps students figure out words independently, but aids them in the process of monitoring and thinking about their reading. Joan introduces the strategy to a delightful group of first graders, but it is a strategy that works with older beginning readers just as well in the context of a one on one conference. . . . more . . . CAFE - Comprehension - Whole Class - Predict and Confirm (VIDEO) While working with the comprehension strategy of Predict and Confirm, Gail weaves in the processing strategy of Turn and Talk. Engaging all students in a whole group lesson can be difficult. At times it feels like the teacher is holding the conversation and learning with the one student who raises their hand the fastest and is called on most often. Turn and talk, moves students from being passive receivers of information to active constructors of meaning. Gail involves them in thinking . . . more . . . CAFE - Comprehension - Whole Class - Determining The Author's Purpose (VIDEO) How do we help students understand and utilize the strategy of determining importance? Christie tells her students the secret...we have to know why authors write. After turning and talking, Christie's students share out a couple of the authors purposes they discussed. Christie then nudges them to give examples of books and titles that validate their thinking. Our state learning standards require proof of student . . . more . . . CAFE - Expand Vocabulary-Use a Dictionary (VIDEO) In this video, Christie's whole group focus lesson is on Vocabulary. After reviewing the strategies her fourth graders already know and use when they come to a word they don't know the meaning of (read around the word and infer, ask a friend, read the smaller words within, etc.) she introduces the strategy of Using a Dictionary. . . . more . . . CAFE - Expand Vocabulary (VIDEO) In this video, Christie works with a fourth grade student named Herman. She approaches the one-on-one conference with the usual focus on comprehension, and takes time to model a variety of vocabulary development processes and strategies that will help him reach his goal of increasing vocabulary. . . . more . . . CAFE - Vocabulary - Setting a Reading Goal (VIDEO) Ethan, a fourth grader, shows us how much students know about themselves as readers, especially if we ask. Since vocabulary is his goal, Heather and Gail discuss how to monitor increased vocabulary, and how to structure an individual conference with a student who is reading above grade level. . . . more . . . CAFE - Accuracy Picture Clues (VIDEO) The power of utilizing pictures while reading can bridge the gap between being unable to read a new word and reading successfully, especially for our beginning readers and our English Language Learners. In this video, Janet works with a group of students who are beginning to break the reading code. The purpose of this lesson is to teach students how to use the pictures to figure . . . more . . . CAFE - Accuracy Cross Checking - Part 1 (VIDEO) As an adult, what do you do when you come to a word that you don't know or doesn't make sense? You probably use the strategy modeled in this video called Cross Checking. Cross Checking is an accuracy strategy as useful to emergent readers as it is to adults. It is the process of slowing readers down when they come to a word they don't know, or one that doesn't make sense, and applying the strategy to the unknown word. . . . more . . . CAFE - Accuracy - Modeling How to Confer and Trade a Word (VIDEO) Gail models use of the conferring form during a conference with a second grader named Davis. Davis is just learning about goal setting and beginning to identify the strategies he uses. This conference is a great example of the "Trade a Word" strategy. You'll notice how Gail identifies the strategy for Davis and then layers "Cross Checking" onto his repertoire of accuracy strategies. The structure of a conference and the conferring form are . . . more . . . CAFE - Fluency - Back Up and Reread (VIDEO) In this video, Kelly reviews Chloe's reading goal of fluency and the strategy back up and reread. Watch what happens to Chloe's pace when Kelly asks her to go back and reread to make the reading smooth. After that little reminder, Chloe moves from robot reading to the fluent pace of a proficient reader. Kelly sends Chloe off to practice the strategy of rereading . . . more . . . CAFE - Check for Understanding (VIDEO) Does conferring feel like a mystery or guarded secret to you? Are you wondering what a conference really looks and sounds like? Gail demonstrates that it isn't scary or complicated, just a combination of thinking, modeling, practicing and learning. Using a side by side approach, Gail models a comprehension conference using the strategy of Check for Understanding for Heather . . . more . . . CAFE - Conferring Notes (VIDEO) Heather, a fourth grade teacher, reflects on and shares her conferring successes and challenges. Heather is finding, like so many of us, that she has a handle on her higher needs students, whom she meets with daily, but she is wondering if she is meeting the needs of the higher level readers who don't require such frequent monitoring. The questions she has about how to stay focused on their goals and wondering what to write down when conferring . . . more . . . CAFE - Conferring with a Beginning Reader, Part I (VIDEO) Have you ever been faced with a beginning reader, managed to help them progress in the reading process and then wonder what to do next? In this video, Daniel and Joan take a look at an emergent reader who has made Daniel wonder that very thing. Devlin is a very bright boy with an amazing vocabulary. He easily acquired letter recognition, letter-sound correspondence and knows many sight words. However, Devlin seems to have stalled . . . more . . . CAFE - Conferring with a Beginning Reader - Part II (VIDEO) We are tickled to introduce you to a hysterical kindergartner named Devlin. Joan models reviewing the phonemic awareness strategies of segment onset and rime and then moves into the review of blending the cvc words to build off of what Devlin knows. By the end of the conference, the instructional direction Devlin needed became clear and was recorded onto the Reading Conferring Form. . . . more . . . CAFE - Comprehension - Cause and Effect (VIDEO) As students become more sophisticated readers, Cause and Effect can be a strategy to assist with comprehension. Students are expected to have command over this strategy on many of our state assessments. In this video, Gail uses a simple text with Brayden in order to model Cause and Effect. He quickly adds his thinking and goes deeper with the meaning. As the conference closes, Gail anchors the strategy to comprehension, and shares that we utilize . . . more . . . CAFE - Fluency - Adjust Reading Rate (VIDEO) Kelly models reading fluency and the importance of adjusting rate by including the students opinions as she reads a book four times. They give her a thumbs up, down, or to the side, reflecting their assessment of whether it was too fast or slow. Kelly "adjusts" her rate as necessary, to make the reading smooth and expressive, like a real conversation. . . . more . . . CAFE - Accuracy - Chunking (VIDEO) Do you have a favorite way to teach a strategy? This is one tried and true favorite Kelly relies on when teaching children that many words have little words or chunks in them. This fast paced lesson is interactive, using children's visual, auditory and kinesthetic processing systems to practice the chunking strategy. Consequently, students in Kelly's class often try this strategy first . . . more . . . CAFE - Comprehension - Remember What I Read (VIDEO) The other day Gail was reading with and assessing a first grader named Ben. He read beautifully, with precise intonation and prosody, perfect rate and flawless accuracy. It couldn't have sounded better. Gail was so excited about his progress that she couldn't wait to celebrate with his teacher. She finished up the conference by asking Ben to tell her about what he just read. He looked up at her quizzically and said, "I didn't know you wanted me to think . . . more . . . CAFE - Comprehension-Teaching Multiple Strategies in a Single Lesson (VIDEO) We have spent the last 2 1/2 weeks in Arizona writing a new book about our Literacy Cafe Menu. As we worked to put the Cafe strategy lessons in writing, we were constantly confronted with the difficulty of focusing on a strategy in isolation. Proficient readers weave strategies together, often without conscious awareness of all they are doing to make meaning of print. In the book, Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, 2007, Cathy Collins Block and Michael Pressley state, "Because reading comprehension is not an isolated process but a network of conscious and metacognitive processes, the newest instructional methods teach multiple strategies in single lessons. .... The research program that supports these lessons has found that even kindergarten students can use multiple strategies after 1 week of direct instruction and the result is normally significantly higher achievement than in control groups." (page 230) . . . more . . . CAFE - Comprehension - Self-monitoring (VIDEO) It is a real trick for children to understand they need to stop and 'fix it up' when comprehension breaks down. Often children don't realize the need for stopping because they aren't really thinking about the story. This video clip gives strategies that support children as they grapple with learning to monitor their own comprehension. Joan . . . more . . . CAFE - Stamina and Fluency Conference (VIDEO) It is the first conference of the year, and after stating that he is able to read quickly, Conner, a sixth grader, defers to Pam to determine his strengths as a reader. Pam looped with her class, so looking back at her pensieve from last year she reminds him of the many skills he showed her before they left in June. He was albe to inferr, understand character development, and comprehend deeply by comparing stories. . . . more . . . CAFE - Comprehension - Summarizing (VIDEO) Pam meets with Nicole to discuss her progress with summary writing. They have met many times before and are very comfortable with each other and the safe, supportive nature of a conference. Nicole is focusing on important details to help her write effective summaries. She is able to determine importance when reading non-fiction, but is less successful with fiction. Through Pam's gentle probing, supportive statements and . . . more . . . CAFE - Comprehension - Check for Understanding Whole Group (VIDEO) Checking for understanding while reading is a comprehension strategy that will enable students to effectively make sense of text. Janet models this strategy with a group of first grade students. Notice how she practices this strategy 4 times and by the last time, the students are chiming in. By modeling and guiding their practice, the students are able to utilize this fix-up strategy . . . more . . . CAFE - Fluency - High Frequency and Sight Words (VIDEO) Sight words are generally considered to be those words that students need to learn by sight because they don't follow regular decoding rules. Reading sight words and high frequency words with ease is one of the top strategies for fluency. Gail helps one of her students gain command over them to support her fluency goal. . . . more . . . CAFE - Accuracy - Cross Checking Debrief (VIDEO) Kelly and Joan talk together about the conference Joan just had with Jason on his strategy of Cross-Checking in the first of this two part series. They talk over the conferring form that keeps track of the conference, Jason's goals and his next steps. They also discuss the use of sticky notes to help Jason focus on his strategy. . . . more . . . CAFE - Comprehension - Making Connections (VIDEO) Making connections is a comprehension strategy effortlessly used by proficient readers. The trick to teaching this strategy, like many others, isto think aloud so children can hear what is going on inside our heads as we read text. For those of us who teach our youngest learners, this can be a huge challenge. You know how it goes, the book says something about one of the characters getting a bandaid and we are inundated with a slew of hands flying . . . more . . . CAFE - Teacher Reflection about CAFE (VIDEO) Following is a debrief interview with Kelly, a first grade and featured teacher on The Daily Café. In this video, Kelly shares how she uses The Literacy Cafe with her whole group, small groups and individuals. Kelly shares that knowing the Cafe Menu strategies has helped make her teaching more concise, focused and powerful. . . . more . . . CAFE - Accuracy - Skip the Word Then Come Back (VIDEO) In this video, Joan introduces students to the Accuracy strategy of Skip the Word and then Come Back. However, she points out that it isn't always effective to rely on a single strategy. She draws the children's attention to her use of Back up and Reread and Cross . . . more . . . CAFE - Accuracy and Comprehension - Backup and Reread (VIDEO) We are always amazed when we model and teach strategies to kids and one of our students remarks, "I didn't know you were supposed to do that!" Because we are proficient readers, backing up to reread when we don't know a word on the first try is such a natural response that we use it without even thinking about it. However, our most struggling readers often don't have this strategy in their reading repertoire. Gail models the simple but powerful Back Up and Reread strategy with one of our young learners. . . . more . . .