Thoughts About Pre-Printed Strategy Cards

While pre-made materials may be convenient, and cute or professional, they are contrary to our deeply rooted belief system that has developed from years of experience in our classrooms.

We used to have beautiful pre-made materials for both Daily 5 and CAFE in files on our computer, ready to print off each year for classroom use and to share freely with colleagues. However, we found that while our walls looked lovely, the students rarely accessed the material. Since the posted items were in our words and our carefully chosen computer fonts, students had zero ownership, and internalization of the strategies was substantially lower. We are reminded of the age-old quote, "The one who does the most work, learns the most." If we want our students to learn and retain the information we view to be critical, they need to be involved in the creation and posting of the learning anchors (often referred to by authors as "anchor charts"). So, that is exactly what we do now. We involve our students (at every age level) in the creation of CAFE Menu strategy labels. As a result, they have taken great ownership and internalized the information at high levels of sophistication.

So, it isn't due to a stingy, lack of sharing nature that we don't have these materials available. We understand the power and potential when classes collect and record their thinking together;  in their own words, in their own writing, in a timeliness that is best suited to their readiness.