Learning Log 13

Chapter 6 – The Café Book

Reflect on your current whole-group instruction time.  How much of your day will be spent teaching whole group?  How long do you think one lesson is from start to finish?  How much of the lesson will you be teaching and how much of the lesson are students doing?

Approximately a quarter to half of my day will be spent teaching whole group.  One of my lessons is about fifty minutes from start to finish.  I will be teaching the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the lesson and the students will be doing the rest of the lesson with my guidance.

Whole group CAFÉ lessons are driven by assessments, one-on-one conferring, and small-group observations (p. 89).  The goal is to plan whole-group lessons around skills and strategies that a majority of our students need assistance with.  What strategies do you find will be most beneficial for whole-group instruction in your classroom?

The strategies that find will be the most beneficial for whole-group instruction in my classroom are:  check for understanding, back up and reread, cross checking, reread text, tune into interesting words, and make a picture or image.  The check for understanding, the make a picture or image, and the back up and reread strategies will assist my students in developing better comprehension in the texts that they read now and through the years to come.  Cross checking will help them to working on gaining increased accuracy in their reading.  Students will benefit from reread text as it will aid them in achieving more fluency.  Vocabulary development can be increased by the tune into interesting words strategy as students look for words that they do not know, and they use context clues to find meaning for the word, which they will record in a journal and provide a picture to help them to remember the meaning of the word.   

Review the whole-class lesson elements (p. 95-97).  How can you integrate these elements into your future teaching practice?  What adaptations need to be made?

The elements for whole-group instruction that the authors provide are:  identify what will be taught, teach the strategy, have students practice with partners, select a student to record and illustrate the strategy to be placed on the CAFÉ menu, review the strategy, encourage practice during independent reading, post the strategy after independent practice, and connect new strategies with the menu continually (Boushey & Moser, 2009).  I think these elements will be central to my literacy instruction, and I want to investigate the Daily Five that the authors have created as both this method and CAFÉ will help me to provide the best literacy instruction to my students that I possibly can.  Adaptations that I would need to make will depend upon where I am teaching and the curriculum design that is in place there. 

How has reading CAFÉ affected the way you think about literacy instruction?

After reading CAFÉ, I now realize how literacy instruction needs to be comprised of authentic learning activities, tailoring instruction to individual needs is crucial, and providing whole-group and small-group instruction that will be beneficial to all.  I have often wondered before reading CAFÉ how I would be able to provide literacy instruction and assessing literacy for my students as there is only so much time in the school day.  CAFÉ provides a way for teachers to assess students as often as needed for each, and it offers me with a way to keep accurate records that will help me in keeping up those records.

Reference

Boushey, G. & Moser, J. (2009). The café book. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

 

 

Learning Log 12

Chapter 5 – The Café Book

This chapter provides nine examples of conferences from different goals at different levels.  Using p. 151 as a guide read each scenario and see if you are able to find the various elements in each conference as Gail and Joan confer with students and “coach towards a target.”  Discuss each element to help you in understanding the whole picture.

The teacher, Gail, checks the calendar for appointments with students, and then they select one of the students, Sevilya in this case, who are scheduled for that day.  Gail peruses her notes from the previous conference with Sevilya to familiarize herself with the Sevilya’s strengths and the strategy focus from last time.  Gail talks with Sevilya about her strengths and the goal in her case is comprehension.  Sevilya is asked to read while Gail listens in so as to observe whether Sevilya is using the strategy that they learned during the last conference, which will be recorded on Sevilya’s conference sheet.  Gail teaches and reinforces the Check for Understanding strategy to Sevilya; she explains the strategy first, then she models it while thinking aloud and offering advice.  She then practices the strategy with Sevilya, who will practice it alone with Gail listening in.  Gail and Sevilya discuss the next step, and Gail writes that on her planning sheet.  The conference ends with Gail asking Sevilya to repeat her strengths, goal, and strategy to work on, and she offers Sevilya words of encouragement.

A few of the conference examples in this chapter provide a picture of the conferring form after the conference is over (figures 5.1-5.4).  Select and example that does not have a form pictured, and then practice on a form as though you were the teacher in the example.  Write down what you would say in dialogue form.

“Hello, Inna.  Do you remember what your strengths are as a reader?”

“I notice that you can read every word and that you can read with expression without pausing to figure a word out.”

“Do you remember what your reading goal is?”

“Your reading goal is comprehension.  It means that you understand what you read.  The strategy that I will be teaching you is called Check for Understanding.  Let me show you how this strategy works.”

“I am going to read a few sentences, and then I am going to talk about what I just read.”

“Now, I am going to have you read the next few sentences, and I want you to stop and ask yourself, ‘Who and what?  Who is it about?  What happened?’”

“Watch me while I model Checking for Understanding after I read the next few sentences.  Who is the author talking about?  What happened?  Now, you try it, Inna.”

“Great, Inna.  I want you to remind me of your goal.”

“Okay, I would like for you to practice the Check for Understanding strategy in your reading today.  I will check back with you tomorrow, and you can show me the passages that you read and demonstrate the strategy for me then.”

Reference

Boushey, G. & Moser, J. (2009). The café book. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

Learning Log 11

Chapter 4 – The Café Book

Prior to reading Chapter Four, think about your idea of conferencing with children in the near future.  Write down:  What do you envision the room to look like, feel like, and sound like?  What concerns or questions do you have?  Then, read Chapter Four and revisit your initial thoughts.  Has your thinking changed?  What questions do you still have?

I envision my classroom to look like the students are working toward their reading and writing goals.  My classroom feels like a fun, productive working environment.  It sounds like the students are reading to each other and reading to themselves; they are working towards their reading goals.  I am concerned with making sure that everyone is working diligently in the classroom as I am conferencing with individual students:  What is the best way to ensure this?  How do I keep the rest of the class focused?

I do not believe that my thinking has changed much; however, I am still concerned with keeping my other students on task when I am conferring with individuals.

Chapter Four presents the seven elements of successful conferences (p. 57-67).  Read and reflect on this section, use p. 151 as a guide.  Grab your notebook and practice conferring with another person/child.  Reflect on the conferences you held.  How long did each conference take?  Did you complete all seven steps?  What did you find most difficult?  How do you see this working in your daily routine?

Step 1:  Check the Calendar for Appointments

The teacher checks the Conferring Notebook for appointments with students.  The teacher is also able to check the Keeping Track form to see that he/she is meeting with students consistently based on their needs.  Some children will have conferences more often than others based on their present level (Boushey & Moser, 2009).

Step 2:  Prepare for the Conference (30 seconds)

The teacher needs to prepare for the conference when they decide upon which child they will meet with.  He/she does this by quickly scanning notes for the following information:  Their teaching point and the follow-up for students between conferences.  By preparing, the teacher will be able to focus on the student.

Step 3:  Observe Child and Listen to Reading (1 minute)

The teacher asks the student to read so that they may listen to see if the student is employing the strategies that were previously taught and what they are doing well with the strategies.  The student describes his/herself as a reader.

Step 4:  Reinforce and Teach (1 minute)

The teacher shares his/her observations with the student, then they teach or reinforce the strategy the appropriate strategy through explicit explanation, modeling, thinking aloud, and offering advice (Boushey & Moser, 2009).

Step 5:  Practice the Strategy (1 minute)

The student is asked to practice the strategy with the teacher, so the teacher will be able to correct misconceptions that the student may have made about the strategy.

Step 6:  Plan (30 seconds)

The teacher and student make decisions together on the next step for the student to take, which will be recorded on the coaching sheet.

Step 7:  Encourage (15 seconds)

The student needs to express what the goal is, and the teacher provides the student with encouragement to keep them positive about practicing the strategy.

Each conference that I conducted lasted about three and a half to four minutes.  I completed most of the steps as it was difficult in having very little information to start with.  I found deciding on a strategy to practice or reinforce to be the most difficult because of the lack of information that I had to go on.  I see this as a way to keep track of my anecdotal notes for each students and as a guide in planning where students need to go.

Reference

Boushey, G. & Moser, J. (2009). The café book. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.