Introducing CAFE to High School Students

     One of the things that I wondered when I volunteered to teach this Reading class was: I say I can do this, I feel like I can do this, but wait - CAN I DO THIS?! Refer to the diving in head first post if you don't believe me! But as I also have said before, these teenagers struggle with the same things that younger, newer readers struggle with when attempting to read. Somewhere along the way, though the instruction didn't stick. Who knows why, and truthfully the reasons are all vastly different. But at this point, I am not in the business of their why. I am in the business of how, as in HOW CAN WE FIX IT? I had amazing success with younger readers using the The CAFE Book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. These sisters do a great job of laying out the basics of what most teachers of literacy know, but can't exactly articulate as succinctly as is done in the book. It also offers specific strategies, prompts, and ideas that are practical and immediately useful for students. It honestly changed the way I taught reading. All of that said - I wondered if it could transfer to high school students. Once I did my  initial assessments on them and discovered none of them were proficient readers above a third grade level, I started to look for patterns. Just as with younger readers, each of these students had their own specific area in which they struggled. CAFE is an acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand Vocabulary. If you look back to some of my original blog posts, you will see that I taught this as Starbeck's CAFE in younger grades to play on my name. (We also drank hot chocolate during Reader's Workshop, but that is a story for another day. It was amazing....!) I taught my high school students the CROP-QV (Connections, Reactions, Opinions, Predictions, Questioning, Visualization) first to give them strategies to fall back on immediately. It was harder than I thought because they were not familiar with any of them. Honestly - as I have checked in with them throughout the semester, they report that they are using the strategies and have been able to tell me when and how. That's a good sign. All of the CROP-QV strategies are listed on the CAFE menu, so the progression is seamless. I also introduce those first since they are fairly simple to grasp. Another plus is that when I give them the CAFE menu they are not overwhelmed with all we are going to learn. They can already mark a few off and have some familiarity even before we begin. It makes the task a bit more surmountable for them, if you will.
     I started by defining the areas of CAFE on the board, one letter at a time.

     We discussed what each of them meant, and I defined the level at which a proficient reader would perform. I did IRIs on each of them at the beginning of the semester, so I was also able to share with them their specific data. They were all floored when I said 120 words per minute, especially when they saw where they performed. (I have two who read 28 and 32 WPM on a third grade level text.) Later in the period when I read from our current chapter book aloud, I had them figure out my WPM. They were able to more realistically grasp how fluency at around 120 WPM would actually sound. One of them said, "And you sound like you always do, so that was real. You weren't playin' us." No, Buddy. I would never. Now let's get you right there with me!
     I gave them a CAFE menu and had them cut it apart into the four sections. They then added the definitions we had written on the board.

     We will highlight the ones we learn as we go. I gave them each their own Reading data (comprehension ranking, accuracy percentage, and Words per Minute) and let them decide which area they felt they needed to start with. The conversations were very honest. Some were clearly comprehension. Others felt that their accuracy was the reason their fluency was so low. (Thank you, Reading gods!) We recorded who was setting which goal, and low and behold... they all fell right where I would have put them. (Again I say... Thank you!!) We will continue knocking out strategies next week. Our CAFE is up and running.
     I also wanted to share a quick lesson I taught last week that was adapted from the amazing Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis. I use this book all the time. You need to buy one if you haven't already. We have done a lot of work with making inferences, and this lesson tied in a lot of our previous ideas. We were trying to determine ways to figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words. I used an article that was on a third grade level so everyone could read it. It told the story of the sinkhole that formed under the National Corvette Museum. I chose it because it had several strategies that were obvious teaching points for inferring meaning for unfamiliar words. I had them read the article independently and circle words they didn't know the meaning of in the text. I then read the atircle out loud. They then called out the words which we recorded, looked for clues, and wrote the sentence in which the word was used. Only then did we go back and fill in the actual meaning. I had them record all of this on a four column foldable.

     I then gave them one of three articles that I had pre-selected for them based on level. They used the same foldable that was had used for the whole group lesson and just added their new words to the bottom. After we discussed which strategies they used, they added the foldable to their journals.

     I also made an anchor chart for reference. We will add to this as we identify new ways to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

     On Friday, we summarized all of our inferring strategies under the Inferring Umbrella. This is also adapted from Strategies That Work.

     Funny story about this... You guys know how I worry about insulting them with ideas, texts, graphics that are too elementary. I mean, they are already non-reading 17 year olds. I don't want to pour salt in the wound! When I wrote this umbrella on the board, one of my older boys said, "What is this? It looks too simple." Well of course I thought he meant babyish, so I asked him to bear with me and explained we were adding some higher level wording and it would make more sense. He said, "No. You need to add raindrops or something to make it look more real." Oh. Here I was thinking the dot bullets I was adding would be more grown up.... So, I dug up a blue marker, and raindrops we had! They really are the same struggling readers I had in elementary school, just in bigger bodies. I'll have to post a picture of his umbrella. It has raindrops, and it is beautiful.
     The only other thing I wanted to share is that I will be solely teaching Reading next year! I am doing this with mixed emotions because I do so love my EBD students. LOVE them. But - I also love to teach Reading. I'll still have plenty of EBD love available to share. Win-Win!!
     Have a great week, friends!
Mrs. Beck