Hi all! I am in my 4th year of using the Daily Five and my 3rd of using CAFE.
I teach fourth grade. I read somewhere (not sure where) that the sisters
recommend 3-5 teachers only doing 3 of the 5 "rotations" and that it is a
personal program that you should modify to fit your students' needs. I have 45
minutes of CAFE time in my room (this is what we call it). Each day, students
have the option of Read To Self, Listen To Reading, or Word Work. They never
HAVE to do Listen to Reading but if they do, it can only be one day each week
and they MUST do Word Work once a week. However, after the newness of Listen
To Reading wore off, I rarely had students choose that one anymore. Therefore,
most of my students have 45 minutes of sustained, self-selected, on-level
reading four days a week. During this time, I conference with students, giving
them purposes for reading that match their personalized CAFE goal. When I
started this, we blocked and I was the reading teacher. We had 75 minute
blocks and 45 of each one was spent doing CAFE time. Last year, we decided to
self-contain (hallelujah!) and the other fourth grade teachers were excited to
try it, as well. One of my team members from last year moved to second grade
last year and now all of second grade is doing CAFE and Daily Five. I really
don't know what I did before I found it. To me, it is what I should have
always been doing but gave me the organization and structure that I was lacking
in order to do what I knew needed to be done.
> STACIE, thanks for your post. I recently had the opportunity to
> observe in two CAFE classrooms where there is a 90-min. literacy block.
> I was impressed with the management and how the students knew what the
> expectations were in each rotation. Here's my concern, and it's really
> for those of youout there who are Columbia trained and also know Daily
> 5/CAFE:
> With students changing stations every 22 minutes or so after the minilesson,
>
> Where's the sustained engagement with 'just right' text?
> Where's the conferring at the heart of the workshop?
>
>
> I would so love feedback from Columbia folks, and if it is more appropriate
> to
> contact me directly rather than through this list serve, please do.
>
> Thanks for all your input and support everyone.
>
> Martha
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