Using the

CAFE and

Daily Five

program

Literacyin my classroom

Focus is on introducing a new CAFÉ strategy and/or revising

previously taught strategies.

I use online stories on the Interactive Whiteboard (using

resources such as Oxford Owl) or Big Books, to model the

strategy.

Whole Class CAFE - 15 minutes

Students read ‘Just Right Books’

that they have selected from the

Classroom Library. During Reading

Conferences I monitor students’

book choices.

During this time I hold Reading

Strategy Groups. The focus for

these groups has been determined

during the previous week’s Guided Reading sessions. During

these Strategy Groups students are introduced to their new

reading goal, and are explicitly taught the strategy that they need

to work on, and given the opportunity to practise it . They write

their goals on the classroom display and are given a bookmark

with their reading goal on it .

Strategy groups are short and sharp – no longer than 10 minutes.

Read to Self - 15 minutes

STRATEGY GROUPS

Activities include: VCOP tasks (focusing on a particular area within Vocabulary,

Connectives, Openers & Punctuation)

Spelling investigations

Word Work

Comprehension activities. Every second week these are focused on Guided Reading texts.

Listen to Reading (using netbooks or MP3 player)

Handwriting.

Activities designed to practise reading strategies taught in CAFÉ time.

Activities are differentiated to cater for the abil ity levels and needs of individual students.

During this time I hold Guided Reading sessions. I work with each student to identify a reading goal. These are documented and used to group students according to common areas of need. These groups form the focus for reading strategy groups in the following week.

Daily Five Rotations - 20 minutes

DAILY FIVE ROTATIONS

Structure:

Whole Class Introduction, involving an experience to engage and ‘tune in’ the students, and to connect with prior knowledge.

Shared/modelled writing with whole class.

Individual writing for approximately 25 minutes

Interactive Writing groups held regularly with low/reluctant writers, and other groups as required.

Writing conferences are used to determine individual writing goals, and writing strategy groups are held to explicitly teach strategies and practice working on goals.

Whole Class share time to reflect on and consolidate learning, as well as celebrate working towards and achieving writing goals.

Work on Writing - 50 minutes

Positive Minus Interesting

• Student learning is goal-

oriented.

• All tasks are differentiated

according to ability levels and

student needs.

• Reading strategies are

explicitly taught, and students

are able to articulate their

goals, and what strategies

they are working on.

• The program helps to develop

student independence,

stamina and motivation.

• Students work in both similar-

ability and mixed-ability

groupings.

• Can be tricky to fit it all in

each morning

• I haven’t yet integrated Writing

tasks into the Daily Five

program, rather keep the

‘Work on Writing’ task

relatively separate to the rest

of the session. I would like to

try to integrate this some

more.

• I would like to adapt my

structure to cater for more

student choice and ownership

over the Daily Five activities.

• Reading goal bookmarks help

ensure students always know

their reading goal and are

reminded of it each time they

read.

Reflection