SIOUX CITY – Would you be able to describe all of the twisty plot points of “Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets” in a mere three sentences?
Well, Adeline Bogenrief can.
“A UFO appears one day and shoots the school with a ray,” she said. “The ray causes the toilets to come to life and they start eating everyone. Captain Underpants saves the day by putting plungers in the toilets’ mouths so they can’t eat anymore.”
Along with the rest of her third-grade Sacred Heart Catholic School class, Adeline is stepping up to the plate, becoming a better reader through CAFE.
An acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and expanding Vocabulary, CAFE allows kids to set individual reading goals and give teachers a way to develop small group instruction based upon students who have similar goals.
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When the teacher learns the goals of her kids, she will fine-tune her instruction to the entire class based upon emerging student needs while, at the same time, continuing to work with them on a one-to-one basis.
“CAFE is a much more disciplined and efficient way to teach reading,” Genie McGregor, the third-grade teacher spearheading the new-to-Sacred Heart, explained. “We are allowing students to start at their own individual levels and teaching them the strategies they will need to become better readers.”
This ala carte approach begins with the “Daily Five” – five skills kids will need to become more proficient with their reading.
Every day, a certain amount of time is devoted to reading to one self, reading to others, listening to others read, word working (or spelling) and working on writing, McGregor said.
McGregor smiles as her students debate the merits of J.K. Rowling’s literary cast of characters.
“That’s the nice thing about CAFE,” she said. “The students get to choose the books that interest them and allows them to discuss it with their friends.”
In addition, the lessons learned from CAFE aren’t limited solely to reading. Students can take the discipline and apply it to other subjects as well.
“When it’s science or history, everything involves reading,” McGregor insisted. “The strategies and structure of CAFE will my kids develop the daily habits of reading and writing that will lead to a lifetime of literacy independence.”
As she tells her students to put away their reading material, McGregor said she knows the CAFE program is making a difference in the lives of her kids.
“I’ve had students come up to me and say they didn’t like reading before,” McGregor said. “But, now with CAFE, they can’t wait to read.”
Which is certainly food for thought.
