CAFE Fluency Fun

I have been introducing the CAFE strategies these past few weeks. The fluency strategy I am focusing on most is "use punctuation to enhance phrasing." I wanted to do something that would have students focus on paying attention to ending punctuation and quotations while supporting comprehension.

My reading specialist and I have been discussing the benefits of using individual chapters of a book to teach a skill/lesson with the older students. It exposes them to great literature, and can also perk their interest in reading the whole book. **Works especially well with any chapter that is gross or funny :)

*A librarian I spoke with said that it is legal to photo copy a page from children's literature for instructional purposes. So, off I went...

I pulled out this classic...



In the last chapter, Peter's 3-year-old brother, Fudge, swallows his beloved pet turtle. The chapter is shocking and gross, yet very humorous! The kids L.O.V.E. it!

So...we had some highlighter fun by highlighting each speaker's words on the page. These two pages have great dialogue from Fudge, Peter and Mom. It also has TONS of exclamation points and question marks! Great for fluency practice!



After the highlighting, many kids were anxious to volunteer to read in their best *fluent* voices. We had a ball, and they were all cracking up at each other's "Fudge-Voice." It is amazing how a lesson can be so simple and easy, but it is engaging because the literature is good!

I'm sure you have done activities like this, but if you haven't tried this book, it has many great little episodic chapters. Perfect for mini lessons! I would LOVE to hear any specific books/ideas you have used for introducing CAFE strategies.

CAFE Menu

Last year, I decided to make my CAFE menu spell out FACE, and I referred to it as the FACE of a reader...



I decided to change it up a bit this year, my sweet sister-in-law gave me a little help with the design...Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea...



After I printed these out, I just put a glitter letter in the circle to make the acronym. I used one of my favorite Kevin and Amanda fonts. When I taught second, I always wanted everything to have super clear print for the kids to read, but now that I'm with older kids it isn't quite as big of a deal...Plus, my kids have seen the CAFE menu for a couple years now. I'm really pleased with how it turned out!

CAFE Template