What's Happening to the CAFE Menu?
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What is it?
The CAFE Menu is a visual aid used to help maximize student understanding of the four key components of successful reading. CAFE is an acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand Vocabulary.
The CAFE Menu has four columns, each of which represents one of the four key components. In each column you will find some of the most commonly used reading strategies in each of the four areas. The menu filled with strategies can be found in The CAFE Book and on the Daily CAFE website.
What has changed?
Since the menu was created in 2006, some of the strategies have changed. The most significant change took place in spring 2023, when the strategies in the Accuracy column were updated to reflect current evidence-based teaching of phonics and phonemic awareness.
Why have a CAFE Menu?
Research has shown that making learning visible through a visual representation of relationships between related content (concept mapping) has an effect size of .62. This means it has the potential to considerably accelerate student achievement. In addition, teachers and students appreciate how the menu provides access to learning all year long and supports students in layering their learning to grow as readers.
What it’s not
It is important to understand that the CAFE Menu is not a curriculum. The strategies listed on the menu are not required, or comprehensive, but are merely a springboard for possible strategies that may be included in the standards you teach. We encourage teachers to add the specific wording of their own reading strategies directly from their own standards.
What’s new?
To help with understanding, implementation, and success using the CAFE Menu, we are shifting the way we share it.
Instead of sharing the menu with possible strategies listed under the four goals, the menu will simply consist of four columns for the four goals, with no strategies underneath. Then, we will provide a list of possible strategies (separate from the menu) that you can use in conjunction with your standards to create a CAFE Menu that best serves your students.
Our goal in this shift is to provide teachers with a blank slate to create a menu of strategies specific to their student needs and the standards they teach.
Possible strategies and supplemental resources will remain on the website to support you in your instruction. The biggest difference? The way we will provide these resources will be in the form of an optional library of articles, videos, and downloads to support your teaching, instead of appearing as a required or scripted list.
Next Steps
- Choose one of the Menu templates provided.
- Grab a copy of your grade-level standards.
- Read through your standards, noting which fall under each of the four goals on the Menu (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expand Vocabulary).
- Fill in the menu based on your standards with the words you will use with students.
- Browse the supplemental resources on our website for videos, lessons, and books that will support your teaching.
