Your enthusiasm shines through your post . You might want to go back and review the “Good Fit Books” lesson, emphasizing that we want to choose books that are not too hard OR too easy. They probably got comfortable choosing books that fit when you introduced them to the lesson, but they may not feel comfortable–or know how–to move on to good fit books now that they have become stronger readers. You can do this as a whole group lesson, and reinforce in small groups or individual conferring .
Perhaps you might want to choose higher level comprehension strategies to work on with those students. Maybe fluency could use some work, and vocabulary building is always good to work on when the students are reading all kinds of books. That’s another piece to look at–are they always choosing fiction books–can you introduce appropriate non-fiction books for them to tackle? (or vice versa) How about poetry?
Many lessons showcased on the site are whole group lessons, but certainly could be adapted for strategy groups. There are also lots of videos of strategy group work and individual conferring lessons on the site. You can use the search feature to find them, or check out the interactive CAFE Menu that lists all related videos and other support materials.
If you want to use rubrics to check if your kiddos truly have the strategies down, there is a rubric for almost every strategy on the Menu. They also can be found on the Interactive Menu, listed as Assessing Student Learning, such as this one for asking questions throughout reading. https://www.thedailycafe.com/sites/default/files/files/files/C-Ask_Questions_Throughout_the_Reading_Process-Assessment.pdf
We’re so glad you got to attend the workshop and are enthusiastically jumping in to expand your CAFE work. We look forward to you sharing your successes and asking your questions here with us.