CAFE Menu for Reading

One of our classroom walls has a large menu to help the students become stronger readers. CAFE stands for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expand Vocabulary. A strategy just added to the Comprehension section of the menu is Monitor and Fix Up. The students are realizing they need to always be monitoring their reading. This means they are constantly thinking about what they are reading. Today we discussed adjusting our reading rate. Slowing down our reading rate can help a student understand what they are reading about. Here are the 3 questions that students can ask when they stop to check for understanding; 1. Who is the story about? 2. What is happening in the story? 3. What is the author trying to tell me? If your child struggles answering one or more of these questions, have them slow down their reading rate while they reread for better understanding.