CAFE stands for comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary. These four components make up the foundation of successful reading. As students progress through the school year, they will learn about many of these specific skills, and they will practice them on a daily basis.
Strategies to promote comprehension ("I understand what I read."):
- check for understanding
- back-up and reread
- monitor and fix-up
- retell the story
- use prior knowledge to connect with text
- make a picture or mental image
- ask questions
- predict what will happen, use the text to confirm
- infer and support with evidence
- use text features (titles, headings, captions, graphic features)
- summarize and sequence text
- use main idea and supporting details to determine importance
- determine and analyze author's purpose
- recognize literary elements (plot, characters, genre, etc)
- recognize and explain cause and effect relationships
- compare and contrast within and between texts
Strategies to promote accuracy ("I can read the words."):
- cross-check - Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?
- use the picture - Do the words and pictures match?
- use beginning and ending sounds
- blends sounds, stretch and read
- flip the sounds
- chunk letters and sounds together
- skip the word and then go back
- trade a word/guess a word that makes sense
Strategies to promote fluency ("I can read like I talk."):
- voracious reading
- read appropriate level text that are a 'good fit'
- reread text
- practice common sight words and high-frequency words.
- adjust and apply different reading rates to match text
- use punctuation to enhance phrasing and prosody
Strategies to expand vocabulary ("I know and use interesting words."):
- voracious reading
- tune in to interesting words and use new vocabulary in my speaking and writing
- use pictures, illustrations, and diagrams
- use word parts to determine meaning (prefixes, suffixes, origins, etc.)
- use prior knowledge and context to predict and confirm meaning
- ask someone to define the word for you
- use dictionaries and thesauruses
