Wednesday 12 March 2014

Zoe Brittain - The Café Book



Book:           
Boushey, G. & Moser, J. (2009). The Café Book: Engaging All Student in Daily Literacy
            Assessment and Instruction. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

            “The Daily Five: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades” by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser outlines the “Daily Five” approach for literacy teachers in the early years.  The Daily Five consists of five literacy activities for a class to follow to engage all students in literacy development at their “challenge” level.  These five activities are: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Listen to Reading, and Spelling/Word Work.  The goal of the Daily Five programme is to foster independent and meaningful literacy development through a specific learning environment structure (Boushey and Moser, 2006, p. 7).  The Daily Five offers students choice, within guidelines, the chance to work alone and with various partners, and the ability to work at their own reading level. This is particularly useful for classes with students who are at varying reading levels. 
            The book begins by introducing the background and development of the Daily Five programme and continues by describing and providing additional resources for each of the five activities as well as details of the foundations of the Daily Five programme.  By showing how the Daily Five programme developed in their own classrooms, Boushey and Moser are able to effectively show teachers where its use can benefit other classrooms and how to use the programme to respond to difficulties in teaching literacy development.  The resources that are provided to help teachers keep track of their students’ development through the Daily Five programme are each described and justified in a way that shows teachers the goals of each resource as well as how to accurately implement its use.  These resources can also be easily adapted to fit other subject areas, which is an added bonus.  The book provides master copies of each resource and also shows teachers completed examples so that we can see how each is used in practice. 
The bulk of the book is dedicated to describing methods for implementing the Café/Daily Five in the classroom.  There are specific examples and methods given.  Each aspect of the Daily Five programme is described in detail and there are clear steps for how to implement each aspect in a classroom.  There are additional resources, such as book lists that teachers can draw on in order to help them implement the Daily Five in their classrooms.  In addition, examples are given of real classroom examples of how the Daily Five programme works. Each aspect of the programme is laid out in clear detail and can be followed in a step-by-step manner.  Although written in book format, each section can be easily turned into its own lesson plan and followed as such.  There are sections that detail how to hold conferences with students in order to assess their progress as well as how to effectively observe students who are working in order to inform assessment.  There is a detailed section that outlines whole-class instruction methods that are used in addition to individual student work on the five areas of the Daily Five.  The bulk of the book finishes with a detailed section about how to group students for individual work.  This section shows how students can be grouped in many different categories depending on which particular goal is being worked on at a given point in time.  This section also discusses the different opinions that have been put forth in regard to grouping students (whether or not we should and if we do, how we should). 
The appendix contains detailed lesson plans for launching the programme as well as for the first five weeks or the programme, for each of the five activities.  There are sample schedules of how a literacy block fits into a classroom schedule.  In addition, there is a huge number of master copies of resources that can be used in the Daily Five programme, such as resources for assessing students and keeping track of student progress as well as reference sheets for teachers that detail how and why to approach each teachings strategy in the Café/Daily Five programme. 
           

            I think that this book is a very good resource for teachers who want to use the Daily Five in their classrooms.  I also think that it is a good resource for teachers to draw aspects from if the Daily Five programme doesn’t fit into the classroom (even though the programme is designed to be implemented as a whole).  From my experiences with the Daily Five in practicum and from reading the book in detail, I think that this is a useful approach to literacy teaching.  It is particularly good for those students who are either above or below grade level as everyone is able to complete the same tasks while doing so at a level that is appropriate and challenging for their own learning level.  The Daily Five is also good for literacy development as it removes the ‘boredom’ that many students associate with reading and literacy development by providing a number of choices for activities that promote literacy development.  The Daily Five programme also reinforces multiple areas of literacy development, which lends strength to the programme. 
            One of the benefits of this book and the programme that it outlines is that there is a great variety of choice for teachers within the programme.  Teachers can choose to strictly follow the Daily Five programme, as outline in the book, and by doing so will develop a strong literacy programme in their classrooms.  This is great for beginning teachers or teachers who are unsure of how to develop effective literacy programmes for their students.  There is also plenty of room for flexibility within the guidelines put forth in the book.  This is excellent as it provides teachers with the opportunity to tailor the programme to their own teaching philosophy and to the needs of their classroom.  I think that this is a good resource as it provides and good starting point for beginning teachers as well as ways in which seasoned teachers can develop and improve. 
            One downside to this resource is that you are ‘buying into’ a pre-designed programme.  I think that the Daily Five programme offers a number of excellent benefits, and therefore I find that this is a good resource.  For teachers who are not keen on the Daily Five programme, this resource is not as useful unless it convinces them as to the benefits of using the Daily Five programme.  That being said, I think that it is definitely possible for teachers to use this resource as a guideline for creating their own programmes within their classrooms.  In addition, it is definitely possible to take various aspects of the programme from the book and tailor them to fit an individual teacher’s classroom programme without implementing the whole Daily Five programme.  In this way, I think that it is possible to use this resource not as the basis for implementing the programme exactly as it appears but for informing teaching decisions in the realm of literacy development. 
            I think that the suggested strategies and tools in “The Daily Five” align well with the theory outlined in this course.  I think that three of the fundamental ideas behind the Daily Five – trust, choice, and community – really speak to a sense of respect for children and their learning.  I also think that the aspect of choice (within guidelines) is essential to the programme and aligns well with the course theory.  Students are able to choose books, tasks, and partners who work best for their own learning styles and interests.  In this way, students are able to create their own, authentic learning experiences that speak to their own interests and abilities.  Students are given a high level of responsibility in their own learning and are therefore shown respect as students.  In this way, students are not only progressing in their literacy development, they are also gaining valuable life skills that are applicable outside of literacy- and school-based applications.  By giving students a wide variety of choice, students are able to develop their own interests and passions.  This increases student interest and motivation and creates engaging, enjoyable learning experiences. 
The Daily Five programme also accommodates a wide variety of learners and accepts different levels of learners within the classroom.  During the Daily Five, also students are engaged in some aspect of the programme.  Students are able to choose which aspect of literacy development they need to work on.  As all students are engaged in the same end-goal, no student is left on the spot or feeling left out.  In addition, no student is singled out due to a difference in learning.  Students are also able to work at their own literacy level and to challenge themselves appropriately.  In this way, no student is left struggling with developing literacy at a level that is far beyond their current development, nor is any student discouraged by being left to work at tasks that are below their level of intellectual challenge.  All students are able to develop their literacy skills in a way that is unique and meaningful to their current academic level.  In this way, student literacy is strengthened as no student is left to struggle or be bored. 
By allowing each student to work at their own level and challenge themselves, students are encouraged to and are better able to respect their own learning levels and styles.  By providing students with opportunities to work on the development of different skills and to challenge themselves at different levels, students are able to identify for themselves their strengths and weaknesses and to follow the appropriate steps to develop these areas of their own learning.  This fosters a sense of independence, as students are able to determine for themselves what activities to work on and what level to work at.  This also encourages a dialogue between student and teacher in order to ensure that students are using the independence and responsibility that they have been provided with in the most effective way. 
When used as a whole programme, there is a classroom commitment to the goals of the programme.  From what I have seen in practicum, there is a sense of unity during the literacy block, particularly in regard to the goal setting aspect of the programme.  The children are constantly monitoring their own progress and asking each other about their goals and progress.  This encourages an open dialogue between the students and promotes classroom unity.  Despite the fact that the students are working on different activities and at different levels, they recognise that their ultimate goals are the same.  They are also able to help each other to achieve the goals that they set and to monitor how the class as a whole is progressing.  In this way, the students, though focussing on their own personal development, are able to also be a part of a classroom community that is united in its goals.  The Daily Five programme is highly child-centred, and, while it is not perfect, it does seem to be an excellent option for teachers, even for those who choose to include only parts of it in their classrooms.

There is also a ‘sister’ book to this one that provides even greater detail about each of the five individual parts of the Daily Five programme:

Boushey, G. & Moser, J. (2006). The Daily Five: Fostering Literacy Independence in the
            Elementary Grades. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

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