Student-Led Conferences - Um, Yes Please! Part One

Ok, so maybe I have been promising to write this post for like 2 weeks now.  Let's just say the productivity level around here has hit an all time low.  It's been sunny, breezy, and perfectly perfect spring weather and I may or may not have gotten bit by the spring fever bug!

But...I digress!  (Grrr...see how this vicious cycle works!)

I just finished up meeting with 21 of my students and their families for our spring student-led conferences.  Can I just say how much I truly LOVE these things!!!

3 reasons why...and I'm sure there are more, but since I am slacking a bit...we'll stick to 3! 

 (PS - Did I mention it is officially our spring break...but again...I digress!)

#1:  More work for the kids equals less work for me!  Win and win!

#2:  Parents eat this stuff up...some of them even cry big ol' alligator tears of joy!

#3:  The kiddos' hearts swell with pride at all they have accomplished!  Swoon!

So...if you are thinking "well that all sounds pretty darn awesome" then read on for lots of details and photos to show you just how SWEET these spring conferences can be!

So this 1st part is coming straight from our other post about regular conferences since the sign-up process is the same!

The BEST thing we EVER did was to begin using this "You Pick 3" conference sign up sheet.  We don't have scheduled time off to hold our conferences, so we just choose 3 days that work out for us.  We include as many time slots as possible where we can be available to meet with families.  We always try to include some early morning times for our families that can't take off work or who are just coming in from the night shift.  We schedule slots during our specials classes (music, pe...) and then plenty of after school time slots as well.  We try to have at least 1 late night where we have conferences scheduled for 5:00 or later for our working parents who hit us on their way home.  

Now I know this might seem like a BIG time commitment from you...and it is!  BUT, and this is a BIG but, this is truly one of the BEST ways you could ever possibly spend your teacher time!  It always breaks my heart a teeny bit when the only time some parents hear from us is when something is WRONG!  Conferences give you the opportunity to REALLY connect with families and share some of the GREAT things happening with their kiddo.  Of course not ALL the news will be good news, but we can definitely take this opportunity to FIND the good and share!

And we promise it will SO be worth your time.  You will make some serious partners in educating your kiddos when you build these strong family ties!  And let's be honest, who doesn't LOVE to hear how awesome their kiddo is???

We have been able to get nearly 100% participation in our conferences for the last several years.

And in the case of student-led conferences, who doesn't LOVE to hear how amazing their kiddo is RIGHT FROM SAID KIDDO'S MOUTH!!!!

So now that we have the parents signed up to come in, it's time for the students to get busy on their part.  It takes a little time explaining the conference form to the kids, but they usually catch on pretty quickly.  Here's how we break it down.  

First we have them take out their math journals that they have been working on throughout the year. We ask them to choose 2 entries they would like to share with their families.  Entries include open-ended math journals pages, problem of the day entries, and any other math related activities we have done.  If you don't keep math journals, you can have your students choose 2 pieces of recently completed math work sheets, math recording sheets from Math Their Way or some similar program, really anything that allows them to "show what they know" in math.  We do like for them to be able to share some open-ended response kinds of things so they can explain THEIR reasoning versus selecting pieces with only 1 "right" answer!  Then they fill in the MATH portion on their recording form to reflect their strengths and weaknesses in math in their own opinion.

Next, we work on the WRITING portion.  Again they take out their writing journals and select 2 pieces. Only this time they select 1 piece from August or September and 1 piece from the current month...in our case it was March.  I give them 2 sticky notes to mark the pages they want to share with their families.  They reflect on where they started the year in writing and how far they have come.  They make notes to share on their conference form.  I. LOVE. THIS. PART!  The kiddos themselves truly have NO IDEA just how far they have come until they actually look back in their journals.  We even had a kiddo last year that literally screamed out in distress to tell us "Somebody wrote all in my journal and I can't read ANY of it!"  It was actually HER own writing from the beginning of school!  HA!  Now that was FUNNN-Y!

Finally, they fill in the last section for the READING portion.  They look through their Daily 5 book boxes that have "good fit" books for them.  We tell them to choose the highest level they have in their box that they can SUCCESSFULLY read.  (If it's a good fit, that means there may be SOME words that they do not know automatically.  They SHOULD be using some strategies to figure out words, but there should still be a nice, fluent read happening.)  You can meet with students to make sure they have selected a good fit pick for them, but usually by this time in the year...they do an awesome job with this all on their own!  We will give them another sticky note for them to mark the book they select.  It makes the conference flow much more smoothly when we can reach right into their box and quickly find the book they have chosen!

Now don't stress out if they don't write up the form just like you envision (as in... Sophia wrote all about geometry in her math section rather than telling about her strengths and weaknesses in math). It's ok, I promise.  She'll be sharing 2 math samples which will give her the opportunity to show much more of her mathematical thinking!

Translation:  (Although I know you teacher friends are masters at reading K work by now!) 

Math:  I can make a rectangle and make a hexagon and a octagon.

Writing:  I write on the line and better stories and on the lines.  I can write sight words.

Reading:  A Hot Surprise I can chunk and blend and flip the sound and listen for interesting words.

The last section, Personal Goal for the 4th 9 Weeks, is completed together at the actual conference...so more on that later!

Check back soon for more details from the ACTUAL conference!  (Remember...I did already mention that the productivity level is teetering on NON-existent!...This was all the blogging I could muster for tonight!)

Check back soon for how we gather data as to the success of our conferences!

Also be sure and check out our post from a while back about our REGULAR teacher-parent conferences to see how we get nearly 100% participation!

Please let us know if you have questions, comments, or insights to add!

Reflecting on Instruction- How we Love to teach Reading

Hope everyone is having a super summer!!  We are definitely enjoying out time off :).

Pictured above are my Boys (1st 2 boys my kiddos and the 2nd 2 my nephews)

and Cristy and her cute fam!!!

We recently reflected on things like pencil sharpeners, behavior management, pouches vs boxes, and how to get the wiggles out, but this post will be on research based instruction. We will try to make it short! Maybe we will just write several posts on instructional likes and dislikes :).

We Love: Cafe, Daily 5 Reading, Multi Sensory Phonics, 6 Traits Writing

The majority of our kiddos really excelled at reading!!!  Why??

We loved using Orton Gillingham Multi sensory methods to teach phonics (letters, sounds, blending, segmenting)!! It was hands on and minds on! It met the needs of diverse learners. We followed the sequence of letters from the book Recipe for Reading.

For the absolute best training on using Orton Gillingham, you should attend the 30 hour training conducted by the Institute of Multi Sensory Education!  It was expensive, but well worth it!! Click the link below to check out their site.

Cafe Rocked! We taught the kiddos strategies so they could be independent readers. They didn't rely on anyone else to help them figure out words!!

We used Science and Social Studies non-fiction texts as well as a variety of fiction texts to teach mini lessons on the strategies. We modeled using the strategies then gave students opportunities to practice using Daily 5!

What's Daily 5???
Read to Self
Read to Someone
Work on Writing
Listen to Reading
Word Work

Daily 5 was an awesome way for the kiddos to practice the strategies we introduced!

Needs: More Training on 6+1  Traits
Our kiddos were pretty great writers, but they really could have been better!! We would love a little more training on 6 +1 Traits writing. Do any of you have any experience with this way to teach writing to kiddos??
Let us know what you use to teach writing.

Emergent Readers - Individual Packs for Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving

Hey guys!  Just a quick post to let you know we separated our BIG Fallin' for Fall Emergent Readers Bundle into smaller packs.

We know you may only need 1 particular set to fit into your classroom plans.  Hope this makes it easier on your wallet and your planning!

Happy Columbus Day!  

Let's READ! Getting books into your kiddos' hands!

It's so important to get GOOD FIT books into your kiddos' hands!  We have a TON of great guided reading book sets at school that work really well for our CAFE strategy groups.  BUT...what about getting these books into our kiddos' homes??  NOT SO MUCH!

Our librarian loves us, but not THAT much!  We can't let the littles take these perfectly suited books home since they are library sets.  Our kiddos DO, of course, get to check out library books, but these are not always "Good Fit" books where they can apply all of their new strategies to help them read.

SO...we came up with some EMERGENT READERS that are PERFECT for getting books into our kiddos' hands that they can TAKE home and actually READ!!!  It can be so frustrating for our guys to know all these new strategies and then when they open their library book...it's just FRUSTRATION-VILLE because the strategies aren't working...not a GOOD FIT!

These readers use almost all of the PRIMER and PRE-PRIMDER Dolch words, making them perfect books for most of our readers at this point in the year.  We included an easier version and a more challenging version for 5 of the readers, since we do have some kiddos who are already in the 100 word club.  (Read more about our word clubs here!)

These readers are great for working in guided reading strategy groups

on standards such as tracking left to right/top to bottom,

reading sight words, blending unknown words, using picture clues,

reading for meaning, and much more!

Use the You Be the Author version to work on writing standards such as spacing, capitalization, punctuation, blending, sentences, and more!

So we hope these might be helpful to you too!  We love watching our kiddos discover the JOY of reading and finding out just how powerful words can be!

Please visit our TpT store and download the preview of this pack.  We included the emergent reader, LEAVES (all 4 versions), for FREE as a thanks for your awesome support of our blog and store. 

Download the Preview at our TpT store to grab all 4 versions free!

And as always, we will give away this pack to one winner chosen randomly from ALL the comments left below!

 Now...off to the front porch to drink coffee with the hubs, pooch, kitty, and kiddos and enjoy this GORGEOUS fall day!

Sight Words made EASY! - and a FREEBIE!

Sight words!  They are a BIG deal---a really BIG deal---a HUGE we gotta learn these words to read kinda deal.

We jump right in and begin introducing sight words from the get go.  We usually start with SEE.  They can easily write a MILLION sentences if they know this word.  Most all of them know I and a so throw in SEE and what do ya' got???  "I see a ...(choose about 1/2 the words in the English language and you are good to go)"  Endless possibilities for writing!!!  Granted...it ain't the most creative writing, but once the kiddos see the POWER of words, they get hooked pretty fast!

So to make it really meaningful for the littles and FUN too, here's what it looks like in our room.

We use Orton-Gillingham Phonics.  If you don't use it...BEG, PLEAD, and otherwise promise to give your first born to your administrators if they will send someone to the OGP training!  It is the GREATEST thing E--VAH!  (It's basically a multi-sensory approach to phonics instruction!)

Not a paid advertisement...just love those people!...

Now onto what it looks like in our room!  We show them the new sight word printed on card stock.  We let them look at it, think it over, and ask if anyone thinks they have a guess.  Then we "tap it out".  Basically that means we hold out the arm we DO NOT write with and we use the other arm to "tap out the letters".  We say "s-e-e spells see".  We touch our shoulder for the first letter, our elbow bendy spot for the second letter, and our wrist for the last letter.  Then we sweep from shoulder to wrist when we say "spells see".  This is great for your auditory and kinesthetic learners.

Then we do cheer cards for each word.  There are a MILLION places to find cheer cards.  Here are a few we made up on our own.  Grab this FREEBIE at our TpT store!

We usually draw about 3 or 4 cards to practice the word.  So if we pulled Karate Chop, then we would all stand up, get into our best karate stance, and then chop as we say each letter.  When we say "spells see (or whatever sight word you are working on) we karate kick, then finish it off by yelling HY-AH!  We repeat each chant 3 times before we pick a new card.  THEY LOVE THESE STINKIN' CARDS!

Seriously...they BEG to do these!  These are great for auditory and kinesthetic learners too!

After that we practice thinking up some sentences using the new sight word.  I'll write the sentences on the dry erase board or Activboard.  I write any sight word in RED and all other words in BLACK!  This helps them quickly see the POWER in knowing their sight words!

For our last activity, we use these word sheets we created for Fry words 1-100 and 101-200.  First we have them back write the word on their neighbor.  Then they finger trace it on the paper.  Next we let them pick their colors and rainbow write the word.  (3 or 4 colors works perfectly).  Then they use a pencil to trace the words.  Next they will try it out on their own.  Then we circle the new sight word in the sentence together.  We let them try to read it on their own first, then we'll look for sight words together and blend other words until we have the sentence figured out.  We work on tracking left to write and counting the words in the sentence.  We used a mixture of punctuation marks throughout the pages so we could hit that standard too!  Next they will illustrate the sentence.  And finally, they will use their new sight word to write their own sentence.

Fry Word 1-100 Pack on TpT!           Fry Word 101-200 Pack on TpT!

These sheets are the BOMB DIGGITY, because we teach like 100 standards all in one big sha-bang!  OK so maybe not a hundred, but A BUNCH!

They cover a TON of Common Core ELA standards like sight words, tracking left to right, writing simple sentences, handwriting, blending and using sight words to read, punctuation and capitalization, illustrations, spacing...you name it!

Our kiddos are learning their words super fast.  And no they are not ALL jumping on the sight word bandwagon just yet.  It will take time for some of them, but many of them have hit the ground running and they are on FIRE for sight words!

Hope these cheer cards can help you get your babies excited about sight words!  Let us know what great things YOU do to help your littles learn these words!

Disclaimer---Please DO NOT beat us after you have tried this with your kiddos for the first time!  You will WANT to beat us, you may want to pull our hair, or kick us in the shins, but please resist!  The first couple of sheets you do with them will be SLAP TORTURE!  To make it a bit easier, we do the first several together.  I show it on the Activboard and annotate over it and we complete the sheet together.   But then all the sudden by the 4th sheet or so, the clouds part, the sun shines, birds sing...and they will GET IT!  Then it's smmmmooootth sailing from there!  You will LOVE us again and you will feel bad if you kicked us!  :)

Oh Big Brother! Friendship Journal

So, before we get busy with some K business, who saw Big Brother tonight?? Who do you want to win??? We don't know who we want to win, but we sure are glad they finally got Amanda out of that house! She was driving us crazy!!

What will we watch when this season is over?? Survivor? Bachelor? Bachelorette?
Surely there will be some awesome reality TV on that we can't live without! You know something to play in the background while we are blogging until weeeeeeeeeeeeee hours of the night :).

Moving on to some kindergarten business!!
Yay!! During Daily 5 we are finally about to give our kiddos some choice!!! Yahoo! We have built stamina for Read to Self and Work on Writing!! The kiddos will choose tomorrow which they would like to do during Daily 5 instead of being told which one they have to do!!  We know they are going to love choosing.

We knew it was time for choice when one student said, "Are we going to do any-fing else u-ver than Weed (Read) to Self? It is kinda getting bor-wing!"  

Oh TEACHERS let's just say "Here's your sign" or actually Here was OUR sign! Give those babies some choice!!

Now on to serious business! ELA Common Core Unit 1 is all about friendship. This unit incorporates lots of books about friendship. We have read books about Frog and Toad, books about Piggie and Elephant, and many other books about friendship!!! Let's compile a list of all our favorite books about good friends!!

What are your favorite books about Friendship???

Below is a Friendship Journal with some writing prompts. If you are interested, just click and grab!!

Please, give us some titles about friendship!! We are looking for books to add to our collection and Friendship Unit!
Have a great week!!

Phonics Boggle! It's Game Time Baby!

Been a little slack this first week of summer!  Page is kickin' it at the beach for the month!  One of us has to do some kind of work, right?  So---while the hubs is mowing grass I am sneaking in here to write a post before I forget how to do it! ;)  Summer---it'll do it to ya!

Here is a game we play with our kiddos!  They like it!  No---they LOVE it!  As in, begging us to play it...all..the...time!  We play this on Thursdays as part of our phonics time for Daily 5!  Trust me, the littles learn their days of the week quick like so they will know EXACTLY when we should be officially playing!  And---they---do---not---like---it---one---bit---if---we---try---to---skip---it!  It's not that we WANT to skip it, it's just that it takes about 12-15 minutes total to play the game, get scores, and crown the champions!  PEOPLE...this is SERIOUS game time!  BUT...there are just some days that we maybe get a teensy weensy bit behind and we try to skip this to get back on track!  Trust me---DO NOT SKIP THIS---if you ever start it.  Nobody wants an angry mob of 5 year olds coming at them all crazy eyed!!!

So...hopefully we have you interested!  What is this amazing game, you ask (you are asking, right?  If not, just pretend and come along for the ride!)?

It's really a very simple game to play, but they think it's the BOMB DIGGITY!  Shhh!  We are NOT gonna let them know that we totally made this up!  They think we are PROFESSIONALS!

Here's how you play!

First you need to gather up some chart paper or other large writing paper...big enough that a group of 4 or 5 kiddos can gather around it and all still see!

Then we divide the smalls into groups.  We try to divide them evenly depending on phonics prowess! ;)

We pick a team captain for each group.  Again, we make sure that all of the team captains are around the same skill level to make it fair!  No one wants to get stomped!  Team captains change EVERY time we play the game.

Then we spread the groups out all over the room.  We set our timer (We have an AWESOME timer that we show on the Activboard so they can see their time counting down.  Not to mention that it has a VERY LOUD timer that goes off and cracks them up because I still jump---every---single---time!) and off we go!  

Teams work to think of words that work on whatever phonics skill we are focusing on that particular week.  Early in the year it's a single letter.  Later it may be a digraph or two.  These pictures are from late in the year and we were working on blends with l.  They are masters of the game now and can handle it!  

The room is SO STINKIN' quiet while they play!  QUIET!  I mean like pin drop quiet!  I know, I know, you probably don't believe me!  But you see, as the kids are calling out words to their team captain, they must WHISPER or risk another team stealing (BOO! HISS!) their word!  SCORE one for the teacher!

(Remind me again why I ever want to SKIP this game???)

After the time runs out (We vary the time between 6-10 minutes depending on their skill level and which skill we are working on that week.) all the groups come back together and we score the teams.

One captain comes up and we call out their list of words.  If ANY other team has the same word, then we ALL cross it off of the lists.  NO points are earned for these words!  If NO OTHER team has the word, then we circle that word and that team earns one point.  We continue to score each team in this way!

Then we list all of the team scores, write greater/less than sentences on the board, and determine our winner!  The winning team picks out of the treasure box (goodies that cost me pennies but they think are as good as GOLD...candy, stickers, necklaces, plastic bugs...)  All the other kiddos get a "consolation prize"!  Mostly because  the consolation prize is CANDY and I LOVE CANDY!  Usually a couple of M&M's or Skittles or something! 

In the beginning of the year, some of their 'words' look crazy...all phonetically spelled.  But we don't really care because we are focusing on hearing the sounds in words, not spelling.  As the year goes on though, the writing gets much more conventional!  That's nice to see too!

And there you have it...PHONICS BOGGLE! Fun, right!

What kind of fun games do you play with your kiddos?  Either link your blog post about one of them below, or give us a little description in your comments!  We'll all be armed with some NEW games to head back to school!

Stations in Action- Games, Art, and Writing

Wow friends! Time sure does fly when you're having a great time! Family and administrators often ask, "How was your day?" We always respond with the same answer, "It's always great in K!"

We mean even when it's a bad day in K, it's still awesome because no matter what happens you still have 20 or something kiddos that ADORE you and lots of parents who are grateful to you for loving their babies and instilling lots of knowledge in their eager, growing minds!!

Enough sappy stuff!! Ready for Action!! Well our Word Work Stations are in full swing! The kiddos are learning a ton and working hard.

How do we use Word Work Stations?  While we review all letters and sounds and teach a million phonemic awareness and phonological skills daily, our Word Work Stations are built around a letter, digraph or other phonics skill that we focus on for that particular week.

Each child gets a new Word Work Literacy Station Choice Board  on Monday. We use these choice boards to help keep our kiddos accountable for completing work. You KNOW those babies would never ever just chit chat, visit, and PRETEND to work and not even get 1 station finished by Friday. NO, NEEEVER!!! ;)  Hmm do you have any of those babies? It is amazing, even with the choice boards, some sly little people turn up Friday with only one or 2 smiles!

Smiles? What's that? Well, when a friend completes a Word Work activity, the teacher puts a smiley face on the activity completed. Our friends are supposed to complete at least 5 stations per week. We do have some eager achievers who complete more than 5 and earn a reward. Don't forget there are still a few who may also complete less, but we have Friday afternoon work time for friends who didn't work all week.  It usually  only takes one time staying in from play time to work while other friends are having fun before that student is working harder during station time the next week!

What do our Word Work Stations involve? Well, we like to have a balance of learning games, opportunities for artistic expression, as well as writing activities. All of the activities on the choiceboard are differentiated. Some work/games are differentiated by the activity while other work/games are differentiated by the product. For example some friends may be ready to write a sentence or two while others work on their own level writing words or the beginning sound. The objects is to challenge all of our students without STRESSING them out!!

 

Sight Word Clubs!

These babies are reading up a storm!!!  WE LOVE JANUARY!!!!!

It's like all the hard work FINALLY pays off!  They come back from winter break, and the wheels are turning at full speed!  Thank........the.........Lord!!!

We started Daily 5 and CAFE last year around January.  We saw a ton of progress and were really happy with the trial run of these 2 reading components.  So...we started day 1 this year!  Working with our kiddos on the reading strategies, conferencing, and giving them time during Daily 5 to put it all together...has just been A-MA-ZING!

And to double our efforts, we put a TON of sight word work in too!  We work with our kiddos beginning early in the year...even before many of them know all of their letters.  We start with simple words like I, go, to, can, and see.  We play games with them, use them with word chants (click  to grab them FREE), and work on the words by rainbow writing, tracing, finding in sentences, and writing simple sentences.

We also have WORD CLUBS!!!  These are so stinkin' awesome!  The kiddos work really hard to earn their way into a new word club.  Here's how they work:

Our kiddos can read ANY 60 words on the Fry List 1-100.  They earn a gold medal and their name and photo in the class newsletter.  This is a great beginning level because ALL of our kiddos almost always make it into this club!  Everyone wins!

When our kiddos can read ALL of the Fry List 1-100, then they are in the club!  They earn a $1 coupon to spend at our school store and their name and photo in the newsletter!

Next we move on to the Fry List 101-200.  They are in this club when they can read both the Fry List 1 and 2 for a total of 200 words!  They earn ANY baked item of their choosing!  And we mean ANY!!!  We have baked cupcakes, brownies, monster truck cakes, from scratch lemon pies...you name it, we've baked it!

Once the kiddos know 200+ sight words, they start in the Accelerated Reader program.  Most of you probably are familiar with this, but it's basically a paid reading program where the books are leveled, students take computerized comprehension tests, and earn points.  Once our kiddos earn 5 points (10-5 books), they are in the club!

 We take them out to dinner ANYWHERE they want to go.....ANYWHERE!

 Well...almost anywhere!!  No fast food!!!

 And none of those places with the big 'ol buffets where you serve yourself...because people...that's NOT fun for ANY ONE involved!

We made this mistake once...ONCE!  We basically were up and down 100 times, getting food, finding new straws because the old ones fell on the floor, cleaning up spills...NOT........FUN.........AT.......ALL!!!

We learned our lesson!

 Now it's only fine dining for us!  That's right...REAL restaurants that serve steak, seafood, lobster.......ok.... so the kiddos ALWAYS order chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese, but WE eat like queens!!!

We used to take them out 1 at a time, but that got waaaaaaaaay too expensive, so now we let a few of them make it into the club and then we let them pick a restaurant together and have a BIG ol party!!!  This way, we only end up going out 3 or 4 times with 3-6 kiddos in each group!

Well, we hope this gives you some ideas for ways you can get your kiddos
 motivated to learn those sight words! It really is awesome.  All of our kids cheer each other on and encourage one another to do their best!  We celebrate together!!!

Cafe with the Sisters

Hi Friends!! Guess what Cafe we went to on Sunday!! It was the 2 Sisters Cafe! That's right, Daily 5 and Cafe creaters Joan Moser and Gail Boushey! We were so fortunate to have our PTA send us to Cafe Training! We learned lots of tips to make Cafe smooth sailing.

If you don't know what Cafe is, it is an explicit method for teaching reading strategies. It is awesome. Cafe stands for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expand Vocabulary. Teachers use mini lessons for exposing students to reading strategies in each area. Students are then able to practice strategies during the Daily 5. Daily 5 consists of Read to Self, Word Work, Work on Writing, Read to Someone, and Listen to Reading. After many weeks of training, students build stamina for each of the Daily 5. Then teachers are able to confer one on one with students and conduct small group instruction.  We love creating anchor charts for everything. These help students know what they should be doing and what the teacher will be doing during Cafe and Daily 5!

I-Chart or Anchor Chart



Daily 5 Choiceboard

 
Tip 1: If teaching really young kids, place your cafe board headers at the bottom of the board so kids can easily reach the board to add their name to the strategy they are working on.



Cafe Board with Headings at the Bottom

Cafe Board with Headings at the Top

Tip 2: Touch points can be used for formative assessments. For example 1=Below Standard , 2=Approaching Standard, 3=Meeting Standard, and 4=Exceeding Standard. This is helpful when trying to explain to parents about how you can grade using Cafe. This also helps teachers know when to have students move on to the next strategy.

Tip 3: Soon the sisters are coming out with an electronic conferring notebook. So, if you are more technologically savvy you will love, love this! Be on the look out for it on their website.

Happy Reading!!