St. Anthony de Padua School
At St. Anthony de Padua School, we utilize the Daily 5/CAFÉ literacy structure for Language Arts/Reading. This structure helps teach children to be independent on literacy tasks. Once students are taught the behaviors of the tasks and build their stamina for independence, teachers are able to work with individuals and small groups. We also use CAFÉ, which is a visual aid for organizing the reading strategies children learn, so they can begin to read books at their own level. Students learn to choose their own “good fit” books and to set goals in the areas of comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary.
This approach enables teachers to use a cross curricular approach and introduce children to a wide variety of subject areas as they learn to read. Writing also plays a key role in the development of students. They learn to write poetry, letters, non-fiction and fiction stories, and to respond to reading through writing.
