Literacy+Cafe


 * Your Name:** Kaitie Hicks #10


 * Strategy name**: Literacy Cafe


 * Student appropriate grade levels:** 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12


 * Tags:** Literacy Cafe, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelveth, Language Arts, Reading, After Reading Strategy, Writing, General, ESL, High Achievers, Low Achievers, LD, BD, Linguistic, Intrapersonal


 * Content areas:** Language Arts, Reading
 * Can be tweaked to fit a Social Studies or Science topic*


 * Type of Strategy:** After Reading Strategy, Writing


 * Types of Students:** General, ESL, High Achievers, Low Achievers, LD, BD, Linguistic, Intrapersonal


 * Strategy Description:** The Literacy Cafe is a strategy that is a celebration of the students' writing in which students can sit in groups of three or four, snack on healthy refreshments, and share their work through informal conversations. During a four to six week period, the students will study a specific writing genre (short stories, poems, essays, etc.) by reading published examples, discussing why the examples were or were not effective, planning for and writing drafts, and talking about original writing. The Literacy Cafe is usually put in play after the students complete studying a genre or writing a major piece. On the day of a Literacy Cafe, the teacher goes out and buys healthy snacks for the students to eat: grapes, bagels, juice, etc. Then the desks are arranged into groups of three or four. The teacher makes copies of the students' final drafts and places them on the desks. Each student takes a turn reading their "masterpiece" out loud for the rest of the group, and the group members should apply a comprehension strategy that good readers engage in- make a connection, ask a question, summarize what they heard, etc. When a group member wants to get up and listen to or read their work of art to another group, he or she politely excuses himself or herself and joins another group of their choice. This continues throughout the whole class period, giving the students a celebration day to relax and enjoy the hard work that went into the creating the piece of writing.


 * Strategy implementation example**: Have the students study the genre of poetry. The students will be reading poems by famous poets and evaluating the poems, seeing what elements made some of the poems effective and what elements made other poems ineffectiive. Some of the poems that the students can read are "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost, "I Carry Your Heart With Me" by E.E. Cummings, "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou, and "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson. Any and all different types of poems would work for this lesson. The students would then need to compare and contrast the different styles of the poems and decide whose poem they want to model, or if they want to create a style of their own. Then the students would begin to make drafts of the poem they will write for the Literacy Cafe. After the final drafts of the students' poems have been written and published, the teacher will arrange the Literacy Cafe. The teacher will bring in the healthy refreshments and arrange the room into groups of three or four with the final drafts on the table. The students will share their creative writing pieces with each other and have a relaxing day, celebrating the hard work that went into perfecting their poems. A Literacy Cafe would happen at the end of every genre taught.