Assessing readers involves more than determining a reading level and moving them onto the next. Gail Boushey and Joan Moser developed the CAFÉ assessment system to help elementary students understand and master different strategies used by successful readers. CAFÉ is an acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding Vocabulary, and the system includes goal-setting with students in individual conferences, posting of goals on a whole-class board, developing small group instruction based on clusters of students with similar goals, and targeting whole-class instruction based on emerging student needs.

This two-hour DVD takes viewers into grades 3-6 classrooms with students who have a range of previous experience with the CAFÉ system.  Filmed over two years, the program includes:

*    Sample whole-class and small-group lessons;
*    Conferring with diverse students;
*    Step-by-step explanation of the conferring notebook;
*    Coaching sessions with teachers;
*    Discussions of the specific needs of older learners;
*    Launching lessons and introduction of the CAFE menu;
*    Suggestions for using the CAFÉ system in classrooms of students who have a range of previous experience with the program.


Joan Moser and Gail Boushey are known simply as "The Sisters" to the teachers they have worked with in Washington state and throughout the country. They are biological sisters, and elementary teachers with over forty years of teaching experience between them.  They are nationally known consultants specializing in literacy, assessment, and creating lovely spaces for learning in classrooms.