If you are like me, you love to wander the aisles of a kitchen shop, checking out the latest gadgets and tools. Some get added to my "have-to-have" list. Others, like the Egg-Q-ber, make me shake my head in wonder and/or amusement. Although some serve one purpose, like the Egg-Q-ber or a watermelon cutter (pictured), the best ones prove useful in a variety of situations. 

The same can be said for strategies. That's why, when we confer with students, we offer assistance that will not only prove useful in their current situation, but empower them in future circumstances. For instance, instead of helping with a specific multisyllabic word in a student's current text, we share a strategy that will come in handy every time they come to a multisyllabic word they don't know. Instead of suggesting that a student embellish a current piece of writing with dialogue, we teach that authors often add detail to their work by sharing what characters say, and that the student can do it now and in all their future pieces.

The CAFE Menu offers a wealth of strategies that will support readers now and throughout their reading lives.

Let's not fill the drawers of our students' minds with limited tools like a watermelon cutter, but teach and coach in a way that will help right now as well as with every text, piece of writing, and math problem to come. Teaching this way will build skills that last a lifetime.

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