Justin Fiume

20152499

EDUC3626 week 6 reading

Surf’s Up
James Russo

Daily Café Framework

 CAFÉ: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expand Vocabulary.

 CAFÉ and other frameworks aim to achieve computation in a literacy and numeracy.
 The idea is that these four goals of reading are relevant to readers of all levels and
that students will focus on working towards one particular goal in a given reading
lesson (or series of lessons).
 Key focus on the process rather than the result which other frameworks seemed to
lack.
 Building the bridge: share dialogue between students and teachers, and facilitate the
construction of a common language around mathematics.
Benefits if the framework:

 Refine and better focus the teaching of mental computation strategies at the school.
 Develop stronger links between what is being taught and the current learning needs
of individual students
 Teachers have a shared understanding of particular mental computation strategies
and are approaching the teaching of these strategies consistently.
 Place more emphasis in the curriculum on meta-cognition of mental computation
strategies and mathematic language.
SURF – Strategies, Understanding, Reading and fast facts

 Deepens mathematical understanding and building mental flexibility.

 The Understanding goal teaches ‘more than one way’ strategy.
 The analogy of SURFing helps student to link their prior knowledge because it
requires concentration, quick decision making, flexibility and risk taking.
Four goals of SURF:

 Strategies:
o Primarily about the learning and application of derived math strategies.
Master the strategy, not just the numbers.
o Count on, count back, count up, near doubles, building to 10, double doubles,
hop on, hop back, number splitting, difference methods.
 Understanding:
o Knowing how mathematics (particularly number & algebra) works.
o Turn around facts, More than one way, change the order, portioning, inverse
operations, fractions & trial and error.
o Know what factual knowledge and strategy(s) to draw upon in a given
context.
o Understand inverse relationship between addition and subtraction (additive
thinking)

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 Justin Fiume
20152499

oCross-checking is a vital component of building mental flexibility, and,

consequently, the concept of Estimating and Checking is a key idea
introduced under the Understanding goal.
 Reading:
o Understanding and apply abstract codes and understand how these symbols
translate into everyday language (vice versa).
o At the lower primary level, the Reading goal involves recognising and
interpreting the basic operators, equality and inequality signs, and numbers.
 Fast Facts:
o Learning simple mathematical patterns so that they can be accurately
retrieved without computation.
o Building students mathematical processing speed.
o Examples: Rainbow facts, counting by twos, double pattern.

Reflection

Mental computation strategies have become increasingly emphasised in the teaching of

mathematics. Through the support of a structured framework, students are able to form and
understanding and build fluency within a safe learning environment. Frameworks such as
Daily CAFÉ and SURF Maths offer an invaluable source of strategies to the classroom. I
have every intention of using a framework in my classroom as I believe it offers a solid
foundation to build mental computation skills. On my recent practicum, the year two class
used a similar framework to SURF to build their skills. I used students’ prior knowledge of
addition and subtraction and introduced two new strategies each week. Concurrently, I had
Fast Facts maths activities organised for the beginning of each lesson where students would
have one minute to answer ten questions (addition for five weeks, subtraction for four
weeks). As the students were making connections with number relationships and strategies,
they were also able to improve their fluency and accuracy of the answers through mental
computation. By the end of the term most students in the class were getting 70% of the
answers correct compared to the 40% they were getting from the start of the term (class
average). I strongly believe that students should be taught multiple strategies to solve a
particular problem as it enables students to choose a strategy that works best for them and
apply it. It also offers students alternative methods to solve a problem in which their chosen
strategy is ineffective. If frameworks such as Daily CAFÉ or SURF Maths are implemented
from the early years, it will make students’ journey through school smoother and far more
enjoyable when they have the confidence and skills to take on mathematical problems. The
multimodal approach also allows other subject areas to cross over and offer contextual
experiences.