Suzy and Christina's RICA Study Tool

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RICA Study Tool by Suzanne Arena and Kimberlee Martin

Competency #1 - Planning, Organizing and Managing Reading Instruction

Competency summary: Understanding how to plan, organize, and manage standards based on reading instructionTopics include: English Language Arts Content Standards  Systematic and Explicit direct instruction  Balance Instruction Program Instructional Delivery Appropriate reading levels Assessment

Systematic Direct and Explict Instruction

The goal of systematic and explicit instruction in early grades is to prevent reading difficulties.Content standards let the teacher know what skills and strategies each student at each grade level should master. The teacher is systematic by using assessment results to focus on planning and grouping struggling students together for additional instruction. Direct and Explicit Instruction: Lessons are teacher-directed with the object of the lesson to be a specific reading skill or strategy.  Lessons are taught to a small group of students who share a common need.   English Language Arts Content Standards are Goals in long term planning, goals are divided into months.  The Framework provides a curricular and instructional profile for each standard. Each standards goes through short term planning to be taught as objectives. It is important the teachers define evidence-based learning objectives (rubrics) for lessons.  Define some source of evidence that will indicate whether or not each individual child has met the objective.  

Balanced Instruction Program

Strategic and appropriate selections on what should be taught in each grade level to devote more time to certain skills. Skills are built upon in each grade level.  At the same time some skills and knowledge cannot be learned unless children have mastered prerequisite skills and knowledge.

Comprehensive Instruction Program

Designed to help students achieve all grade level standards and are broken down into many categories.  In addition to direct, explicit, skills and strategy lessons, the instructional program should include many opportunities for the student to read and write. 

Components of Effective Instructional Delivery

Orientation: an overview of what is going to take place in the lesson and what the students will be expected to do. An example is, Students will be able to _____________. Make it motivating, use artifact, illustrations, words for the word wall and ask stimulation questions. Presentation: What students need to acquire, the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn. In most cases direct explicit instruction. Teacher will model what students are expected to do. Or they might show a video, play an audio tape, or invite a guest speaker. Structure and Guided Practice: Students complete some task under close supervision of the teacher.  While the teacher observes the students they might stop to reinforce what has been learned (re-model or restating).  Teacher might ask a student to explain what they have learned. Or to provide feedback on what is correct, fixing mistakes and offering suggestions. Independent Practice: Opportunity for the students to practice what they have learned.  The teacher is not available to monitor or help such as homework.

Engagement

Teachers should be positive, upbeat, praise students, and teach students to be polite and understanding that everyone make mistakes. Students have appropriate reading levels. For self-paces, silent reading, teachers need to provide children with books they can read easily.  For direct instruction, children should be asked to read material that is challenging, but within their grasp.  Books at a child’s frustration level, too hard for them to read on their own or without considerable help from the teacher should only be read aloud.  A strategy for EL and struggle readers when reading class text books at grade level is to bring several books from the library, written at easier levels that cover the same topic. Teachers who read aloud effectively, with enthusiasm and dramatic effect can affect the reading habits of their students.   Book Clubs and discussion about literature, if done properly they can motivate students to read and provide a life-long appreciation of literature. Teacher’s goal of a book club is to give the students open ended questions so that they will take control over the book discussion.  In a literature circle the teacher gives the students a few materials to choose from and students agree on which to read.  They discuss before, during and after the book is read.  Author studies is where the teacher assigns different groups of students to read books by one author.  Then under the teachers guidance the students critically analyze the authors work. Reading material can be in any format; poem, newspaper, magazine etc.

Assessment

Methods for monitoring student independent reading: Student maintained reading logs Book reports, after reading a book students can write a sequel or act out a scene Formal and informal presentations Formal - students talk about the book (characters, plot, setting, theme) Informal - students can ask other students about the book, the teacher observes Individual conferences Discuss with students about their book, whether they need to get a new one, find ways to work on skills or strategies to help with comprehension of the book.

Competency #2 - Assessment

Understanding the purposes of reading assessment and best practices related to standards-based entry-level assessment,monitoring of student progress, and summative assessment.

Entry-level assessment is given prior to instruction to gain knowledge on which students poses prerequisites skills and are able to meet the standards, who will need extra help and who have mastered the standards.  Monitoring of progress takes place during instruction to tell the teacher which students are making adequate progress.  After reading the text student must answer isolated questions to see who will need extra help.  Progress monitoring can be done formal and informally.  Watching students as individuals and as a whole class will let the teacher know if the material is too hard and needs to be revisited or to easy and can accelerate the lesson. Pull those that need extra help into a small group to focus on weak areas.  Summative assessments determine which students have achieved the targeted standards given either quarterly, mid-term or yearly.  It is also important that the assessments measure weather knowledge and skills can be transferred.  Can the student use the skill they learned to answer a grammar question? 

Three Primary Purposes of Reading Assessment

Alternative assessment for students with an Individual Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan Give children more time.  Divide the Assessment into smaller units and over two days.  Change the mode of delivery an example would be changing a written exercise to an oral activity.  Provide practice Assessments by walking the student through a practice of the assessment, giving feedback along the way, prior to the summative assessment.  Provide a simpler version of the Assessment at a lower grade level. However, the teacher would have to note that reading at grade level was not met

Alternative Assessments

Reliability - tests are considered reliable if they yield consistent scores across administrations Validity - test is considered valid if it actually measures what it is intended to measure

Quality Indicators of Assessment

One that has an established, non-varying procedure; usually with a manual or script for the person giving the test. It generates a raw score and each of the comparison ("norm") scores below.

Standardized Test

Interpreting Results of Standardized Tests

Use the Percentile Scores norm-referenced scores ex: student with percentile score of 78 had a higher raw than 78% of the sampling group Use the Grade Equivalent Scores norm-referenced scores raw score is converted to a school grade level ex: student with percentile score of 78% is equivalent to 6.3 grade level score; this means he scored what an average 6th grader would on the same test Use the Stanine Scores norm-referenced scores "stanine" = short for" Standard Nine" raw scores are converted to a number on a 9-point scale 5 = average

The summative function of assessment is to determine if the students have reached the grade level standards.The results place students in one of three different categories: Below expected level of performance - not met standard At expected level of performance - met the standard Above expected level of performance - exceeded the standard

Summative Function of Assessment

Individual Profiles separate sheet for each student indicate if student has met, not met, or exceeded standards includes results for each grade-level standard can be used to plan interventions can be used to plan groupings for small-group lessons should be compared to other recent tests and examined for consistency can be used at IEP or other team meetings that benefit the individual student

Analyze, Interpret, & Use Results

Informal Reading Inventory (IRI): a collection of assessments given individually to students. Some examples are:Word Recognition Lists Graded Reading Passages Reading Interest Survey Concepts about Print Phonemic Awareness Phonic Assessments

Informal Reading Inventory (IRI)

Word Recognition Lists serve 3 purposes:give the child's reading level give the child's sight vocabulary gives information about the child's ability to use sound-symbol relationships

Word Recognition

Graded Reading Passages show 4 things about a child's reading ability:Miscue Analysis (Oral reading errors that have 3 categories): Graphophonemic Errors (feather for father) Semantic Errors (dad for father) Syntactic Errors (into for through)

Graded Reading Passages

A Child's Frustration, Instructional, and Independent Reading Levels Independent Reading Level Can be read without assistance, 95% fluency accuracy, 90% comprehension accuracy Instructional Reading Level Can be read and understood by the student with help from a teacher, 90% fluency accuracy, 60% comprehension accuracy Frustration Reading Level Cannot be read or understood by the child even with help

Frustration, Instructional, and Independent Reading Levels

Communication to students - it is very important to know how a child is progressing in class Communicate daily: give oral feedback daily, written feedback on assignments Individual conferences: meet once every 3 weeks for 15 minutes to review work with a student Written progress: write summaries to a student to tell them how they are doing on standards Communication to Parents - parents should know what is going on with student progress  Communication about daily/weekly progress: parents should see Language Arts work on it every week with feedback Parent/Guardian conferences: teachers and parents should meet with parents when recommended by the school, but more often with English Language Learner students, struggling students, and advanced students Written Evaluations: a written form (progress report) should be filed out in the Fall and Spring to show the child's progress throughout the year Emails/phone calls: being available to speak to parents this way is important Communicating to the school and district- summaries of students are kept in a cumulative file. Any person that is involved with the child should be informed about a child's progress 

Communicating Assessment Results

Understanding the role of phonological and phonemic awareness in reading development and how to develop students' phonological and phonemic awareness skills.

Competancy #3 - Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

Teaching Phonological Awareness

Word Awareness: To become aware that sentences are made up of words and to detect and identify word boundaries.  Use a three or four word sentence made up of one syllable words and write each word on it’s own flash card.  Slowly introduce each word, making the sentence longer. Have the students count the words and repeat the sentence.  Start with Tom, add runs to get Tom runs.  Next add fast, to get Tom runs fast.  Finish with very, Tom runs very fast. Syllable Awareness: Pronounce the words slowly to distinct each sound. Use two or three syllable words and have the students clap for each sound.  Word Blending: Use pictures to place two, one syllable words together to create a compound word.  Example: A picture of a cow and a picture of a boy then ask what word they get when combine the two, cowboy. Syllable Blending: blend two syllables together “sis” and “ter” to get sister Onset and Rime Blending: teacher would say /b/ and the rime, ank.  The children would put them together and say bank.

Instruction of words and syllables should take place before phonemic awareness.  Focus on one or two phonemic awareness at a time, not many simultaneously. Plan activities with use of the letters of the alphabet. Instruction shouldn’t exceed 30 minutes. Sound isolation: Students are given a word and asked to tell the beginning, middle and ending sound.  First model the leap /l/-/i/-/p/… It is best to ask for beginning, ending and then middle. Sound identity: Have three words that share only the same beginning sound such as light, low and lake.  Ask what sound they have in common and if it is in the beginning, middle or end. Sound blending: Teacher says the sounds with brief pauses /b/-/a/-/t/.  What word am I think of? Sound substitution: Have students substitute one sound for another. Cat, cat, cat. Let us substitute /b/ for /k/ to get bat, bat, bat. Sound deletion: consonant blends, such as block, take away the /b/ to get lock. Sound segmentation: isolate and identify sounds in a word. Start with words that have two sounds before moving on to bigger words. Cap, cat, cab. If that is to challenging ask how many sounds are in the word dog (3).

Teaching Phonemic Awareness

Understanding the role of concepts about print, letter recognition, and the alphabetic principle in reading development and how to develop students' knowledge and skills in these areas.

Competancy #4 - Concepts about Print, Letter Recognition and Alphabetic Principle

reading aloud to students helps students recognize covers of books and understand that print carries meaning will NOT teach directionality, sentence, word, or letter representation because students cannot see each word of the text shared book experience reading a BIG book to and with a group of students book uses large print visible to whole class has the potential to teach all concepts about print this experience usually includes: introduction/prereading- pointing out features of the book like cover, author, title page reading of the story by the teacher with possibly overdone emphatic performance pointing to each word as it's read discussion before, during, after the reading re-reading of the story by whole class, smaller groups, pairs, and individual students language experience approach (LEA) children dictate a personal experience to an adult who then records it verbatim child and adult read the dictated text together text is saved in child's personal reading book this experience is repeated often and can teach all concepts about print

Teaching Concepts about Print

environmental print printed messages that people encounter in ordinary daily living should be displayed around classroom print-rich environment a classroom with plenty of examples of written language on display some ways to create this environment: labels and captions on items around the room using a morning message written in large letters providing an overview of the day's activities have classroom mailboxes that are used to hold messages explicit (direct) teaching of concepts about print a lesson that can include one of the above strategies but has the objective to teach one of the concepts about print

Teaching Concepts about Print (cont)

associating names and things with letters sorting objects or pictures into groups based on the letter it begins with singing the alphabet song  great auditory experience ABC books books that have examples of objects/animals for each letter of the alphabet practicing writing: uppercase letters lowercase letters words tactile and kinesthetic methods tactile lessons include touching concrete materials to practice the configuration of letters kinesthetic lessons include motions that ask students to make exaggerated movements with their hands and arms, pretending to write large letters in the air

Teaching Letter Recognition, Naming, and Formation

Differentiated Instruction (below basic)

Struggling Readers and Students with Reading Disabilities focuses on: key concepts and skills reteaching concepts, letters, and skills that are lacking using a variety of concrete examples to explain a concept or task providing extra practice using visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile techniques

Differentiated Instruction (ELs)

English Learners and Speakers of Nonstandard English focuses on: capitalize on the transfer of relevant knowledge and skills from their primary language recognizing that not all languages are alphabetic and that key features of alphabets vary, including letters, directionality, and phonetic regularity

Differentiated Instruction for Advanced Readers focuses on: increasing the pace of instruction building on and extending current knowledge and skills

Differentiated Instruction (advanced)

Understanding important terminology and concepts involved in phonics instruction and recognize the role of phonics and sight words in reading development.

Competancy #5 - Phonics and Sight words: Terminology and Concepts

When teaching regular letter combination concepts, use pictures to make associations between the letter/s and the sound/s they make.  Consonants: Hold them (f, l, m, n, r, s, v, and z) or stop them (b, c, d, g, j, k, p, qu, and t) Consonant Digraphs: ph (phone) and sh (share) Consonant Blends: pl (play), spr (spring), and bl (blend) Vowels: a, e, i, o, u Vowel Digraphs: oa (boat) long o, ea (teach) long e Dipthongs: oi (oil), oy (boy) R-Controlled Vowels: neither long or short- a (car), e (her), i (girl), u (hurt), o (for) L-Controlled Vowels: neither long or short- a (chalk), e (help), i (milk), o (cold) u (bull)

Regular Letter Combination

When teaching Morphological units, teach them as part of phonics instruction. Teach in order with increasing difficulty for the students. VC (Vowel Consonant): am, it, up (not or though, o does not make a short sound) CVC: man, pet, lip, bum CVCC: balk, cost, film CCVC: brat, clap, skip CVVC: bait, team, goat CVCE (long vowel): made, like, cone, huge

Teaching Morphological Units

1.       Vocabulary instruction should be appropriate for the students age/level, show the word in context and give repeated exposure. 2.       When using direct instruction make sure the lesson uses context to redefine the words. 3.       Some helpful direct instruction tools are word maps, semantic feature analysis (charts) and word sorts. 4.       Morpheme analysis (structural analysis) depends on an understanding of the smallest parts of words, like prefixes and suffixes. 5.       Word consciousness can be understood through synonyms/antonyms, homophones/homographs, idioms and puns, and the history of words. 6.       Wide reading helps to develop vocabulary through children reading on their own.

Competancy #11 - Vocabulary, Academic Language and Background Knowledge

1.       Students can develop vocabulary from listening to the world around them, reading, and better understanding the structure of the English language.2.       The needs of students who struggle with learning disabilities can be met through key word focus, re-teaching, concrete examples and multiple learning tactics. 3. EL learners can be helped by building understanding of the language and focusing on key words. 4. Advanced learners can be challenged through a faster pace and deeper analysis.5 .       Teachers can choose to assess students in a variety of ways, but the results should be based in standards.6.       The results analysis should provide insight into why a student is struggling.

Academic Language and Background Knowledge (cont)

1.       Word Analysis, Fluency, and Vocabulary can all negatively impact comprehension if students are unable to read fluently or understand the meaning behind the words they will struggle with comprehension. 2.       Academic language and Background knowledge can also impact comprehension if students do not have the base knowledge needed for the text. 3.       There are three systems used to classify reading comprehension: literal, inferential, and evaluative. 4.       Literal comprehension requires students to know the surface meaning of the text and answer questions about what is explicitly stated in the text. 5.       Inferential comprehension relies on interpretation skills and requires students to answer questions on comparison and subtle main ideas.

Competancy #12 - Concepts and Factors Affecting Comprehension

1.       Evaluative Comprehension has students draw judgments and conclusions from the text. 2.       It is important for students to understand sentence structure, paragraph structure, and text structures to develop comprehension skills. 3.       Oral language activities will enhance a student’s comprehension. 4.       It is important to practice listening and reading comprehension with students. 5.       Text-based discussions can be facilitated through instructional conversations or questioning the author. It is also important to supplement class reading with writing activities and independent reading.

Concepts and Factors Affecting Comprehension (cont)

Competency #13: Comprehension Instruction and Assessment

1.       Before children begin their reading, they should know the context of the lesson. 2.       It is also important that students have the necessary background knowledge, understand important vocabulary and have a purpose prior to the comprehension text. 3.       During the lesson, students should be aware of Question/Answer classification. The four types of QARS are:  in the text,  think and search,  the author and you (not in text)  and on my own (based on your own thoughts). 4.       Students should be able to read strategically through seven basic strategies. They are:  visualizing,  paraphrasing,  clarifying,  predicting,  generating questions,  summarizing, and  adjusting reading rate

Comprehension Instruction and Assessment (cont)

1.       Teachers can implement these strategies by gradually shifting participation from themselves to the students (more student voice rather than teacher voice.) 2.       After the reading is completed teachers should use a variety of activities (discussions, writing assignments, etc.) to promote understanding. 3.       Teachers should strive to implement activities that practice summarizing, building a personal connection to the text, provide a real-world context and utilizes visual representations. 4.       It is important to make the text accessible to students with special needs, language needs and advanced learners. 5.       Assessment should be used to help determine a student’s independent, instructional and frustration reading levels. 6.       When analyzing the results of comprehension make the analysis standards-based and provide insight into why the child is reading at said level.

1.       It is important for students to understand the difference between several different kinds of literature for better comprehension. They are: folktales, modern fantasy, high fantasy, science fiction, contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, biography, poetry, ballad, lyric, couplet, epic and sonnet. 2.       Students should also know the meaning of the following literary elements to properly understand the story: character, plot, setting, mood and theme. 3.       Once students understand the literary themes they can understand the story grammar which defines the unique elements of each story. This can be taught through examples, story maps and outlines. 4.       The following activities will help to engage students in analysis and criticism:  identifying structural elements of plot,  comparing/contrasting the motivations and reactions of character,  evaluate the relevance of the setting,  identifying recurring themes, and  writer’s style. 5.       Students should experience oral language activities such as book clubs, questioning the author, and think-pair-share.

Competancy # 14 - Comprehension: Understanding and Analyzing Narrative/Literary Texts

1.       Students should experience writing activities with literature such as: journals,  essays,  prompts focused on the literary elements, and  prompts focused on the genre features. 2.       It is important to make the text accessible to students with special needs, language needs and advanced learners. 3.       Assessment should be used to help determine a student’s independent, instructional and frustration reading levels. 4.       When analyzing the results of comprehension make the analysis standards-based and provide insight into why the child is reading at said level.

Comprehension: Understanding and Analyzing Narrative/Literary Texts (cont)

1.       It is important to know the kind of expository texts to be concerned with, such as : grade-level textbooks in Social Studies/Science, reference texts, or other texts like how-to manuals. 2.       The patterns often found in expository texts are:  cause and effect,  problem and solution,  compare/contrast,  sequence, and  description. 3.       There are certain common features in expository texts that are useful. They are:  table of contents,  index,  glossary,  guide words,  typographical features (italic, etc.), and  graphic features like charts. 4.       Teachers should slowly shift responsibility of using the common features to the students. 5.       Before students read, they should review past material to prepare. During the reading they should focus attention with study guides. After they have ready, they should complete and review study guides.

Competancy # 15 - Comprehension: Expository/Informational Texts and Study Skills

1.       Some oral/written activities for students to complete are:  how-to texts,  persuasive texts,  compare/contrast writing,  written summaries, or  creating graphic organizers. 2.       Students will employ one of three reading styles:  skimming,  scanning, and  in-depth reading. 3.       Students can improve their research skills by building better note-taking skills. 4.       It is important to make the text accessible to students with special needs, language needs and advanced learners. 5.       When analyzing the results of comprehension make the analysis standards-based and provide insight into why the child is reading at said level.

Comprehension: Expository/Informational Texts and Study Skills (cont)