The document provides an agenda and materials for a teacher preparation workshop focusing on the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA) exam, including an overview of the exam format and content areas, activities to review the competencies assessed, and practice for the essay portions. Presenters provided information on test-taking strategies and common instructional approaches for different types of students. Participants engaged in group work to review competencies and practice writing sample responses.

1. RICA Prep
CSULB
11-6-2015
Presentation is posted on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/ebowers44/rica-prep-
presentation102514
Handout in Public Dropbox at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k0u33mizhwnqmw7/RICA_LK_11.2015.pptx?dl=0

2. Agenda
▪ Welcome and Sign-in
▪ Introductions- Find SomeoneWho
▪ Overview of Exam
▪ Overview of Competencies
BREAK
▪ What you Need to Know (competency 1 & 2)
▪ Review of Competency 3
LUNCH
▪ Review of Competency (4-15)GroupActivity
▪ ShareOut
▪ Essay (Case Study) Practice
▪ Closure- Find SomeoneWho revisit

3. Introductions- Find Someone Who
▪ Each pair should have a sheet that looks like a bingo board.
▪ At my signal, you and your partner will walk the room and introduce
yourselves to people.
▪ You need to find someone (another pair) who can answer one of the boxes.
▪ They should give you the answer- and then sign their name on your sheet.
▪ Continue getting signatures until the signal is given to stop

4. Overview of the test- and test
taking strategies
What am I looking at?

5. Overview of the Test
1. 70 multiple choice questions
2. 4 Open-Ended Assignments
– 2 short essays (one page each, about 75-125 words)
– 2 long essays (two pages, about 150-300 words)
3. 1 Case Study essay- (four pages, about 300-600 words)

6. Domains
The Content is organized into 5 Domains:
1. Domain 1: Planning, Organizing, and Managing Reading
Instruction Based on Ongoing Assessment
▪ Competency 1 & 2
2. Domain 2:Word Analysis
▪ Competency 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7
3. Domain 3: Fluency
▪ Competency 8 & 9
4. Domain 4:Vocabulary, Academic Language, and Background
Knowledge
▪ Competency 10 & 11
5. Domain 5: Comprehension
▪ Competency 12, 13, 14 & 15

7. The Test doesn’t assess the domains
equally
70 Multiple Choice (they don’t equal 100):
– Domain 1- 10%
– Domain 2- 33%
– Domain 3- 13%
– Domain 4- 20%
– Domain 5- 23%
Essay Questions:
– Domain 1- no essay
– Domain 2- Long essay
– Domain 3- Short essay
– Domain 4- Short essay
– Domain 5- Long essay
*The Case Study covers all 5 domains!

8. Test-Taking Strategies
▪ You don’t have to get them all right!
▪ You must budget your time! (you have 4 hours)
– Multiple choice- 90 minutes
– Two short essays- 30 minutes (15 min each)
– Two long essays- 50 minutes (25 minutes each)
– Case study- 60 minutes
– 10 minutes extra to check your work

9. Good Essay-writing strategies
▪ Identify, describe, explain
– Identify one area of need and cite the evidence in the question that you
relied on to reach that conclusion
– Describe an instructional strategy or activity to help address this need
– Explain why the strategy or activity you described would be effective for
this purpose
▪ Subtitles (headings)
▪ One means one- don’t add others to try and dazzle

10. Common strategies to meet the needs of
all learners
Struggling Readers and Students with Learning Disabilities:
1. Focus on key skills- prioritize specific learning needs
2. Reteach what is not mastered
– What is not mastered should be determined by a formative assessment
– Different strategies should be used than what was already tried
3. Teach in manageable “chunks”- checking for understanding is
essential
4. Provide concrete examples
5. Provide additional practice
6. Use visuals, kinesthetics, and tactile activities

11. Common strategies to meet the needs of
all learners
English Language Learners and Speakers of Nonstandard English
1. Take advantage of transfer of relevant skills and knowledge
from the first language
2. Note differences between the first language and English
(directionality, how the letter –d is pronounced in Spanish).
3. Focus on key vocabulary
4. Teach vocabulary with concrete items, pictures, charts, and
diagrams
5. Modeling

12. Common strategies to meet the needs of
all learners
Advanced Learners:
1. Increasing the pace and complexity of instruction
2. Extending the depth and breadth of instruction
3. Building on and extending current skills

13. Keep In Mind…
▪ Try not to use language that implies assumptions or generalizations
(all ELL should get simplified text…all students with IEP’s need extra
time…)

14. Keep in mind
▪ YOU will make the changes (how willYOU adapt to meet student
needs, how willYOUR teaching be modified. Don’t write about the
work you will send home, extra things you will have students
do…what parents will do)

15. Keep in mind
▪ You will consult the available data on that students for decision-
making because you have used multiple forms of assessment,
formal, informal, they may have IEPs, they have a CELDT level, etc.
▪ You will not jump to conclusions based on any single data point

16. Quick-write practice
Get ready!

17. Strategy to remember:
▪ Identify, describe, explain
– Identify one area of need and cite the evidence in the question that you relied
on to reach that conclusion
– Describe an instructional strategy or activity to help address this need
– Explain why the strategy or activity you described would be effective for this
purpose

18. Quick-write Practice
Use the information below to complete the exercise that
follows.
Prior to having students read a textbook chapter on tree
classification, a fifth-grade teacher divides students into small
groups and gives each group a set of labeled photographs and
diagrams of a particular type of tree (e.g., pines), with each
group focusing on a different type of tree.The students examine
their photographs and diagrams, write down as many
characteristics as they can about their assigned tree, and then
present their findings to the whole class.

19. Quick-write Practice
Use the information below to complete the exercise that
follows.
As students share their ideas, the teacher writes key words and
phrases on the board (e.g., pine trees = have cones, have needles,
the needles grow in clusters, the needles are green in both the
summer and winter photographs) and also introduces new
terminology (e.g., trees that have cones are called conifers).The
teacher then conducts a guided whole-class discussion during
which students identify characteristics shared by more than one
type of tree (e.g., having cones) and sort the trees by these
characteristics (e.g., conifers = pines, firs, hemlocks, spruces, cedars,
and larches).

20. Examinee Task
Using your knowledge of reading instruction, write a response in which you:
• describe how the teacher can effectively differentiate instruction with
respect to this activity in order to address the needs of students in the class
who are English Learners; and
• explain why the instructional strategy you described would be effective in
addressing the needs
of these students and promoting their development of vocabulary, academic
language, and/or
background knowledge.
Be sure to relate your response directly to the activity described above.

21. Sample Response

22. competencies
What does each one cover?

23. Competencies
Comp 1
• Planning, Organizing, and Managing
Reading Instruction
Comp 2
• Reading Assessment
Comp 3
• Phonological and Phonemic
Awareness

24. Competencies
Comp 4
• Concepts About Print, Letter Recognition,
and the Alphabetic Principle
Comp 5
• Phonics and SightWords:Terminology
and Concepts
Comp 6
• Phonics and SightWords: Instruction and
Assessment

25. competencies
Comp 7
• Syllabic Analysis, Structural Analysis, and
Orthographic Knowledge
Comp 8
• Fluency: Role in Reading Development and
FactorsThat Affect the Development of Fluency
Comp 9
• Fluency: Instruction and Assessment

26. competencies
Comp 10
• Vocabulary,Academic Language, and Background
Knowledge: Role in Reading Development and Factors
That Affect Development
Comp 11
• Vocabulary,Academic Language, and Background
Knowledge: Instruction and Assessment
Comp 12
• Comprehension: Concepts and Factors Affecting Reading
Comprehension

27. competencies
Comp 13
• Comprehension: Instruction and Assessment- Before
Children Read,While Children Read, and After Children
Read
Comp 14
• Comprehension: Instruction and Assessment-
Understanding and Analyzing Narrative/LiteraryTexts
and Study Skills
Comp 15
• Comprehension: Instruction and Assessment-
Expository/InformationalTexts and Study Skills

28. What you need to know
For Each Competency- you need to know:
▪ What is it? (definition)
▪ How do you teach it?
▪ How do you assess it?

29. Competency 1 : Planning, Organizing,
and Managing Reading Instruction
▪ (what is it) Standards-Based Instruction
– Common Core State Standards
– Assessment driven
– Comprehensive
– Balanced in materials, strategies, approach
▪ (how do you teach it) Systematic and Explicit Instruction
– Systematic
– Explicit
▪ (how do you assess it) Comprehensive Program ofAssessment
– Independent reading level
– Multiple measures
– Interest Inventories
– I + I: Interest and Independent Reading level

30. Competency 2: Reading Assessment
1. You should have a program of assessment (entry-level/universal
assessment, progress monitoring, summative and formative assessment)
2. Alternative/modified assessments for students with an Individualized
Education Program (IEP)
▪ Give students more time
▪ Divide the assessment into smaller units
▪ Change the mode of delivery
3. Interpretation and use of results: standards based
4. Students’ Independent, Instructional, and Frustration Reading Levels
▪ The Informal Reading Inventory (IRI)
▪ Oral reading of graded reading passages
▪ Independent.Word recognition: Greater than 95% AND Comprehension: Greater than 90%

31. Competency 2: Reading Assessment
3. Students’ Independent, Instructional, and Frustration Reading Levels
The Informal Reading Inventory (IRI)
▪ Oral reading of graded reading passages
▪ Independent. Word recognition: Greater than 95% AND
Comprehension: Greater than 90%
▪ Instructional. Word recognition: Greater than 90% AND
Comprehension: Greater than 60%
▪ Frustration. Word recognition: Less than 90% AND
Comprehension: less than 60%

32. Competency 2: Reading Assessment
4. Assessing in Isolation and Context:
▪ Isolation- assessing a skill by itself- sight word assessment, phonics
assessment
▪ Context- assessing skills in combination with others in an authentic
environment
– IRI- you can assess
▪ Fluency
▪ Phonics
▪ Comprehension (if you ask questions after)

33. Competency 3: Phonological and Phonemic
Awareness
What is it?

34. Competency 3: Phonological and Phonemic
Awareness
Phonological Awareness-
The knowledge that oral English is composed of smaller units (not just
sounds in a word- but words within a sentence).
Phonemic Awareness-
A lower level within phonological awareness.The knowledge that each
word is comprised of individual sounds
(luck- /l/ /u/ /c/ /k/).
*The two levels above do NOT include letters-only sounds!

36. These Skills are NOT Phonics
What is Phonics?What’s the difference?
Phonics-
The knowledge of letter sound correspondence
(knowing that in the word phonics the /f/ sound is
made with –ph)

38. Competency 3: Phonological and Phonemic
Awareness
▪ The alphabetic principle:
– This principle states that speech sounds are represented by letters in English. English is an
alphabetic language because symbols represent sounds (not true for Egyptians who used
hieroglyphs)
▪ Phonetic alphabet and graphemes- (see next slide)
▪ Phonemes
– Speech sound in a language that signals a difference in meaning (/v/ and /b/ as in vote and boat. A
simpler definition is that phonemes are the smallest units of speech.
▪ Vowels: a, e, I, o, u (and sometimes –y)
– Long- a vowel says it’s name
– Short- occur in words like pet, cat, bit, cot
– r-controlled or l-controlled- not long or short- car, her, talk, chalk

39. Competency 3: Phonological and Phonemic
Awareness
Phonetic alphabet and graphemes-

40. Competency 3: Phonological and Phonemic
Awareness
Consonants-
Speech sounds that occur when the airflow is obstructed in some way by your mouth, teeth, or lips (i.e.,
b, c, d, f, g)
Onsets and rimes-
Think syllable!Onsets and rimes occur in a single syllable. In a syllable, the onset is the initial consonant
sound or consonant blend: the rime is the vowel sound and any consonants that follow.
Syllable Onset Rime
Cat C at
Rain R ain
Thing Th ing

41. Competency 3: Phonological and Phonemic
Awareness
▪ Blends-each consonant can be heard
The bl- in blend is a blend
▪ Digraph-comes together to make a new sound
The ph- in digraph (two letters that come together to make one sound- sometimes three- but really that’s a
trigraph! -tch)
▪ Diphthong-vowel version of blend
Two sounds or two tones- AKA-A gliding vowel- cow, oil, boy.Your tongue has to make two moves
Blends Digraphs
Bl sh
cr ph
Sp ng

42. Phonemic Awareness
How to teach it

43. Competency 3: Phonemic Awareness: How to
teach it
Direct, ExplicitTeaching:
Phoneme identity- same sound in cat and cup?
Phoneme isolation- identity and position of sound: first sound in
van?
Phoneme blending- /b/ + /i/+ /g/= ? ***
Phoneme segmentation- how many sounds in goat?What are they?

44. Examples
▪ Elkonin Boxes
▪ Segmenting onset and rime

45. Phonemic Awareness
How to assess it

46. Assessing phonemic awareness
You need assessments that assess (in part or as a whole):
▪ Phoneme matching is the ability to identify words that begin with the same sound.
▪ Phoneme isolation is the ability to isolate a single sound from within a word.
▪ Phoneme blending is the ability to blend individual sounds into a word.
▪ Phoneme segmentation is the ability to break a word into individual sounds.
▪ Phoneme manipulation is the ability to modify, change, or move the individual sounds
in a word.

49. Assessing Phonemic Awareness
▪ PhonemicAwarenessTest
▪ Check students’ invented (temporary) spelling
Students usually master these skills:
▪ Phoneme matching:The middle of kindergarten
▪ Phoneme isolation – Initial (first) sound:The middle of kindergarten
▪ Phoneme isolation – Final (last) sound: Late kindergarten or early first grade
▪ Phoneme isolation – Medial (middle) sound: Late kindergarten or early first grade
▪ Phoneme blending: Late kindergarten or early first grade
▪ Phoneme segmentation: First grade
▪ Phoneme manipulation – Initial (first) sound: First grade
▪ Phoneme manipulation – Final (last) sound: First grade
▪ Phoneme manipulation – Substitution: Middle to end of first grade or early second grade

50. Group Competency Activity
▪ You will work in groups
▪ Each group will take a competency (4-15) and create a poster which addresses:
– What is it? (definitions)
– How to teach it
– How to assess it
▪ Be ready to share out

51. Recon Mission
1. Take your packet, laptop…
2. Work in your poster team
3. Send out each member of your team to a different poster/s
4. Each member records the information
5. Each member comes back to the team- and shares what they
found with the rest of the team

52. Case Study Review
Understand the ExamineTasks
▪ Part 1- identify three strengths/needs and cite evidence
▪ Part 2- describe two instructional strategies or activities
▪ Part 3- Explain
– Connection between the student’s area of need and the activity
– The underlying rationale for the activity
– The activity fits the student’s way of learning

53. Use a Graphic Organizer!
Strengths
Weakensses
Strategies
•#1
•#2

54. Case Study

55. ▪ Look at each artifact.
▪ What does it assess?
▪ How did student do?
▪ What can I learn from this?
▪ Make a Graphic Organizer
▪ Strengths, evidence
▪ Needs, evidence
▪ Strategies
▪ Double Check you have answered
prompt
▪ 3 (combined strengths, needs)
▪ 2 Strategies

56. Strengths/needs Evidence
Can decode well IRA-made one deletion, read all the words
slowed to decode irregular words, low
frequency words
Good at comprehension at literal level Remembered where Sarah was from, where
she was going, she has a sister
Struggled with inferential comprehension Didn’t know why Sarah was sad.Tried to make
self-text connection
Can read Fluently Teacher notes on fluency, near 50 percentile
for grade level in Fall, slowed to decode
irregular words, low frequency words
Does not appear to enjoy/do much reading
outside of school
Parent conference notes, dad’s comment, not
yet done with independent reading book,
doesn’t seem engaged in reading during IR
time, responses on reading survey, written
response was based on tv episode of book
Limited knowledge of multiple meanings for
common mm words
Responses on informal assessment, could only
generate second response for 2 examples

57. Strategies
Explicitly teach inference with a focus on character motives-consider what
characters say, think and do as a basis for understanding.Teach her how to find text
evidence to support her inferences. Using a graphic organizer may support her in
finding and writing down the evidence from the text.
Vocabulary building-work with Isabel individually and in a small group to examine
multiple meaning words, focus on homographs, provide her examples of words, like
those on assessment used differently in sentences.
I will work with her to generate student friendly definitions of these words, paying
attention to their differing meanings.
Vocabulary likely impacted by her limited independent reading. I will check in with
her more frequently during independent reading time. I can show her to use a venn
diagram in her journal to look for differences and similarities between the Elmwood
kid series books and the tv show.This may help focus her attention during IR, set a
purpose for her reading