Jessi Towne

EDUG 550
November 23, 2015
RICA Reflection
Competency 12 and 13: Comprehension: Concepts and Factors Affecting Reading
Comprehension; Comprehension: Instruction and AssessmentBefore Children Read, While
Children Read, After Children Read
TPE Connection 3.4: Candidates know when and how to use specialized assessments based on
students needs.
TPE Connection 9.10: Candidates develop relevant, differentiated instructional plans by
connecting the content to be learned with students linguistic and cultural backgrounds,
experiences, interests, and developmental learning needs.
A. Definition In your own words state your understanding of this competency.
Competency 12 is all about the various factors that influence comprehension. The factors
that influence a students comprehension are word analysis, fluency, vocabulary,
academic language, and background knowledge. Word analysis is decoding how a word
is read. Fluency is accuracy of reading words. Vocabulary are words in English that fluent
readers should be able to read and understand. Academic language are the vocabulary
words that pertain to a specific subject, like math or science. Background knowledge is
what students have learned from experience or inside of the classroom. All 5 of these
factors work together to aid comprehension for a reader. Comprehension refers to the
readers understanding of what is being read (RICA, p. 90). There is a difference
between being able to read and truly understanding what one is reading. Competency 13
is all about how to instruct and assess students in their readingbefore, during, and after
they have read. According to the RICA textbook, This chapter focuses on instructional
strategies that can be used with any type of texta basal reading textbook, a social
studies or science textbook, or a novelinstruction strategies are categorized as those
that should be be implemented before children read, those that should be used while
children read, and those that are appropriate after children have read (RICA, p. 95).
B. Personal Connection/Evidence Describe ways that you have engaged with this
competency which illustrate you know how to implement it.
I know one of my second graders has trouble with comprehension. He struggles with
word analysis skills. Last week, he was trying to look for one of his assignments that he
lost. I was sitting at the back round table looking through the papers and assignments
with him to help him find his assignment. I was quickly looking through the names of the
assignments, clearly not finding this students assignment in the piles. He asked me if he
could look through the stack of papers and other assignments. I told him he could go
ahead and look to see if he could easily identify his paper. He looked through the stack,
and was constantly thinking papers were his. I looked at the name on the paper and asked

him to read the name, and he just guessed that is was his. I told him to look more
carefully to sound out the name. I could tell he was just guessing what the names were
and not correctly decoding the words. I had to tell him the names on the paper, because I
could tell he was struggling to read the names. This student was struggling with word
analysis and fluency, so he was not able to fully comprehend what he was reading.
Last week, my word study was centered around homophones in our readers theatre script
for my tutees. I went through each and every word with both of my tutees. We said the
words aloud and then wrote them down on our whiteboards and said them again. I wanted
to make sure my tutees knew the difference how the word is spelled and how it is
pronounced. I know that my older tutee would have some trouble with these words,
because he is a lower performing student than my other tutee and he struggles with
reading and writing. I did the word study because I wanted my tutees to be familiar with
the homophones that may be difficult to pronounce in the script. At the end of each
tutoring session we get together with two other groups to practice our script as a whole. I
noticed that one of my tutees was having trouble with word analysis even though we
practiced those words. He struggled with saying one of the words that we practiced
saying and writing. When I was reviewing the words with my tutees, I think he was just
copying what I was doing and saying, but not actually comprehending himself. The TPE
that applies to what I was doing with frontloading and preparing the students for a later
part of the tutoring session is 4.6, which says, Candidates provide opportunities and
adequate time for students to practice and apply what they have learned in real-world
applications. When I used the words from my script in my word study lesson, I was
preparing my students for reading the script later in the day.
C. Differentiation
a. Describe at least three examples of when and why to use particular strategies
with a student need.
i. One of my tutees, Julian, really struggles with word analysis and fluency,
and therefore struggles with vocabulary. One of the strategies I used with
him was to frontload the vocabulary and have whiteboards that we both
could use in order to help him visualize the words and their definitions.
ii. In my shared reading lesson, a few of the students were making text-toself and text-to-world connections about the story we were reading. This
showed that they understood and comprehended the text that was being
read.
iii. When I read my books to my tutees, I would ask them questions
throughout the story and have them answer questions about what they
think is about to happen next in the story to determine how well they have
comprehended the story up to this point and see what they think is going
to happen next in the story.
D. Text-To-Text
a. Reference a minimum of one reference mentioned in the reflection.

One of the most important things to do in teaching is to have the things you taught
be implemented in real-world application. This will help the students apply what
they have learned so the information will be ingrained in their minds. According
to the RICA book on page 99, it talks about the importance of making
connections. There are three connections that can be made about the reading. A
text-to-text connection is finding similarities between two or more different texts
and the text that the student read. A text-to-world connection is having the
students make connections between what they read in the text to the real world. A
text-to-self connection is when the student makes connections between what they
read in the text and a personal experience. When I did my shared reading lesson, I
read the book, Cows Cant Fly with the second grade students. While I was
reading, the students were making all three types of connections. I was proud that
the students were comprehending the story well enough to be able to relate the
story back to themselves, other readings, and the world around them.