Jessi Towne

EDUG 547
November 2, 2015
Appendix P
RICA Reflection
Competency 8 and 9: Fluency: Role in Reading Development and Factors That Affect the
Development of Fluency and Fluency: Instruction and Assessment
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.
These competencies are about fluency and how it relates to reading development and
fluency development. They are also about how fluency can be promoted in instruction
and assessment.
B. Personal Connection/Evidence Describe ways that you have engaged with this
competency which illustrate you know how to implement it.
a. In other words, indicate events/activities in which you have engaged which are
directly related to this RICA competency both in the Reading/Literacy course
and aside from this course. In this section, take ownership with words such as
the following: It has been my experienceThe lesson I created entitledis an
example of this RICA competencyI have observed Reflect on how your
understanding of this competency is connected to TPEs. How is it important to
your teaching and your students learning?
It has been my experience with working with my tutees that they need help with
fluency. They are both low performing ELs that need extra help with their reading
and writing. Since they are not completely fluent in English, it has been my pleasure
to work with my tutees on what they struggle with to improve their fluency in
English. The TPEs that I connected to these competencies were TPE 3.4, which
states that Candidates know when and how to use specialized assessments based on
students needs And TPE 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.
When students are not completely fluent in English, it will be more difficult for them
to comprehend the material and classroom teaching instruction. In order to promote
and develop fluency in students, you will need to differentiate the instruction to be
inclusive of your ELs and other students that struggle with English fluency.

When we read a book that I know has words in it that my students may not
understand, I have a brief vocabulary lesson about the words and their definitions and
I use the words in sentences to show my students how the word is used to improve
English fluency in vocabulary. For example, I read a few pages of Harry Potter and
the Sorcerers Stone to my tutees, and because I knew that it had words in the story
that they would not understand, I took the time to frontload the students with the
vocabulary we were going to read in the book so that when we read that word, they
would understand what I was reading to them. Also, in my 2nd grade classroom, my
master teacher did a good job in illustrating the vocabulary words. She had all of the
students come and sit in front of her on the carpet. She had an easel with paper on it
in front of the students so they could see what she was demonstrating. She proceeded
to draw on the paper visual examples of what the vocabulary words were so that the
students could have a picture to tie to each word. The story she was going to read to
the students was about camping, so some of the words she illustrated on the paper
were: backpack, path, tent, lantern, hike, and so forth. She started drawing visuals on
the paper and labeling each picture. Then when it came time to read the story, the
students already had knowledge and familiarity with the vocabulary words that were
discussed. This promoted fluency because the students were able to connect the
vocabulary word with an accurate pictorial portrayal that easily fit into their way of
thinking.
C. Differentiation
a. Describe at least three examples of when and why to use particular strategies
with a student need.
i. In my 5th grade class, we have a student that only speaks Spanish. She has
to sit next to another Hispanic English-speaking student who translates for
her. My master teacher made a binder for her that has handouts of English
phonics and simple sight words. Every day, she has the student take the
binder and go home to practice reading them by herself and with her
family. My master teacher also tries to go over the handouts with her when
she has down time during class in order to help improve the Spanish
speaking students English fluency.
ii. Another way that fluency can be improved within students is by having
them echo read to hear how one another reads and to also be able to hear
how I read as a fluent English speaker. Especially if a passage of text is
too difficult for the students to read by themselves, it is helpful to hear the
proper way of pronunciation and inflection. My 2nd grade class gets
scholastic newsletters that they echo read or sometimes choral read in
order to hear the fluency in speech.
iii. With students that are struggling readers, it is crucial that they pick out
texts that are within their independent reading level so that they are able to
comprehend the material. When my 5th grade students try to pick out
reading material that is too difficult for them because it is a book that is
worth more A.R. points, they lose their level of fluency because they want
to accomplish something that they are unable to accomplish at that

moment in time. They will then take the A.R. quiz and fail it because they
did not comprehend what the book was talking about.
D. Text-To-Text
a. Reference a minimum of one reference mentioned in the reflection.
i. One of the TPEs that I think is really important for these competencies is
TPE 9.10 which states, 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. Teachers should know their students and
know what their backgrounds are in order to help them according to their
individual developmental needs for fluency. A student that is unable to
speak English at all will need more intensive fluency instruction than a
student that is a struggling reader. The EL student will need a more basic
background of what fluency looks like because they do not even speak
English and will need to learn English first in order to have English
reading fluency.