This concise, case-based text helps pre-service and practicing teachers prepare for the challenging California Reading Initiative Competency Assessment (RICA). Drs. Rossi and Schipper cover all domains, concepts, strategies and assessments required by RICA. The cases cover a wide variety of student profiles and grade levels reflecting California's school population and include a variety of scenarios for whole classes, groups, and individual students. However, the usefulness of this text goes beyond RICA preparation. It's a terrific companion to any literacy methods text for teacher preparation courses at undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as inservice teaching. The real-life scenarios reflect the literacy learning situations teachers encounter in actual classrooms and help teachers place their knowledge of reading methods and strategies into realistic contexts. All cases reflect research-based concepts and strategies covered in all major reading methods and diagnosis texts used in colleges and universities throughout the state of California.