Reciprocal Teaching
what is it?
* Reciprocal teaching involves using multiple reading strategies.
* "Multiple strategy instruction refers to those instructional practices that teach several reading strategies simultaneously" (Miller, 2011, p.92).
* Reciprocal teaching involves working in small groups in a systematic way to monitor comprehension.
* Students are applying four strategies within this strategy including predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing.
* Examples of using reciprocal teaching:
* "Multiple strategy instruction refers to those instructional practices that teach several reading strategies simultaneously" (Miller, 2011, p.92).
* Reciprocal teaching involves working in small groups in a systematic way to monitor comprehension.
* Students are applying four strategies within this strategy including predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing.
* Examples of using reciprocal teaching:
how to use reciprocal teaching in the classroom:
1) Choose an appropriate level text that includes all necessary content.
2) Activate and/or build students background knowledge before reading the text.
3) Place students into cooperative groups of four and either select or have each group choose a learning leader.
4) Students will predict about the first section of the text. These predictions should be based on headings, charts, and graphics.
5) Have each group read the first section of the text either silently or chorally, stopping frequently to clarify. Clarifying should involve any confusion of words, sentences, paragraphs or ideas. To clarify, students can use "interactive think aloud", "comprehension monitoring strategy guides", or "Cornell Notes", which can all be found under the 15 instructional strategies included on this website.
6) After reading, the learning leader selected from each group should facilitate a discussion in order to summarize what has been read. Written, oral, or visual summaries can be used to do this. All three of these summaries are described in the 15 instructional strategies provided on this website.
7) During the facilitated discussion, have the group question themselves in order to see if they can answer "Right There" and "Inference" questions about the text, as described in the QAR strategy.
8) After predicting, clarifying, summarizing, and questioning the first section of the text, the students should then repeat this same process with the remaining sections of the text.
2) Activate and/or build students background knowledge before reading the text.
3) Place students into cooperative groups of four and either select or have each group choose a learning leader.
4) Students will predict about the first section of the text. These predictions should be based on headings, charts, and graphics.
5) Have each group read the first section of the text either silently or chorally, stopping frequently to clarify. Clarifying should involve any confusion of words, sentences, paragraphs or ideas. To clarify, students can use "interactive think aloud", "comprehension monitoring strategy guides", or "Cornell Notes", which can all be found under the 15 instructional strategies included on this website.
6) After reading, the learning leader selected from each group should facilitate a discussion in order to summarize what has been read. Written, oral, or visual summaries can be used to do this. All three of these summaries are described in the 15 instructional strategies provided on this website.
7) During the facilitated discussion, have the group question themselves in order to see if they can answer "Right There" and "Inference" questions about the text, as described in the QAR strategy.
8) After predicting, clarifying, summarizing, and questioning the first section of the text, the students should then repeat this same process with the remaining sections of the text.
how this strategy benefits student learning:
* Students are learning a flexible repertoire of strategies that they can apply when reading challenging text.
* "Multiple reading strategy methods give students explicit strategies to help scaffold their comprehension monitoring and should be fostered across the content areas" (Miller, 2011, p.92).
* Students are engaging in more complex forms of discourse such as argumentation and explanation.
* All students are working together to learn how to predict, clarify, summarize, and question.
* Students are thinking about their own thought process during reading, learning to be actively involved and monitor their own comprehension, and learning how to ask questions during reading.
* "Multiple reading strategy methods give students explicit strategies to help scaffold their comprehension monitoring and should be fostered across the content areas" (Miller, 2011, p.92).
* Students are engaging in more complex forms of discourse such as argumentation and explanation.
* All students are working together to learn how to predict, clarify, summarize, and question.
* Students are thinking about their own thought process during reading, learning to be actively involved and monitor their own comprehension, and learning how to ask questions during reading.
Using this strategy with writing:
* When students complete the summarize portion of reciprocal teaching, they can produce written summaries of the text they read, explaining the main idea and key details.
Supporting Common Core State Standard in Writing Grades 6-8: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.2: Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.
Supporting Common Core State Standard in Writing Grades 6-8: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.2: Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.
supporting videos:
* The video below demonstrates a reading expert using reciprocal teaching to guide students in learning to lead a classroom discussion. The teacher first models how to guide a conversation about a book.
* The video below shows adolescents putting the reciprocal teaching strategy to action. It shows how students use reciprocal teaching to improve their understanding of a passage from a text.
research says....
* "Research indicates that Reciprocal Teaching can be used as a base for engaging in a wider array of literacy skills and inquiry in various subject areas" (Miller, 2011, p.93).
* "Studies show that students who receive training make lasting gains in reading comprehension performance as indicated by their scores on multiple-choice comprehension tests over time" (Miller, 2011, p.93).
* "Teachers can use multiple strategy instruction in all content areas to help under-prepared, and even proficient readers read more strategically" (Miller, 2011, p.97).
* "Applying instructional strategies thoughtfully, in a sequence of assessment, reflecting, planning, and instruction, will help to foster content literacy" (Miller, 2011, p.97).
Sources:
Miller, M., & Veatch, N. (2011). Literacy in Context: Choosing Instructional Strategies to Teach Reading in Content Areas for Students in Grades 5-12. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
Reading Rockets. (2014). Reciprocal Teaching. Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 24, 2014 from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/reciprocal_teaching.
* "Studies show that students who receive training make lasting gains in reading comprehension performance as indicated by their scores on multiple-choice comprehension tests over time" (Miller, 2011, p.93).
* "Teachers can use multiple strategy instruction in all content areas to help under-prepared, and even proficient readers read more strategically" (Miller, 2011, p.97).
* "Applying instructional strategies thoughtfully, in a sequence of assessment, reflecting, planning, and instruction, will help to foster content literacy" (Miller, 2011, p.97).
Sources:
Miller, M., & Veatch, N. (2011). Literacy in Context: Choosing Instructional Strategies to Teach Reading in Content Areas for Students in Grades 5-12. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
Reading Rockets. (2014). Reciprocal Teaching. Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 24, 2014 from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/reciprocal_teaching.