Reciprocal Teaching

Description

Reciprocal Teaching is an instructional strategy used for teaching strategic reading. It is a form of a dialogue between teacher and student. The teacher and the student take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading the discussion about a story or passage of the text.

Purpose

Students teach themselves to read by modeling strategies that good readers use.

Procedure

Use the following for student reading.

1.      Have students write down three things that they think good readers do.

2.      Ask students to tell one thing they have written on their paper.

3.      Pass out book dividers (bookmarks).

4.      Explain and define each of the five parts. Prediction, clarification, visualization, questioning and summarizing.  Explain they may use highlighters or Post-its to teach strategies in any order, but for this lesson they will be in order.

5.      Practice strategies with students.

Student Expectations

1.      Prediction activates students’ prior knowledge about the text and helps them make connections between new information and what they already know, and gives them a purpose of reading.

2.      Clarifying promotes comprehension. Students share their uncertainties about unfamiliar vocabulary, confusing text passages, and difficult concepts.

3.      Questioning (question generating) encourage students to actively engage in the text, rather than responding only to teacher questions. 

4.      Summarizing collaboratively enables all students to increase comprehension of difficult tests.

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