Reciprocal Teaching:A Reading Comprehension Strategy

from my ASE Classroom

Reciprocal Teaching:A Reading Comprehension Strategy

from my ASE Classroom

ByAnita L. Green

Central Carolina Community CollegeInstitute 2015

Goals of Reciprocal TeachingGoals of Reciprocal TeachingTo improve students’ reading comprehension using

four strategies:

PredictingQuestioningClarifyingSummarizing

Goals of Reciprocal TeachingGoals of Reciprocal Teaching

• To scaffold the four strategies by modeling, guiding and applying strategies while reading

• To guide students to become reflective in their thinking

• To strengthen instruction in a variety of settings: whole-class and guided reading

Reciprocal TeachingReciprocal Teaching

• Previewing• Self-questioning• Making connections• Visualizing• Monitoring• Evaluating• Knowing how words work

To be part of a broader framework of comprehension strategies that include:

What Reciprocal Teaching Is..What Reciprocal Teaching Is..

• “Reciprocal teaching is a powerful research-based teaching technique.”

• “Reciprocal teaching was designed to focus on just four important strategies that good readers use to comprehend text.”

Oczkus, Lori D. (2003). Reciprocal Teaching at Work: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension. Delaware: International Reading Associations

What Reciprocal Teaching is not….What Reciprocal Teaching is not….• “Reciprocal Teaching is not a pencil-and-paper

activity. It was designed as a discussion technique in which think-alouds play an integral part.”

• Reciprocal teaching is “not comprehensive enough to stand alone as a method for teaching reading comprehension.”

Reciprocal Teaching StrategiesReciprocal Teaching Strategies

“The Fabulous Four”

Madam, the Powerful Predictor

• Previewing the text to anticipate what might happen next

• Assists students in setting a purpose for reading and in monitoring their comprehension

PredictingPredicting

Which type(s) of text structure did this most closely match?

What evidence identifies that text structure?

Based on the type(s) identified, what predictions can be made about what will happen next?

The predictor helps the group to identify the organizational structure of the text and to connect sections of the text to one another and to the overall text structure. The predictor could use the following prompts to help the group.

Text types can usually be classified in the following ways:

•Descriptive•Chronological•Cause and effect•Analytical•Persuasive•Compare and contrast

Predicting

• I think…..• I’ll bet….• I wonder if….• I imagine….• I suppose….• I predict….

Quincy, the Quizzical Questioner

• Good readers ask questions throughout the reading process

• Students learn to generate questions about a text’s main idea, important details and textual inferences

Questioning

• Who?• What?• Where?• When ?• Why?• How?• What if?

Language of questioning:

Questioning

As the questioner, you might ask the group: What questions arose during the reading? Can anyone else help answer that question? What kind of question was that? What did we do to find answers?

The questioner helps group members ask and answer all types of questions about the text.

Clara, the Careful Clarifier• Clarifying helps students

monitor their own comprehension as they identify problems that they are having comprehending parts of the text.

• Teacher and the student share “fix-up” strategies to construct meaning.

ClarifyingClarifying

What is still not clear? Reread what is still unclear and try rereading the section right

before what was unclear. Chunk the text into smaller segments. For example, break

complex sentences into component clauses or phrases.

The clarifier assists in identifying words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and sections of the text that may be unclear and asks members for ways in clearing up these problems. In the initial stages of implementation the clarifier may use the following prompts to help the group clear up difficulties.

.

Lets visualize what is described in the text. If there are diagrams or pictures depicting the difficult material look at them carefully and read the captions that accompany the graphics. Also try mental visualizing using these phrases as aids, I picture …, I can see …

Connect what has been read to things from other experiences. For instance, this is like …, this reminds me of …

Get outside help. For instance, if it’s a word we don’t understand lets try the glossary in the text, a dictionary, or an encyclopedia.

Clarifying

Language of clarifying:

• I didn’t understand the part where…

• This {sentence, paragraph, page, chapter} is not clear.

• I can’t figure out…• This is a tricky word

because…

Clarifying Strategies

• Reread the parts that they didn’t understand.

• Read on to look for clues.

• Ideas about what they know.

• Talk to a friend.

• Reread.• Look for word parts they

know.• Find another word that

looks like this word.• Read on to find clues.• Try another word that

makes sense.

To clarify an idea: To clarify a word:

Sammy, the Super Summarizer

• To summarize effectively, students must recall and arrange in order only the important events in the text.

• Summary organization is based on the type of text: narrative or expository.

Summarizing

As the summarizer you might ask the group: What are the main ideas in this chunk of text? Restate the main idea in one sentence? Which parts could be left out and still get the point across? Can ideas be combined into one summary?

The summarizer helps group members restate the main ideas in the reading. Reminder - Summaries are formed by the reader and are not found in the text. They do not include the details. Summarizing helps us understand and remember what we have read.  

Summarizing

• The most important ideas in this text are…

• This part was about…• The book was about…• First…• Next…• Then…• Finally…• The story takes place…• The main characters are…• A problem occurs when…

The language of summarizing:

Does RT Work with Math?

YES!

Summarize:

What is does the problem say? Restate in your own words.

Clarify:

What math language is used in the problem? What do we need to solve the problem?

Question:

What is the problem asking? What do we already know?

What do we need to find out? What operations are targeted?

Predict:

What should we do first/next? Estimate the answer.

Remembering?