Reciprocal TeachingReciprocal TeachingStrategies for Improving Strategies for Improving Reading ComprehensionReading Comprehension

Goals of Reciprocal TeachingGoals of Reciprocal Teaching

To improve students’ reading comprehension using four strategies:

PredictingQuestioningClarifyingSummarizing

Goals of Reciprocal TeachingGoals of Reciprocal Teaching(continued)(continued)

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

To guide students to become reflective in their thinking

To help students monitor their reading comprehension using these four strategies

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

To be part of a broader framework of comprehension strategies

Reciprocal TeachingReciprocal Teaching(continued)(continued)

PreviewingSelf-questioningMaking connectionsVisualizingMonitoringEvaluatingKnowing 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 What Reciprocal Teaching is notnot……..

“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.”

Ways to Use Reciprocal Ways to Use Reciprocal TeachingTeaching

Teach the reciprocal teaching strategies to whole groups using Big Books, short newspaper and magazine articles.

Give struggling readers an extra dose of reading comprehension instruction using reciprocal teaching in small intervention groups.

Have students take on the roles of predictor, questioner, clarifier and summarizer in literature circles.

Ways to Use Reciprocal Ways to Use Reciprocal Teaching Teaching (continued)(continued)

Train cross-age buddies in second and fourth grades to focus on reciprocal teaching strategies as they read and discuss picture books.

Reciprocal Teaching Reciprocal Teaching StrategiesStrategies

“The Fabulous Four”

Madam, the Powerful Madam, the Powerful PredictorPredictor

Previewing the text to anticipate what might happen next

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

PredictingPredicting

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

Quincy, the Quizzical Quincy, the Quizzical QuestionerQuestioner

Good readers ask questions throughout the reading process

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

QuestioningQuestioning

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

Language of questioning:

Clara, the Careful ClarifierClara, 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

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 StrategiesClarifying Strategies

I reread the parts that I didn’t understand.

I read on to look for clues.

I think about what I know.

I talk to a friend.

I reread. I look for word parts I

know. I try to blend the sounds

together. I think of another word

that looks like this word. I read on to find clues. I try another word that

makes sense.

To clarify an idea: To clarify a word:

Sammy, the Super Sammy, the Super SummarizerSummarizer

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.

SummarizingSummarizing

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: