Reciprocal teaching
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What is Reciprocal Teaching?
Reciprocal teaching is an instructional procedure designed to teach students a series of cognitive strategies that might lead to improved reading comprehension. The learning of cognitive strategies such as summarization, question generation, clarification, and prediction is supported through dialogue between teacher and students as they attempt to gain meaning from text.
Reciprocal teaching (Brown, 1994) is an evidence-based, dialogic instructional approach that supports students within the context of a collaborative community of learners, to be active leaders in small group reading discussions. It is a form of guided, co-operative learning that includes expert scaffolding by the teacher, direct instruction, modelling and practice (Brown & Palincsar, 1986), and it incorporates multiple strategy instruction (Pilonieta & Medina, 2009). Reciprocal teaching has been documented widely as an effective instructional routine that can improve reading comprehension through the co-ordination of four comprehension strategies (Brown & Palincsar, 1985)
Reciprocal Teaching is said to support readers of variable abilities to extend their zones of proximal development, defined by Vygotsky (1978) as:
the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers ... the zone of proximal development today will be the actual development level tomorrow. (pp. 86–87)
The four comprehension strategies that traditionally constitute Reciprocal Teaching are predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarising.
Different reading strategies have been incorporated into the reciprocal teaching format by other practitioners. Some other reading strategies include visualizing, making connections, inferencing, and questioning the author. Learners use information from graphics, text and experiences to anticipate what will be read/ viewed/heard and to actively adjust comprehension while reading/ viewing/listening. It is important that students are scaffolded in these strategies, and that in reciprocal teaching groups students get chances to focus on one strategy at a time to develop their understanding of them.
Reciprocal teaching is an instructional procedure designed to teach students a series of cognitive strategies that might lead to improved reading comprehension. The learning of cognitive strategies such as summarization, question generation, clarification, and prediction is supported through dialogue between teacher and students as they attempt to gain meaning from text.
Reciprocal teaching (Brown, 1994) is an evidence-based, dialogic instructional approach that supports students within the context of a collaborative community of learners, to be active leaders in small group reading discussions. It is a form of guided, co-operative learning that includes expert scaffolding by the teacher, direct instruction, modelling and practice (Brown & Palincsar, 1986), and it incorporates multiple strategy instruction (Pilonieta & Medina, 2009). Reciprocal teaching has been documented widely as an effective instructional routine that can improve reading comprehension through the co-ordination of four comprehension strategies (Brown & Palincsar, 1985)
Reciprocal Teaching is said to support readers of variable abilities to extend their zones of proximal development, defined by Vygotsky (1978) as:
the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers ... the zone of proximal development today will be the actual development level tomorrow. (pp. 86–87)
The four comprehension strategies that traditionally constitute Reciprocal Teaching are predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarising.
Different reading strategies have been incorporated into the reciprocal teaching format by other practitioners. Some other reading strategies include visualizing, making connections, inferencing, and questioning the author. Learners use information from graphics, text and experiences to anticipate what will be read/ viewed/heard and to actively adjust comprehension while reading/ viewing/listening. It is important that students are scaffolded in these strategies, and that in reciprocal teaching groups students get chances to focus on one strategy at a time to develop their understanding of them.
Reciprocal Teaching is particularly effective strategy with students from a diverse range of learners, from ESL backgrounds, children with behavioural issues and gifted and talented students.
The strategy in action (from reading Rockets website: http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/reciprocal_teaching )
Put students in groups of four. Distribute one note card to each member of the group identifying each person's unique role:
1. Summarizer
2.Questioner
3.Clarifier
4.Predictor
Have students read a few paragraphs of the assigned text selection. Encourage them to use note-taking strategies such as selective underlining or sticky-notes to help them better prepare for their role in the discussion.
At the given stopping point, the Summarizer will highlight the key ideas up to this point in the reading.The Questioner will then pose questions about the selection:
Unclear parts
Puzzling information
Connections to other concepts already learned
The Clarifier will address confusing parts and attempt to answer the questions that were just posed.
The Predictor can offer predictions about what the author will tell the group next or, if it's a literary selection, the predictor might suggest what the next events in the story will be.
The roles in the group then switch one person to the right, and the next selection is read. Students repeat the process using their new roles. This continues until the entire selection is read.
Put students in groups of four. Distribute one note card to each member of the group identifying each person's unique role:
1. Summarizer
2.Questioner
3.Clarifier
4.Predictor
Have students read a few paragraphs of the assigned text selection. Encourage them to use note-taking strategies such as selective underlining or sticky-notes to help them better prepare for their role in the discussion.
At the given stopping point, the Summarizer will highlight the key ideas up to this point in the reading.The Questioner will then pose questions about the selection:
Unclear parts
Puzzling information
Connections to other concepts already learned
The Clarifier will address confusing parts and attempt to answer the questions that were just posed.
The Predictor can offer predictions about what the author will tell the group next or, if it's a literary selection, the predictor might suggest what the next events in the story will be.
The roles in the group then switch one person to the right, and the next selection is read. Students repeat the process using their new roles. This continues until the entire selection is read.