RECIPROCAL TEACHING

SUBMITTED BY:
AKASHDEEP KAUR
PGDCDC
21361206
 OBJECTIVES
 Introduction
 What Is Reciprocal Teaching
 Definition
 Role of reciprocal teaching
 Strategies
 Questioning
 Predicting
 Clarifying
 Summarizing
 How To Implement Reciprocal Teaching
 Role of teacher in the process
 Reciprocal teaching manipulative and supports
 Advantages and Disadvantages
 INTRODUCTION

 A teacher knows how difficult it can be to personalize learning to keep students

interested in school subjects — especially when students don’t understand the

subject matter. Reciprocal teaching strategies have been shown to increase
student reading comprehension and improve overall literacy.
 Reciprocal teaching not only helps with learning, but it also gets students

excited to learn by actively involving them in readings, making them more likely
to understand given texts.
 While this sounds amazing, what exactly is this strategy — and how do you

introduce it in classroom?
What is Reciprocal Teaching?
 Reciprocal teaching refers to a
classroom activity where students
are shown strategies to better
understand a reading. These
strategies get students more
involved throughout the reading
process, helping them stay engaged
and improving their overall
comprehension.
 Reciprocal teaching follows the “I do, we do, you do” formula.

 First, you demonstrate how the strategies work, then students work together

in groups to better understand the process, and finally, once students are
comfortable, they use these strategies on their own.
 There are four parts, or “building blocks” to improving reading
comprehension and engagement, which are: predicting, questioning,
clarifying and summarizing.
 DEFINITION:
 Reciprocal teaching is best represented as a dialogue between teachers and

students in which participants take turns assuming the role of teacher.-

Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar.

 Palincsar (1986) believes the purpose of reciprocal teaching is to facilitate a

group effort between teacher and students as well as among students in the
task of bringing meaning to the text.
Role of Reciprocal Teaching:
 Reciprocal teaching plays an important role in helping students:

 Improve literacy — Rather than skipping over words they don’t understand,

students are encouraged to figure out what they mean, helping them with
current and future readings.
 Stay engaged — Students are actively looking for different clues and ideas

throughout readings, helping them to stay interested in a text.

 Boost reading comprehension — The four building blocks give students the

tools needed to decipher a text and understand the ideas being presented to
them.
 Learn on their own or in groups — Reciprocal teaching puts students in the

position to improve their reading comprehension through teamwork so they are

better suited to work by themselves on future projects.
Reciprocal Teaching Strategies:
 Sullivan Palincsar and Ann L. Brown developed the original reciprocal

teaching strategies in their 1984 study. They demonstrated that using the
“four building blocks” actively supports student reading comprehension.
 These building blocks are:

 Questioning

 Predicting

 Clarifying

 Summarizing

 Let’s look at each building block in more detail:

QUESTIONING:
 Admitting you don’t understand something is a crucial part of the learning

process. You want the students to take the time to pause and write down
questions they have as they read through a portion of a text.
 You also want students to question why certain things are important within

the reading. However, asking questions can be hard and many students don’t
know where to start. The easiest way is to ask:
 Asking, discussing, and answering questions gets students involved with

the reading and ensures they’re paying attention to important details.

 The Questioner will pose questions about the selection:

 Unclear parts

 Puzzling information

 Connections to other concepts already learned

PREDICTING:
 Predicting is the skill of making an educated guess. Students can develop this

skill by looking for clues in order to figure out what will happen next in the text,
or what the story's main message will be.
 There are two parts to “predicting” a text. The first involves predicting what is

going to happen overall in a reading; the other involves predicting what is going
to happen next in a section or chapter. They sound similar but both have
different processes.
 Part 1 — Predict what will happen throughout a text by using the title, imagery

(such as cover art), or even a brief summary. Then use those clues to make your
prediction of what happens in the entire piece.
 Part 2 — Skim the next bit of text you’ve been assigned to read, and pick out

certain words, sentences, or images. From that quick overview make a

prediction as to what is going to happen next in the text.
 As Williams points out, predictions don't necessarily need to be accurate,

but they need to be clear (2011).

 Predictions should state what the reader thinks the author’s purpose is in a

text and give evidence as to why the reader has come to such conclusions.
 Making a prediction with evidence will better connect students with a text

— making them more involved in the reading process. When students are
involved with a reading, they are more focused, which will help them
understand what is happening throughout it.
 When studying a non-fiction text, students should preview the text’s title,

subheadings, bold print, and visuals such as maps, tables, and diagrams.
When studying a work of fiction, students should look at the book’s cover,
title, and illustrations. In both instances, the students should look for clues
that help them predict the author’s purpose and the topic of the text.
 Help students practice this skill by giving open-ended prompts that include

phrases like "I believe" and "because":

 I think the book is about…because…

 I predict I will learn….because…

 I think the author is trying to (entertain, persuade, inform)…because...

CLARIFYING:
 Clarifying involves using strategies to understand unfamiliar words or

complicated texts as well as self-monitoring to ensure overall reading

comprehension. Comprehension problems may arise due to difficult words
in the text, but they can also result from students being unable to identify
the main idea or key points of the passage.
 Clarifying is a two-step process where students:

 Identify that they are confused by an idea or word

 Take steps to resolve the confusion and better understand the text

• Students can get tripped up by long, complicated words, hard-to-interpret

images such as graphs or tables, convoluted sentences, or complex ideas.
There are some strategies to resolve these problems:
 Reread the passage — On average, we can only focus for 10-15 minutes before

needing a break. Sometimes, we don’t even realize our brains are distracted
until several minutes later. An easy fix is to reread the passage to get a grip on
the ideas that were just presented.
 Break down complicated parts — Breaking down what’s confusing readers can

help with overall comprehension. Have students read a complex sentence

slowly and separate it into smaller parts, reading the bits on their own and
clarifying the sections that don’t make sense by looking up words or ask for
help.
 Additionally, show students how to identify problems with phrases such as:

 I didn’t understand the part…

 This is difficult because…

 I am having trouble…
SUMMARIZING:
 Summarizing involves condensing a reading to its most important points in

both written and verbal forms. This can be a complicated task, but when
done correctly, summarizing can greatly improve a student’s understanding
of a reading.
 Encourage students to stop often throughout a reading to make summative

notes on the text. Summarizing each portion of a reading creates a

roadmap for students to see which parts they understand.
 During group work, students should be able to verbalize their summaries

to their classmates.
 At the end of the reading, students can combine their smaller summaries

to make one full-length overview.

 What are the best ways for students to summarize a reading?

 Ask questions throughout the reading process that helps comprehension of

the important points. Ask students questions like:

 What was this part about?

 What happened at the beginning, middle or end?

 What are the most important ideas from this paragraph, section, or

reading?
 Summarizing is a key contributor to improving reading comprehension. The

ability to create a complete summary shows that students have been able
to not only understand a reading but also describe it in their own words.
How To Use Reciprocal Teaching
 Before Reciprocal Teaching can be used successfully by your students, they

need to have been taught and had time to practice the four strategies that are
used in reciprocal teaching (summarizing, questioning, predicting, clarifying).
 One way to get students prepared to use reciprocal teaching:

 Put students in groups of four.

 Distribute one note card to each member of the group identifying each

person's unique role:

 Summarizer

 Questioner

 Clarifier

 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.
 Throughout the process, the teacher's role is to guide and nurture the

students' ability to use the four strategies successfully within the small
group. The teacher's role is lessened as students develop skill.
Role of the Teacher in the process
 The role of the teacher in reciprocal teaching is to use the gradual release of

responsibility model to support, coach, and guide students until they can use
the sequence independently–both in groups and eventually on their own.

 It is critical that students are given supportive and personalized feedback by

the teacher during their reading and reflecting on the text.

 In this way, reciprocal teaching is characterized by the ongoing modeling and

dialogue between the teacher and the students (Carter, 1997).

 This is accomplished in large part by using think-aloud to emphasize the

definition of each role, its relative value in improving comprehension, and its
actual use in meaning-making during the reading of a text (Klingner and
Vaughn, 1996). 
 Through this active process of meaning-making, younger readers will begin to

see that reading is a process of first decoding, then ongoing meta-cognition to

guide comprehension over the course of a text. (Palinscar & Brown, 1984,
Allen, 2003, p.324).
 Reciprocal Teaching
Manipulatives and Supports
 Visual, verbal, and hands-on tools may be utilized while engaging in each of

the components of reciprocal reading. 

 Advanced organizers such as charts, graphic organizers, thinking maps, and

bookmarks with reminders of the four components are all examples of visual
tools. 
 Sentence starters assist students new to the reciprocal teaching process by

encouraging them to verbalize or write down their thinking. 

 Partner sharing, line-up summaries, and response cards are all examples of

verbal discussion strategies that get students talking about their thinking
(Stricklin, 2011).
 Finally, props such as puppets, costumes, or objects are considered hands-on

motivating tools for use throughout the reciprocal teaching process, especially
in the younger grades. 
 Hands-on tools can assist students in connecting to each part of the

process. For example, a crystal ball or snow globe can represent predicting

much like a fortune-teller might do. A magnifying glass could stand for
investigating unfamiliar words and concepts in the clarifying process. 
 Use of a toy microphone suggests verbalizing questions about the text, and

use of a belt or large rubber band as a visual tool indicates summarizing of

information, or holding important information together, and can be
motivating to students.  
 Advantages
of
Reciprocal Teaching
The Research Advantage
 Research from Palincsar and Brown over the last five years has established

a strong basis for reciprocal teaching. In several studies, students involved

in a reciprocal reading activity scored higher on reading comprehension
tests than students in a control group not using this teaching strategy.
 A strong research base for an instructional strategy helps validate its

effectiveness and use in the classroom.

The Cognitive Advantage
 Students using reciprocal teaching improved their summaries with practice

and worked more independently than the students not using this teaching

strategy.

 Additionally, the reciprocal teaching classes saw fewer disruptive student

behaviours, possibly because the students were more cognitively engaged

in the material.

 Reciprocal teaching is a strategy to teach reading where the teacher and

the students share responsibility for interpreting the material.

Communication and Collaboration

 Reciprocal teaching has also been shown to help students develop

interpersonal communication skills since they have to interact with other

students and the teacher.
 Since students team and help each other, this teaching strategy involves

students helping and teaching other students. This is thought to boost

student self-efficacy and self-esteem.
 Disdvantages
of
Reciprocal Teaching
The Time and Practice
Reciprocal teaching requires time and practice to implement

successfully. Trying to implement this strategy without proper

preparation and planning will not likely have the proposed
benefits for the students.
Additionally, reciprocal teaching requires more classroom time

than traditional teaching methods.

Incorrect Feedback
Since the students are collaborating with each other and

sharing the teaching of the material with the teacher, it is

possible that students will provide incorrect feedback to other
students.
With larger groups of students, it will be difficult for the teacher

to monitor all of the communications between the students,

and misinformation may be passed through the class.