Reciprocal teaching is an instructional strategy that can be used to support students in developing reading comprehension skills. The strategy is based on the premise that good readers use a variety of strategies to construct meaning from text. By teaching students to use these strategies, they will be better equipped to understand what they read.
Reciprocal teaching is a cognitive strategy that was first developed by Annemarie Palincsar and Ann Brown in the early 1980s. Since then, reciprocal teaching has been successfully used in a variety of settings, including classrooms, homes, and workplaces. The key features of reciprocal teaching are consistency and collaboration. Teachers using reciprocal teaching provide their students with consistent support and encouragement, as well as opportunities to work together to master new material. Studies have shown that reciprocal teaching can improve reading comprehension, verbal fluency, and critical thinking skills. In addition, reciprocal teaching is particularly beneficial for English language learners and students with learning disabilities. Given the many advantages of reciprocal teaching, it is an effective strategy that all teachers should consider using in their classrooms.
Four main strategies are typically taught in reciprocal teaching: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. However, these are not the only strategies that students need to be successful readers. Other important strategies include monitoring, evaluating, inferencing, and visualizing.
Consistency is key when it comes to reciprocal teaching. By using the same set of procedures and following the same general format each time, students will be able to focus on the content of what they are reading rather than on the mechanics of the activity. Reciprocal teaching also provides a framework for teachers to model their thinking processes for students. By thinking aloud as they solve problems and make connections, teachers can help students learn how to approach the text in a meaningful way. In addition, reciprocal teaching can be used with any type of text, making it a versatile and valuable tool for all educators. When used regularly, reciprocal teaching can have a profound impact on student learning.
Want to learn more? This book is my favorite resource for Reciprocal Teaching during guided reading!
