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Reciprocal teaching is a comprehension technique that has been heavily researched and proven to improve students' use of four basic comprehension strategies. When reading a book, article or any selection, good readers naturally:
Reciprocal teaching guides students through the use of these four important strategies in a small group setting. The group reads sections of a text and the students take turns leading the discussion. The discussion leader has question cards to help with the discussion (adapted from Linda Hoyt's book "Revisit, Reflect, Retell").
Before reading the section, the student leader starts the discussion using the following cue cards:
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(Select a good stopping place) |
(Discussion leader speaks) |
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(Encourage group members to speak) |
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Students then silently read the section. Occasionally, discussion begins spontaneously during this time, though more often everyone waits until the others are done. To help occupy students who finish reading before others, and to help with overall comprehension, students often draw a picture to represent the main idea of the section when they are finished reading. These pictures can then be included in the discussion.
After everyone has finished reading, the same student leader uses the following cue cards to begin the discussion:
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(Discussion leader) |
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To help students remember questions or comments as they read, they are given 1x2 post-it pads on which to record their thoughts. The post-its are inserted into the story as they read.
Card 6 serves as an opening for discussion of unusual vocabulary. By calling the words "interesting", we open the door for students who might otherwise be embarrassed by not knowing a word. Students are invited to solve the word's meaning themselves using context clues.
Reciprocal teaching was first created by Palincsar and Brown in the early 1980's. For more information, try these links:
Research on Reciprocal Teaching