|
Reciprocal Teaching
Reciprocal teaching was developed by Palincsar and Ann L. Brown for the
purpose of helping students from first grade on up for improving their
understanding when reading. According
to Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar, “Reciprocal teaching is best represented as a
dialogue between teachers and students in which participants take turns assuming
the role of teacher.”
Reciprocal
teaching is interactive, supported instruction in which the teacher or peer
leads a group of students as they talk their way through a text to understand
it.
As they work together, group members will monitor their understanding by
stopping at regular intervals to ask questions, summarize, predict and clarify.
It is important
for the teacher to remember that although the group structure has changed
from guided reading or guided silent reading, keeping in mind what the
student’s needs are, what your teaching focus is, and how much scaffolding
will be needed, is still of utmost importance.
For more help in these areas refer to Guided Reading ,and
Focus Lessons
and Response Journals
under Literature Circles.
Students
are taught each of the following strategies to promote interaction and improve
their understanding of the text.
*Generating
a question
Students
identify key information in the text, frame that information
in the form of a question, and self-test for understanding and recall.
*Clarifying
Students
note when they have experienced a failure in comprehension,
identify the source of that breakdown, and take appropriate steps to
restore meaning. (Strategies,
asking for help). For example,
What does a word mean?
*Predicting
Students make a prediction about
what they think will happen in the text.
This strategy provides the opportunity for them to activate relevant
background knowledge.
*Summarize
Students
will summarize the text that was read.
Helpful
Ideas for Using Reciprocal Teaching
In Your Classroom:
*The teacher
should explain and demonstrate reciprocal teaching often by thinking aloud and
stopping to ask questions, summarize, predict and clarify.
*Know
your students and what they need. This
should be your focus in meeting with
small groups of students. Refer
back to Guided
Reading and/or
Focus Lessons under Literature Circles.
to
know how to assess, evaluate, plan, instruct, and scaffold your support.
*Form small, heterogeneous groups to try
this procedure.
*Make a chart or a bookmark with the
procedure on if for the students to refer to .
*Review
with the students what each of the components means. Often, teachers will
only focus on one component, such as, summarize, until the groups are familiar
with it, before moving on to the next component.
*Remember,
that you do not have to do all the components each time.
Stay tuned in to what the student’s needs are and what your focus is.
*Use
these terms in other content areas such as social studies or science.
*Keep individual track of how each
student is doing in terms of comprehension, fluency, and problem-solving
strategies so that you can better scaffold your instruction
and support.
*It
seems to take several months of practice (about 20 sessions) for students to get
really good at this process.
Student
Prompts for Reciprocal Teaching
Questioning
*One
question I had about what I read was....
*What
were you thinking about as you were reading?
*What
question(s) can you ask about what you read?
*I’m
curious about...
Clarifying
*One of the words I wasn’t sure
about was...
*What other words do we know that
we can use in place of...?
*What words or ideas need
clarifying for you?
*This is confusing to me.
I need to ________(strategy) to try to figure out this word.
Predicting
*I can look at the title and all
the visual clues on the page.
What do I think we will be reading about?
*Thinking
about what I have
read and discussed, what do I think might
happen next?
I
wonder...
I
predict...
Summarizing
*What does the author want me to
remember or learn from this passage?
*What
is the most important information in this passage?
*What kind of “teacher”
question can I ask about the main idea?
*In
my own words, this is about ...
*The main point was...
*The
author wanted me to remember...
To use the Reciprocal Teaching Checklist in
Acrobat Reader PDF format, click on the button
below
.R CHECKLIST.pdf
|