Transcript Reciprocal Teaching Strategies for Improving Reading

Reciprocal Teaching:
A Reading Comprehension Strategy
from my ASE Classroom
By
Anita L. Green
Central Carolina Community College
Institute 2015
Goals of Reciprocal Teaching
To improve students’ reading comprehension using
four strategies:
Predicting
Questioning
Clarifying
Summarizing
Goals of Reciprocal Teaching
• To scaffold the four strategies by modeling, guiding
and applying strategies while reading
• To guide students to become reflective in their
thinking
• To strengthen instruction in a variety of settings:
whole-class and guided reading
Reciprocal Teaching
To be part of a broader framework of
comprehension strategies that include:
• Previewing
• Self-questioning
• Making connections
• Visualizing
• Monitoring
• Evaluating
• Knowing how words work
What Reciprocal Teaching Is..
• “Reciprocal teaching is a powerful research-based
teaching technique.”
• “Reciprocal teaching was designed to focus on
just four important strategies that good readers
use to comprehend text.”
Oczkus, Lori D. (2003). Reciprocal Teaching at Work: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension. Delaware: International Reading
Associations
What Reciprocal Teaching is not….
• “Reciprocal Teaching is not a pencil-and-paper
activity. It was designed as a discussion technique in
which think-alouds play an integral part.”
• Reciprocal teaching is “not comprehensive enough to
stand alone as a method for teaching reading
comprehension.”
Reciprocal Teaching Strategies
“The Fabulous Four”
Madam, the Powerful Predictor
• Previewing the text to
anticipate what might
happen next
• Assists students in
setting a purpose for
reading and in
monitoring their
comprehension
Predicting
The predictor helps the group to identify the organizational
structure of the text and to connect sections of the text to
one another and to the overall text structure. The predictor
could use the following prompts to help the group.

Which type(s) of text structure did this most closely match?

What evidence identifies that text structure?

Based on the type(s) identified, what predictions can be
made about what will happen next?
Text types can usually be classified in the
following ways:
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•
•
•
•
•
Descriptive
Chronological
Cause and effect
Analytical
Persuasive
Compare and contrast
Predicting
•
•
•
•
•
•
I think…..
I’ll bet….
I wonder if….
I imagine….
I suppose….
I predict….
Quincy, the Quizzical Questioner
• Good readers ask
questions throughout
the reading process
• Students learn to
generate questions
about a text’s main
idea, important details
and textual inferences
Questioning
Language of questioning:
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Who?
What?
Where?
When ?
Why?
How?
What if?
Questioning
The questioner helps group members ask and answer
all types of questions about the text.
As the questioner, you might ask the group:

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What questions arose during the reading?
Can anyone else help answer that question?
What kind of question was that?
What did we do to find answers?
Clara, the Careful Clarifier
• Clarifying helps students
monitor their own
comprehension as they
identify problems that
they are having
comprehending parts of
the text.
• Teacher and the student
share “fix-up” strategies
to construct meaning.
Clarifying
The clarifier assists in identifying words, phrases, clauses,
sentences, and sections of the text that may be unclear and asks
members for ways in clearing up these problems. In the initial
stages of implementation the clarifier may use the following
prompts to help the group clear up difficulties.


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What is still not clear?
Reread what is still unclear and try rereading the section right
before what was unclear.
Chunk the text into smaller segments. For example, break
complex sentences into component clauses or phrases.

.

Lets visualize what is described in the text. If there are
diagrams or pictures depicting the difficult material look at
them carefully and read the captions that accompany the
graphics. Also try mental visualizing using these phrases as
aids, I picture …, I can see …

Connect what has been read to things from other experiences.
For instance, this is like …, this reminds me of …

Get outside help. For instance, if it’s a word we don’t
understand lets try the glossary in the text, a dictionary, or an
encyclopedia.
Clarifying
Language of clarifying:
• I didn’t understand the
part where…
• This {sentence, paragraph,
page, chapter} is not clear.
• I can’t figure out…
• This is a tricky word
because…
Clarifying Strategies
To clarify an idea:
• Reread the parts that
they didn’t
understand.
• Read on to look for
clues.
• Ideas about what they
know.
• Talk to a friend.
To clarify a word:
• Reread.
• Look for word parts they
know.
• Find another word that
looks like this word.
• Read on to find clues.
• Try another word that
makes sense.
Sammy, the Super Summarizer
• To summarize
effectively, students
must recall and
arrange in order only
the important events
in the text.
• Summary organization
is based on the type of
text: narrative or
expository.
Summarizing
The summarizer helps group members restate the main
ideas in the reading. Reminder - Summaries are formed by
the reader and are not found in the text. They do not
include the details. Summarizing helps us understand and
remember what we have read.
As the summarizer you might ask the group:
 What are the main ideas in this chunk of text?
 Restate the main idea in one sentence?
 Which parts could be left out and still get the point across?
 Can ideas be combined into one summary?
Summarizing
The language of summarizing:
• The most important ideas
in this text are…
• This part was about…
• The book was about…
• First…
• Next…
• Then…
• Finally…
• The story takes place…
• The main characters are…
• A problem occurs when…
Does RT Work with Math?
YES!
Summarize:
What is does the problem say? Restate in your own words.
Clarify:
What math language is used in the problem? What do we need
to solve the problem?
Question:
What is the problem asking? What do we already know?
What do we need to find out? What operations are targeted?
Predict:
What should we do first/next? Estimate the answer.
Remembering?