Steps to teaching Reciprocal Teaching
The first four days are spent explaining to the students what RT is and how to perform the four comprehension strategies. The next 8 days of RT instruction must be consecutive. Thirteen more days must be devoted to RT instruction but they do not need to be consecutive. After 25 days of RT instruction the procedure becomes internalized. Use the following guide sheets (printed back to back) to help students learn the RT procedure.
How Might I Implement Reciprocal Teaching in my Classroom?
One approach to teaching reciprocal teaching might be to have students work from a four-column chart, with each column headed by the different comprehension activity involved.
A suggestion to implementing reciprocal teaching:
The first four days are spent explaining to the students what RT is and how to perform the four comprehension strategies. The next 8 days of RT instruction must be consecutive. Thirteen more days must be devoted to RT instruction but they do not need to be consecutive. After 25 days of RT instruction the procedure becomes internalized. Use the following guide sheets (printed back to back) to help students learn the RT procedure.
How Might I Implement Reciprocal Teaching in my Classroom?
One approach to teaching reciprocal teaching might be to have students work from a four-column chart, with each column headed by the different comprehension activity involved.
A suggestion to implementing reciprocal teaching:
- Put students in groups of four.
- Distribute one notecard 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
- motivations of the agents or actors or characters
- etc.
- The Clarifier will address confusing parts and attempt to answer the questions that were just posed.
- The Predictor can offer guesses 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.