Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching can be a key strategy for integrated learning and comprehension. This technique allows students to become more active in their learning, and provides an opportunity for teachers to implement scaffolding in the classroom. Even more, reciprocal teaching allows students to share information and ideas, complete different learning tasks, use divergent thinking and decision making, and leads students to develop their own understanding of concepts (242). Reciprocal teaching is a "great educational technique to facilitate a group effort between the teacher and student as well as among student in the task of bringing meaning to the text (NCREL).”

The structure of reciprocal teaching requires the teacher to break the students up into groups of four for classroom dialoging. Each group of four students assigns a person one of four different tasks within their group:

-Summarizing - The student assigned to this role identifies and integrates the most important information in the text.

-Question generating - This student generates and proposes questions about the text that was read. However, to do so, he/she must first identify the kind of information that is significant enough to provide the substance of a question.

-Clarifying - The student who assumes this role addresses the confusing parts of the text and attempts to answer the questions that were just proposed by the question generator.

-Predicting - This student hypothesizes what the author will discuss next in the text. In order to do this successfully, the student must assess the knowledge already possessed about the topic. Likewise, the students also have motivation to read further in order to check if their hypotheses/predictions come true.

Reciprocal teaching touches almost every level of Bloom's Taxonomy as well. Students assume the responsibility for the planning within the group and manage the various student roles themselves (242). The students are also provided with an opportunity to present their work to the entire class. More important, reciprocal teaching shows students how to become engaged in the text and provides them with learning techniques they can use when reading outside of the classroom, thus creating more autonomous learners.

Works Consulted
Callahan, Joseph et.al. Teaching in the Middle and Secondary Schools. New Jersey:
Pearson Education, Inc., 2002.

“Reciprocal Teaching.” North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. 1995. 6 March
2009.