Reciprocal Teaching

The purpose of Reciprocal Teaching (RT) is to facilitate a group effort between teachers and students by bringing meaning to segments of text. In order to promote understanding, RT is an instructional activity that utilizes dialogue between teachers and students while segments of text are studied. The teacher and students take turns in assuming the role of instructor in leading the two-way dialogue. Four strategies are used to structure the discussion, including: (1) summarizing, which compels students to determine the most important information in the text; (2) question generating, which reinforces the summarizing strategy and increases comprehension; (3) clarifying, which is especially important for students with a history of difficulty with comprehension; and (4) predicting, which increases students' depth of understanding by hypothesizing what the author will discuss next in the text. These strategies are modeled by the teacher and then practiced by the students in cooperative groups. While the students engage in discussions aimed at constructing meaning to the text, the teacher provides the support necessary for students to learn how to implement RT strategies.

The goal of this program is to improve students' ability to read, understand, and analyze text.

Numerous studies have found statistically significant improvements in RT students' scores on comprehension tests and other academic measures. For example:

The Miller, Miller, and Rosen (1988) study of 64 students found the following:

* RT students scored significantly higher than control group students on the multiple-choice comprehension tests.
* Students in the RT group wrote a significantly higher average number of words (61.58 versus 58.59) per three-minute writing sample than did students in the control group.
* First-quarter grades were not significantly different among the three groups. However, an examination of second-quarter grades indicated that RT students performed significantly better than students in Control Group I. The mean grades for the second quarter, using a four-point grading scale (4.0 equaling an A), were 2.17 for Control Group I, 2.28 for Control Group II, and 2.80 for the RT group.