Reciprocal Teaching: Session 1

Twilight Course Overview• Session 1: An Introduction to Reciprocal Teaching• Introduction to the 4 key strategies used in RT (predicting; questioning; clarifying; summarising)

• Session 2: Reciprocal Teaching cont…..• Importance of metacognitive skills.• Importance of providing cognitive challenge• Importance of collaboration• More approaches to improving comprehension

• Session 3: Developing Questioning Skills

• Session 4: Developing Predicting, clarifying and summarising: A toolkit• Further applications of RT methodology

• Session 5: Recall session• Opportunities to share good practice and resources and to reflect on the use of the approach with pupils

• 17.5 CPD hours• 7 ½ contact hours• 10 hours on tasks

Aims of Session 1

• Provide an overview of Reciprocal Teaching:

- Introduction to the 4 key strategies- Explain how the strategies are integrated

into a Reciprocal Teaching lesson• Foster enough confidence for you to go

away and give it a go.

Workshop 1: Teaching Comprehension

• What / how do you teach comprehension?

• To what effect?

• Identify potential barriers?

The Teaching of Comprehension: The Findings of Hall et al (1999)

Hall et al found that, in a study of 12 classrooms, lessons:

• Were characterised by the use of worksheets / workbooks• Contained limited reference to the specific strategies used in

comprehending text• Were dictated by teachers• Contained limited teacher / pupil interaction• Were low in motivational demands• Offered little opportunity for learners to reflect on their learning• Provided questions which were literal in nature• Emphasised outcome rather than process• Offered little in terms of cognitive and metacognitive demands

What is Reciprocal Teaching?

• RT is a framework for teaching the skills necessary for good comprehension

• It is dialogue based.• Initially, the teacher acts as the facilitator - modelling

the use of 4 key strategies to the pupils• Gradually, with teacher support, pupils’ confidence

and competency will increase and adult input will decrease

• The eventual aim is that the pupils will be able to work independently

The 4 Strategies

Competent readers sub-consciously use a number of strategies to monitor and aid comprehension

RT works by making these strategies explicit to learners.

• Predicting• Questioning• Clarifying• Summarising

• Discuss given strategy with your group and try to say why it is an important strategy for developing comprehension.

• Choose an expert from your group who will take your views to another group.

Why?

Why Predicting?• Gives the reader a purpose to read on in order

to check out their predictions• Encourages pupils to utilise knowledge

previously acquired in reading the text (when making predictions part way through the story)

• Provides a mechanism for monitoring comprehension (i.e. were my predictions correct, and if not why not)

Why Questioning?

• Allows readers to pick out the main points in the text

• Introduces children to different kinds of questions, which in turn should help them with answers.

Why Clarifying?

• Trains pupils to monitor their comprehension (rather than just reading blindly)

• Permits children to admit to not understanding a word.

• Develops skills so that pupils can decipher the meanings of unfamiliar words or phrases

• This is the ultimate test of whether a pupil has fully understood the passage – an extremely difficult skill to master

Why Summarising?

Professor P. Brain and the Magic Potion

Author: Mary Mullen

Illustrated by: Joe Jenkins

Workshop 2Task

• Generate predictions about this story. Make predictions about the character(s), the genre, the plot, the setting.

• Highlight evidence used to make the predictions

Discuss in pairs / small groups

Workshop 4: Clarifying• Read passage

• Which words / phrases might pupils flag up as unfamiliar?

• What strategies do we use, as adults, to figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words / phrases?

What does a classic RT lesson look like?

• Small group of children• One pupil acts as a “teacher”. They lead the group

through a structured dialogue discussing each of the 4 strategies outlined in turn

• Step 1 – “Teacher” begins by asking group members to make predictions about what they are about to read

• Step 2 – “Teacher” reads a small section of text to the group or pupils read the section on their own

• Step 3 – “Teacher” facilitates the generation of questions

• Step 4 – Group are asked by the “teacher” to list unfamiliar words or phrases or to outline sections of the text that they are unsure of. Group work together to clarify the meanings of the identified words and phrases

• Step 5 – “Teacher” asks a pupil / pupils to summarise the piece of text that has just been read

• Step 6 – The cycle begins again. Pupils are asked, by the “teacher”, to make predictions about the next section of text before going on to read it.

Questioning

Summarising

Predicting

Clarifying

What can Reciprocal Teaching offer teachers?

• A structure for teaching the skills required for enhanced comprehension

• Easy to resource• Can be used across the curriculum • Can be used for whole class lessons, group activities or for

individual work• Effective for pupils of almost all abilities including those of lower

to average ability• A mechanism for assessing comprehension skills and

identifying areas for development• HMIe hold it up as an example of good practice

• RT is not, however, a quick fix

What can RT offer learners?

• Most pupils enjoy RT• Opportunities to develop their comprehension

skills • Comprehension not associated with having to

write a million sentences• Opportunities for peer and adult support to

improve skills• Opportunities to be active learners

Introducing RT• Method 1 – Straight in – introduce all strategies in one go. Use

the approach in day to day teaching (whole class or at reading group time) with you, as teacher, acting as a model. Slowly hand over responsibility to the pupils

• Method 2 – Systematically teach each strategy one-by-one and then pull the strategies together

• Method 3 - A combination of 1 & 2! Introduce all the strategies together and then, through the use of careful assessment, use standalone lessons to build on pupils’ skills.

Over the next couple of weeks…

• Introduce the idea of Reciprocal Teaching to pupils with the class or, if you prefer, with one group that you’ll work with over a number of weeks

• Discuss all the strategies each time.• When modelling – share your thought processes

- give praise and immediate feedback

• Encourage pupils to use the language of RT explicitly• Be interactive! Involve pupils as much as possible.• Record findings in your log book

Have I got the time?

• No …….. if you use it as an “add-on” to an already crowded curriculum!

• Yes ……. if you use it as part of your on-going comprehension teaching or as part of your group reading programme