Reciprocal Teaching: Session 2

Aims of Session

• Opportunities to share experiences of RT so far – identify benefits & problems

• What are metacognitive skills?• Why are they important?• What are the links between these skills and reading

comprehension?

• Provide a brief introduction to other approaches to promoting comprehension

Workshop 1: Time for Reflection

• How has it gone so far?

- How have you implemented the approach?

- How have the pupils reacted / engaged?

- What have they done well?

- Which aspects have they found difficult?

- What practical issues or concerns have you encountered?

Effective Learning: Three Fundamentals

Adey, Robertson & Venville, (2002) identify three fundamental elements for effective cognitive development / learning.

1. Opportunities for socially mediated learning2. Cognitive challenge (i.e. opportunities to answer

questions / solve problems which do not have a simple factual answer and requires thought to resolve)

3. Metacognitive challenge (i.e. opportunities to reflect on their own thinking processes)

Socially Mediated LearningThe Theory Behind RT: Remember

Vygotsky?

Vygotsky argued that; - Learning is socially constructed / language is of central

importance - Children have a “zone of proximal development” (ZPD) –

this is the gap between what children know and what they are capable of learning

- Adults (or peers) acting as models can “scaffold” children in their attempts to learn / master new skills and bridge the ZPD

Cognitive Challenge

What is Cognition?

“Cognition is connected with thinking or conscious mental processes”

• Sensory Processes / Perception• Memory• Thinking• Language• Planning, evaluating, reasoning, justifying, categorising,

clarifying, judging, remembering, recalling, analysing, synthesising, predicting, summarising, reflecting, processing, problem-solving, perceiving, monitoring, comprehending, conceptualising.

RT and Cognitive Challenge

• Pupils are encouraged to utilise / develop a wide range of cognitive skills

• The nature of the dialogue used in RT encourages learners to develop a deeper understanding of the text – an understanding that goes beyond the literal / factual.

Metacognition

• What is metacognition?

THINKING ABOUT THINKING

Or

“The ability to reflect consciously on one’s cognition and cognitive ability”

Or

“The ability to plan & monitor thought processes”

Metacognition & Reading

Proficient use of metacognitive strategies in reading enables children to:

• Evaluate purposes for reading• Evaluate appropriate strategies• Formulate plans for reading and for selecting

appropriate strategies• Monitor comprehension• Monitor what they do & don’t do well • Self-regulate learning

• Think the purpose of reading is to “learn all the words” or read all the words correctly

• They lack an awareness of what their relative strengths and weaknesses are

• They plan poorly and fail to take different variables into account (e.g. allow less time for difficult texts / approach all reading tasks in the same way)

• Less likely to re-read if they encounter comprehension problems

• They are unaware of the strategies that able readers use.• When given strategies – they find it difficult to evaluate which

strategy might be useful• They get confused about the vocabulary of reading (i.e.

knowledge about language)

What do readers with poor metacognitive skills look like?

Workshop 2• The findings of a recent RT study suggests that

pupils Standard Scores in Comprehension, as measured by the NARA-II rose by 9 points. However, their metacognitive awareness did not improve to any great extent.

• The key question is - does this matter?

More Approaches to Promoting Reading

Comprehension

Other Approaches to Promote Reading Comprehension

• Book detectives• Prepared Reading• Silent Sustained Reading / Rapid Retrieval of

Information• Paired Reading• Paired Thinking• Using audio tapes to support less able readers

Prepared Reading

• When children are given a passage, give them a purpose for reading through giving them a focused task. These tasks form the basis of discussion for next day.

• find 10 interesting or unusual words • find your favourite paragraph • think of 10 adjectives to describe your character• think of 5 words which might describe how the character is feeling &

explain• think of some hobbies for your character – say why he would like them• Workshop: In pairs / small groups: Can you come up with others?

Sustained Silent Reading / Rapid Retrieval of Information

Pupils read passage independently.

Teacher gives a series of questions (find the part of the story which…….)

Children highlight this in some way (e.g. a number) as quickly as possible.

Paired Reading - Procedure

Why Paired Reading?

• Cost effective

• Time efficient

• Highly effective (benefits for tutors and tutees in terms of both their basic reading skills & comprehension

Paired Thinking

• Based on paired reading

• Tutors asked to question tutees as well as read with them

See www.dundee.ac.uk/psycholgy/trw

Supporting Less Able Pupils in using RT

Paired Reading• Use an able reader who is comfortable with the

RT format

• Use paired reading format. e.g. - divide text into 2-3 sections- follow paired reading procedure- at the end of each section – follow RT dialogue

Using Audio Materials

• Ask able pupils to record a passage on to a tape

• Pupils read passage along with recording• Use RT format

• Overcomes decoding / fluency issues

Book DetectivesContext: Whole class / small group lesson. Pupils reading or being

read to.

Each pupil in the group / class is assigned a particular role:• Summariser• Question master• Passage master• Illuminator• Word finder• Illustrator• Mind mapper• Link maker

Book Detectives: Roles• Summariser: Outlines key parts of the story

• Question master: Formulates questions for the group

• Passage master: Finds the most interesting paragraph in a story

• Illuminator: Highlights aspects of the text associated with emotions and feelings

• Word finder: Finds interesting, unusual, unknown words

• Illustrator: Provides a picture

• Mind mapper: Draws a mind map of all the important elements of the story

• Link maker: Connects elements of the book to wider experience (e.g. an event, a person, a film, another book)