Question Answer Relationships & Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity that takes place in the form of a dialogue between teachers and students regarding segments of text. The dialogue is structured by the use of four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The teacher and students take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading this dialogue. Reciprocal Teaching (Palincsar, 1986)

Summarizing is identifying and organizing the most important information in the text. Question generating reinforces the summarizing strategy. Students must identify important information, pose this information in question form, and self-test to ascertain that they can answer their own question. Clarifying is an activity that is particularly important when working with students who have a history of comprehension difficulty. When the students are asked to clarify, we ask them to consider why a text is difficult to understand (e.g., new vocabulary, unclear reference words, and unfamiliar and perhaps difficult concepts). Predicting asks students to guess what the author will discuss next in the text. The students then have a purpose for reading: to confirm or disprove their guess.

How does RT alter the traditional roles of student and teacher in the reading/language arts classroom? How does each of the four RT strategies help students become better readers? Why do you think RT includes four different strategies? Is it too complex? What role does metacognition play as students learn how to use RT? What should a teacher do to create and sustain a classroom environment for RT? Are there “right” and “wrong” answers in RT? RT is more than the “sum” of four strategies.

Reciprocal Teaching Handout