Reciprocal teaching is a powerful technique for teaching comprehension. A central concept in reciprocal teaching is the gradual release of responsibility. Using this ap-proach, the teacher provides strong support in the early stages, when students are practic-ing new learnpractic-ing, and gradually diminishes that support as students gain competence. The chief form of reciprocal teaching is dialogue with students that includes modeling, first by the teacher and then by the students themselves.
Reciprocal teaching is a systematic approach to the teaching of comprehension that involves teachers and students engaging in dialogue that supports the students’ efforts to construct meaning. It provides strong support early in the learning process with the teacher gradually turning responsibility over to the students. This gradual shift in respon-sibility enables students to experience strategies for comprehending text as they are performed by an expert (the teacher) and then to grow into more independent use of the strategies as they become more skilled.
There are three theoretical assumptions about learning that both support and explain reciprocal teaching. The first assumption contends that tasks that are too difficult for the learner to perform independently may be within his grasp if someone more skilled provides assistance.
The second assumption contends that learning is enhanced by a gradual transition of responsibility from the expert to the novice. This assumption is applied in apprenticeship learning situations in which the expert performs the task while the learner observes, and then the learner begins to actively participate in the task while the expert still performs all but the simplest aspects. Over time, as the novice has seen the expert model the task repeatedly, he is given more and more complex sub-tasks until he reaches a level of proficiency that allows him to work independently. Brown and Palincsar (1989) describe this transition as follows:
Definitions appear in the glossary.
Terms and concepts in this section:
Cognitive strategies
Gradual release of responsibility
Modeling
Procedural prompts
Scaffolding
Within these systems of tutelage, novices learn about the task at their own rate, in the presence of experts, participating only at a level they are capable of fulfilling at any point in time.
The third theoretical assumption underlying reciprocal teaching is expert scaffolding.
Although closely related to the concept of gradual transition of responsibility, under this assumption the expert more actively guides the learner during the transition of responsi-bility. A teacher using expert scaffolding keeps the complexity of the task manageable for the learner, provides corrective feedback during guided practice, and refers students back to demonstrations and explanations when she observes students having difficulty with specific aspects of the task.
Based on a study by Palincsar and Brown (1984), Rosenshine and Meister (1994) developed the following checklist for assessing the quality of reciprocal teaching. This checklist can be used to guide teachers in planning lessons using reciprocal teaching.
1. The teacher instructs the students in a repertoire of strategies (two or more) that they can use to help them better understand what they read.
2. The teacher models each of the strategies.
3. The teacher invites students to make comments regarding the modeling and the passage (i.e., the teacher may ask questions such as “Was there more important information?” or “Does anyone have anything more to add to my prediction?”).
4. The teacher provides guided assistance as students apply the strategies at whatever skill level they have attained.
5. The teacher supports each child’s participation in the dialogue through specific feedback, praise, prompting, additional modeling, paraphrasing, coaching, hints, and explanation.
6. The teacher invites students to initiate discussion and to react to other students’
statements. Such participation can include (a) suggesting other questions, (b) elaborating upon a summary, (c) commenting on another’s prediction, (d) requesting clarification of material they did not understand, (e) offering addi-tional comments on the content, and (f) helping to resolve misunderstandings.
7. During the reciprocal teaching procedures, there is a gradual shift from the teacher doing most of the work to the child taking over the major thinking role.
The teacher gradually transfers control of the dialogues to the students and becomes a supportive observer.
8. During the dialogues, instruction is provided on why, where, and when these strategies might be applied.
Perhaps the best way to understand specific elements of reciprocal teaching is to examine examples of teachers using the approach. The following vignette is part of a reciprocal teaching lesson on how waves are generated. It concisely illustrates the following aspects of reciprocal teaching:
Modeling of comprehension-fostering strategies by the teacher
Explanations and directions for comprehension-fostering activities (cognitive strategies such as question generating, predicting, clarifying words and ideas, and summarizing)
Support for students through feedback, coaching, hints, or explanation
Vignette
An Example of the Use of Reciprocal Teaching
Teacher: Let’s get out our science books and pick up where we left off yesterday in looking at the chapter on oceans. We’re starting on page 72 at about the middle of the page. What is the heading of that section?...Jeremy?
Jeremy: Making Waves
Teacher: Right. Now, when I see that heading, I get an idea of what this section will be about.
Since I know I’m reading an informational book, not a fiction book, I think I’m going to learn about how waves are made. Okay. Read that first paragraph to yourself and then I’m going to start us off with some questions.
students read paragraph silently
Teacher: To help me understand what I’ve read, I’m going to come up with a couple of questions. Thinking up questions, both before and after I’ve read something, is a way to make me think more deeply about what I’m reading. I’ll start off and then I’ll ask you if you thought of any questions from this paragraph. Since the whole paragraph was about how waves get started, one question might be, “How do waves get started?”...Sheila?
Sheila: Waves get started by wind blowing on the surface of the water.
Teacher: That’s right, Sheila. The wind transfers some of its energy to the water as it blows across the surface of the water. This kind of question is sometimes called a locate question because the answer can be “located” directly in the text. Another locate question I came up with is, “What shape does this energy have as it moves through the water?”...Darryl?
Darryl: It’s shaped like a circle.
Teacher: Yes, it’s circular. As the energy moves through the water, it rolls along like a wheel. My last question is a think question. Remember, think questions are those for which you can’t locate the answer directly in what you’ve read. You need to add some of what you already know to get the complete answer. So, my last question is, “How is the creation of a wave similar to what we learned about last week when we studied how light from the sun heats up the earth?”...Billie?
Billie: We learned that the energy in the light gets transferred to the earth and this transfer of energy creates heat. The wind has energy, and it is the transfer of this energy to the water that makes the waves.
Teacher: Great answer, Billie. You looked at the two actions and identified how they were alike.
Questions like this one that require you to use prior knowledge are harder to create, but they are very helpful in developing a deeper understanding of what you’re reading because they deal with bigger ideas. Okay, before we read the next paragraph, who came up with a question?
Mike: I did.
Teacher: Okay, Mike. What is your question?
Mike: How much wind does it take to make a wave?
Teacher: Good question. That’s a factual question that can help you remember key details.
Who would you like to call on?
Mike: Tisha.
Tisha: It said it doesn’t take much wind to make a small wave, but that it takes a lot of wind that blows in one direction to make a really big wave.
Teacher: Mike, did that answer your question?
Continued
Vignette
Mike: Yeah. She’s right.
Teacher: Now, we’re ready to read the next paragraph. I’m going to look for words that I might want to clarify as I read. Clarifying important words helps me make sure I’ve gotten the full and correct meaning from what I’ve read. I can look the word up in a dictionary or glossary, ask someone for help, or look for clues in the other sentences and paragraphs that are next to the word I want to know more about. I’d like you to look for any that you’re not sure of as well.
students read paragraph silently
Teacher: I came across the word velocity. I want to be sure I know what this word means. So, I can look for clues in the surrounding sentences, or I can look it up in the glossary. Let’s have everyone on this side of the room look for clues and everyone on this side find it in the glossary.
pause
Teacher: Okay. Who found a clue to the meaning of velocity?...Benita?
Benita: In the sentence right after the one that has velocity in it, it talks about how stronger winds make bigger waves, so I think velocity has to do with how strong the winds are.
Teacher: Good detective work, Benita. What did it say in the glossary?...Hannah Marie?
Hannah Marie: It said “speed of motion.”
Teacher: So, we can say that the velocity of the wind is the speed of the wind’s motion. Good work. Before I ask you if you found words you wanted to clarify, can you tell me why you think I chose the word velocity as one I wanted to clarify?...Kyle?
Kyle: I think you chose it because it was a more important word. I know it’s more important because they put it in bold letters in the paragraph.
Teacher: Great thinking, Kyle. Kyle used what he knows about textbooks to figure out that velocity is an important word in understanding how waves are made. Did anyone else have a word they wanted to clarify?...Kristie?
Kristie: Diameter. I get that confused with the other words that have to do with circles. I can’t remember if it is all the way across or just half way
Teacher: Kendra, can you help her?
Kendra: I had to look it up because I get it confused with radius. The diameter is the distance all the way across, from one edge to the other and passing through the center point. The radius is the distance from the center of the circle to the edge.
Jeremy: It said if the diameter of the circle made by the wind is bigger than the depth of the water, then the wave starts to rise up like it’s going to break. I don’t know how that works.
Teacher: Who can help?...Joel?
Joel: The diagram on the next page helped me understand it. It shows how as the water gets shallower, the wave has nowhere to go but up.
Teacher: Hannah Marie, did you have a question?
Hannah Marie: Yes, Ms. Jester, I came up with a think question. What would happen if a big wave, say about 20 feet in diameter, suddenly went from water that was 100 feet deep to water that was only 15 feet deep?
Kendra: I know—it would rise up like the waves at the beach and break with a crash!
An analysis of this transcript appears in the appendix.
Elements of the gradual release of responsibility can be seen in this lesson script, but the gradual nature of this shift of responsibility can be observed more clearly by examining excerpts from several reciprocal teaching lessons. The second set of vignettes shows how the teacher transfers responsibility for the dialogue to students over time.