Reciprocal reading bookmarks

What is reciprocal reading?

• Reciprocal reading is a method of teaching comprehension which explicitly teaches strategies for predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarising. It is an instructional reading strategy where pupils take turns to become the ‘teacher’ in their small-group reading sessions.
• Reciprocal teaching has been shown to increase both reading and listening comprehension, and has demonstrated that learners transfer their learning into other contexts.
• The reciprocal teaching method encourages children to ask questions of the text and to answer and build on the questions of their peers. Asking questions and peer discussion can be a powerful learning experience and requires a higher level of understanding and engagement with the text.
• Speaking and listening skills are crucial for creative and critical thinking and are central to reciprocal reading. The reciprocal teaching approach gives children the opportunity to practise speaking and listening skills in a non-threatening environment.
• In the implementation stage within the classroom, a teacher models the strategy with their class, and over a short period of time (between one day and one week depending on the class and materials used) starts to withdraw from leading small-group reading sessions and hands over control to the group.
• Reciprocal reading is designed to concentrate on four comprehension types:
  • Predicting
  • Clarifying
  • Questioning
  • Summarising