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Reciprocal teaching is a very powerful strategy for improving
reading comprehension.
After
using this strategy for a number of years I've developed these teaching
prompts cards that work for me and the students. I've added a variety
of cues to each prompt card so that when familiar with the strategy
it becomes an independent group task.
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Palincsar (1986)
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"Based
on the topic sentence, I think
the paragraph will be about … "
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The
Cards
1 . Predicting - The leader asks the students to read the
topic sentence or subheading and then predict what the rest of
the paragraph will be about.
Since the
topic sentence tells what will follow you can teach the children
how to skim read at this point.
2.
Reading - This card invites the children to read up to a certain
point. I've added a bit of variety to the cards so they can read
silently, to the group, to a partner or in unison. Just to add
a bit of variety.
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3.
Clarification - This
card gives the readers the opportunity to have any unfamiliar
words, locations or pronunciations 'made clear'.
I
find the first couple of times you do this strategy the children
often won't volunteer that they don't know something. So I pick
out a word or a place and ask the group to clarify it. If all
members don't offer to answer the question, then I talk about
how the purpose of reading is to gain meaning and if we are not
gaining meaning, then we are simply 'barking at the print'. (Oh
they love that term)
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You can also teach information skills here
as well as dictionary skills and how to use an atlas.
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What...? Why...? When...?
Which...? Where...? Who...? How...?

5. " (name)
would you please say / write a sentence
or two to summarise this passage."
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4.
Questioning - I get the children to generate the questions
at this point. The questions can be answered orally or, depending
on your purpose, you might like the group to record some of their
questions and answers.
5.
Summarising - the perfect point to teach key points, note-taking
and to some extent paraphrasing.
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6. Swap Leaders and the whole
process
starts again.
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How
I use the strategy in my classroom.
Firstly I introduce the whole class to each of the skills in the
process. This can take a couple of lessons to do well.
Then
during group work I sit with a small group of children. I bring
to the group the set of the cards, multiple copies of an INFORMATION
TEXT, three different dictionaries, three atlases & paper
for note taking. Recently I've been taking my laptop to the group
and have dictionary.com , the wikipedia.org and
Google Earth
open to aid in the 'clarification' phase. These sites provide
great opportunity to build into the sessions the areas of website
credibility and website advertising awareness.
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For
the first few sessions I am the leader, but the children are aware
that the skills that I demonstrate will help them work as an independent
group in the future.
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