Hello, and thank you for joining me for reciprocal teaching in the collaborative classroom. Today we will answer the following these questions-- what are the major components and history of reciprocal learning, and how can reciprocal teaching influence collaborative teaching?
So what exactly is reciprocal teaching? Palincsar describes the concept in 1986 as, 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 the students take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading this dialogue.
The purpose of reciprocal teaching is to provide an interaction between the teacher and the student which will eventually lead to greater and deeper understanding of the content. So what are the components of reciprocal teaching and what are their purposes? The first component is summarizing, and its purpose is that the student can identify and integrate the most important information in a text by moving from the sentence to the paragraph level.
The next component is question generating, and it's purpose is to reinforce summarizing, and it helps build comprehension. So once the students summarize the text, they move on to generating questions about the text. So in order to properly generate these questions, students need to recognize what they already know, and then they need to also be aware of what they need to know.
Next we move on to clarifying, and clarifying helps build the comprehension by answering the question. When students clarify, it allows the teacher to help the students self-check in the comprehension process, and it also helps offer insight into common errors that the students might be making. And lastly we have predicting, and this is just where students hypothesize what the author will discuss next in a text. This is important because it requires the activation of prior knowledge, and it also requires students to focus on text features like the title or subtitles or keywords
So how does reciprocal teaching connect to collaborative learning? Reciprocal teaching requires collaboration between the teacher and the student. Reciprocal teaching also requires communication skills, specifically discussion and attention to research-based questioning. And reciprocal teaching is often used with a focus on a text. So this might be a nonfiction text-- the biology book, for example-- or it could be a short story or a poem. Reciprocal teaching can be used in any discipline. Let's reflect for a moment. In what ways can you use reciprocal teaching in your classroom?
So today, we answered the central questions of what are the major components and history of reciprocal teaching, and how can reciprocal teaching influence collaborative teaching? To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the Additional Resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted towards helping you discover more ways to apply this course material. Thank you for joining me, and happy teaching.
Overview
(00:00-00:14) Introduction
(00:15-00:59) What is Reciprocal Teaching?
(01:00-02:18) Components of Reciprocal Teaching
(02:19-02:51) Reciprocal Teaching and Collaborative Learning
(02:52-03:02) Reflection
(03:03-03:28) Conclusion
Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching and Technology: Reciprocal Teaching
This website provides a clear and comprehensive overview of reciprocal teaching in cooperative learning environments. Unlike other sites, this one uses a classroom scenario to instruct teachers on how and why to use reciprocal teaching in the classroom.
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/reciprocal_teaching