Running head: RECIPROCAL TEACHING

The Effects of Reciprocal Teaching on Reading Comprehension

Theresa Moore

Franciscan University of Steubenville

RECIPROCAL TEACHING
2
Introduction

Reading comprehension is important for both academic success and future life outcomes

(Spencer & Wagner 2018). Since reading comprehension is the ability to extract and construct

meaning, this skill is importance for school, the workplace, and everyday life (Spencer &

Wagner 2018). However, in the United States, only 36% of 4th graders and 34% of 8th graders

scored above proficiency in reading comprehension (Spencer & Wagner 2018). If students are

unable to comprehend what they are reading, they will not be able to be successful in and outside

of the classroom. This is why Reciprocal Teaching is an important strategy to be implemented in

the classroom. It is an evidence-based practice that is more student-centered rather than teacher

centered, allowing the students to participate in more dialogue, which aids them in processing

information and thus, aids their reading comprehension (McAllum 2014).

Purpose

Since comprehension is suffering so drastically, strategies must be implemented in order

to improve this. Research has been conducted to show that Reciprocal Teaching can improve

reading comprehension. The purpose of this research is to answer the question: does Reciprocal

Teaching aid students in reading comprehension?

This question will be answered in two forms. First, through the use of literature reviews.

Studies examining Reciprocal Teaching and the effects that it has on reading comprehension

have been analyzed. Second, the Reciprocal Teaching strategy was implemented in a 3rd

classroom. Students read a passage and used the reciprocal teaching strategy in order to
RECIPROCAL TEACHING
3
comprehend what was read. A graphic organizer was filled out by the students in order to record

the data.

I expect that my methodology will show that Reciprocal Teaching does in fact aid

student’s reading comprehension. I expect to find in the classroom, what I have analyzed

through peer reviewed journal articles. Through my own data collection on student’s work, I

expect to find a thorough analyzation of the passage read, thus revealing that full comprehension

occured.

Review of Literature

The Reciprocal Teaching framework is an effective strategy for student’s reading

comprehension. However, in what ways can it be practically implement it into the classroom?

Kelley Stricklin (2011) wrote an article to introduce what the Reciprocal Teaching framework is

and gave detailed examples of activities that can be used in order to bring this framework into

the classroom. She went into detail about the four, or “fab four”, components of Reciprocal

Teaching. These components are: predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing. The

author gave many practical examples of activities that can be used in the classroom to make

these four components effective and engaging. The teacher used many strategies to implement

Reciprocal Teaching including charts, props, sentence starters, etc. This not only increases

student’s reading levels, but also makes reading fun and engaging. Once teachers model how to

use the framework well, their students are able to use the framework on their own, even when

reading outside of the classroom. This promotes students to become independent readers. The

teachers give their students the tools to become good readers and have done so in an engaging
RECIPROCAL TEACHING
4
way. Now, students will be motivated to read independently, which was an important goal of

reading instruction which was mentioned by the author in the beginning of the article.

This article was very practical in the way that it gave many examples of activities that

teachers can use to implement the Reciprocal Teaching strategy. It was well organized and had

divided sections according to the “fab four” components. There were also sections of

descriptions of activities that could be used to implement the strategy as well as ways to assess

them. I found the charts that were given throughout the article to be very helpful. These charts

provided pictures of the activities the author was talking about. I did not find this article to be

difficult in any way. It gave a lot of information and was simple to read. It helped me to have a

better understanding for what Reciprocal Teaching is and will help me significantly with my

research. In the future, there could be studies done of classrooms that implemented these

activities to demonstrate that they truly are effective.

The Reciprocal Teaching framework improves reading comprehension, but what about

this strategy makes it so effective? Ruth McAllum (2014) wrote an article to examine the

purpose, strengths, and weaknesses of Reciprocal Teaching. The author concluded that the

Reciprocal Teaching framework is inclusive and meets the needs of diverse learners. Reciprocal

Teaching is an evidence-based practice that is more student-centered rather than teacher

centered, allowing the students to participate in more dialogue, and thus, aiding them in

processing information. Giving students this opportunity to process information is what makes

the framework so effective.

This author explained ​why​ Reciprocal Teaching improves reading comprehension. For

example, the author discussed Vygotsky’s theory that dialogue is directly related to the ability to
RECIPROCAL TEACHING
5
mentally process a concept. Reciprocal Teaching uses a significant amount of dialogue,

particularly in small group settings, which is one of the reasons why it improves reading

comprehension. The author also explained that the strategy builds comprehension skills through

self-reflection and inquiry. The strategy helps students to stop and think throughout a text in

order to think more deeply about what they are reading and build up their curiosity. Thus, it

promotes self-reflection and inquiry. These explanations as to why the Reciprocal Teaching

framework is so effective was very helpful to my research. This article was well organized and

had clear explanations. I did not find any difficulties within it. It was relevant to my study

because it helped me to understand why the Reciprocal Teaching framework is effective. The

article was well written and concise, however, in the future, it could improve by being written in

a more reader friendly manner.

Reciprocal Teaching is effective for improving student’s reading comprehension but

why? Schu¨nemann, Spo¨rer, Vo¨llinger, & Brunstein (2017) delve into this question by

examining the importance of the role of social interaction and peer feedback on student’s reading

comprehension in the Reciprocal Teaching framework. Through taking turns in learning through

small group discussion, students are regulating one another. Every student in the group is active

in applying reading comprehension strategies and answering one another’s questions. If students

do not know how to collaborate well, for example, how to handle disagreements or how to

equally contribute to the discussion, it not only does not advance learning, but actually brings it

down. Therefore, the quality of the teamwork is very important. The goal of the study was to

compare regular Reciprocal Teaching programs to those that had enhanced self-regulating

procedures. The study was conducted on 167 5th graders whose discussions were videotaped
RECIPROCAL TEACHING
6
for assessment. The results indicated that the groups with enhanced self-regulatory procedures

did perform better than those who did not have enhanced self-regulatory procedures.

I found this article slightly difficult to read because there was so much information

provided. It seemed to be aimed more at researchers rather than preservice teachers such as

myself. In order to improve this study, it would be best if each group was tested on multiple

different texts rather than just one. It could have been that the text chosen did not interest a

particular child which could hinder his/her ability to engage in the discussion well. The author

of this article goes deeper into why reciprocal teaching helps with reading comprehension. It

breaks down the strategy to see what aspects of it are helping the students. It shows how

important teamwork and collaboration are when it comes to learning. It is relevant for my

research topic because it helps me to realize that Reciprocal Teaching not only needs to be

conducted, but it needs to be done in such a way that the students are taught self-regulating skills

in order to learn as much as they can from one another.

If Reciprocal Teaching is helpful for student’s reading comprehension, it raises the

question of whether it is also helpful for students who struggle with reading. Gomaa (2015)

conducted a research to show how this teaching strategy affects students who have reading

disabilities. The participants of the study were 66 5th grade male students who were randomly

separated into two equal groups, one being experimental and one being the control group. Each

student in the study had a reading disability. The term “reading disability” can be broad, so the

students who participated had to reach certain criterias: “(a) a diagnosis of RD by teacher's

referral (b) an IQ score on the Mental Abilities Test (Mosa, 1989) between 90 and 118 (c)

reading performance scores at least 2 years below grade level (d) absence of any other disabling
RECIPROCAL TEACHING
7
condition” (p. 41). Students were given a pretest and a post-test to compare their comprehension

before they received the Reciprocal Teaching instruction and after. The students who received

Reciprocal Teaching instruction scored better on comprehension tests than students who did not.

This is due to the students receiving Reciprocal Teaching being more active in the instruction as

they engaged in discussion with their classmates.

This article was very reader friendly. It was straightforward and used language that was

simple to understand. The study that was conducted was simple and effective. The participants,

procedures, and instruments were all consistent with one another. I did not find any particular

aspects of this article to be difficult. This article is relevant to my research topic because the

author not only exemplifies the effectiveness of Reciprocal Teaching, but how Reciprocal

Teaching is particularly helpful for those with reading disabilities. One aspect that could be

improved with this research is that the test was given to the students after school, I wonder if the

participants would have performed better if the test was conducted at another time, other than

after school, when their brains were not as fatigued. The study was also only conducted on

males, when in the future, conducting it on females as well would be an improvement. This

article helped me to see the importance of Reciprocal Teaching especially for students with

reading disabilities or for those that struggle with reading comprehension in general.

Methodology

For my methodology, I taught a lesson to students using the Reciprocal Teaching

strategy. The participants were 22 3rd grade students in a general education classroom. My

criteria for choosing these students was that I plan on teaching at this level in the future, and
RECIPROCAL TEACHING
8
thought that the results would be helpful to me as a future educator. I also know the teacher,

which made collaboration simple. Therefore, this is a convenience sampling and is not

representative of all 3rd grade students.

I began my research by first contacting the teacher. I asked her information about her

class that I would need to know, and created a lesson plan based off of that. I asked her for

permission to record her students during my lesson in order to record data more easily. I

researched strategies in order to implement Reciprocal Teaching into the classroom and

compiled a lesson that I thought would work best for 3rd grade students. I found a graphic

organizer that organized the “fab four” into four sections on a page and made copies for each

individual student. I reviewed a short text chosen by the teacher, and divided it into four

sections. Next, I made flashcards of the “fab four” and color coded them in order to make the

roles of everyone in the group easily identifiable.

I began my lesson by asking the students if they have ever read something and then after

reading it, did not understand what was read. Many students raised their hands. I told them that

I was there to teach them a new activity that will help them to understand what they read better

so that does not happen anymore. I gave each student a flashcard with a one of the fab four

components. They were instructed to read the first section of the text silently to themselves.

After they were finished reading, I announced that the summarizer would tell their group what

they read. Next, it was time for the questioner to share the questions that he/she came up with.

The clarifier would answer these questions, followed by the predictor, sharing what they thought

would happen next in the story. After each role had a turn to share in the group, I instructed
RECIPROCAL TEACHING
9
them to move on to the next section. These steps were repeated until each student had the

chance to play each role.

Findings

When analyzing the student’s completed graphic organizer on the “fab four”, I saw a

strong understanding of the text that was read. Thorough analyzation of the passage was evident.

The students used all four components of summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting in

order to externally show that they were internalizing the information.

During the first step of the “fab four”, summarise, the students wrote strong summaries,

capturing the main idea in a brief and concise statement. This aided the student’s reading

comprehension because according to McAllum (2014), externalizing information helps to better

understand it internally. Giving these students the opportunity to write down a brief sentence of

what happened in the passage they had read, helped them to internalize the information. This

was evident when reviewing their summaries.

Next, the students were to ask questions. McAllum (2014) writes that comprehension

skills are built from self-reflection and inquiry. Through asking questions, students think more

deeply about the text by pausing to reflect throughout reading. They first reflect, and then are

using inquiry by asking questions and seeking answers. Rather than being passive as answers are

given, they are actively asking for information. From the “fab four” graphic organizer, I saw that

the students thought about the passage thoroughly. They showed that they thoroughly

comprehend the text in order to think deeper and ask questions.

RECIPROCAL TEACHING
10
Clarifying proved to be much more difficult for the students. As I walked around the

classroom answering questions, I realized that many of them pertained to clarifying. However,

with a little more explanation, they understood. This was evident from the graphic organizer

because some students wrote words or phrases they did not understand, some wrote ​why​ certain

events were happening in the story, others wrote answers to their group’s questions, etc. Since

the students struggled with this aspect initially, but eventually discovered how to clarify, it

showed that this strategy helped them to comprehend. They used the clarifying aspect think of

things they did not initially think of. They were not sure what to write on their graphic

organizer, and so they thought more deeply about the text, and therefore, gained a more thorough

understanding of it.

Lastly, students made predictions. Students showed that they comprehended by not only

absorbing what they had already read, but also by applying it to what might happen in the future.

If students were not comprehending what they read, they would not be able to make predictions.

Reading the predictions that these students had made, made it very clear that they

comprehending what they read in order to apply it to future predictions.

Recommendations

After discovering these results, the next step to be taken is to spread an awareness of this

strategy. Reciprocal teaching is beneficial for both the teacher and the students- it is simple to

grasp for students, takes little preparation and planning time, is student centered, and improves

reading comprehension. I believe that if this strategy was implemented more often, reading

comprehension would not struggle as much as it does.

RECIPROCAL TEACHING
11
A further study that could be conducted would be a study on what reading levels this

strategy is beneficial for. For example, is it more beneficial for the elementary grades or could

high students benefit from it as well? The field of literacy should delve deeper into Reciprocal

Teaching by giving statistics on what levels benefit most from Reciprocal Teaching and which

benefit least.

A limitation to the study I conducted on the third grade students is that I did not have

previous knowledge of their reading comprehension before the reciprocal teaching strategy was

implemented. Though the graphic organizer revealed that they comprehended the text well using

reciprocal teaching, I did not have data that revealed the quality of their comprehension skills

when this strategy was not being implemented. My results of my methodology would have been

stronger if they proved that their comprehension was stronger with Reciprocal Teaching than it

was without.
RECIPROCAL TEACHING
12
References

Gomaa, O. (2015). The effect of reciprocal teaching intervention strategy on reading

comprehension skills of 5th grade elementary school students with reading disabilities.

International Journal of Psycho-Educational Sciences. 4(​ 6), 39-45.

Okkinga, M., van Steensel, R., van Gelderen, A. J.S, & Sleegers, P. J.C. Effects of

reciprocal teaching on reading comprehension of low-achieving adolescents. The

importance of specific teacher skills. ​Journal of Research in Reading, 41(​ 1), 20-41.

Pilten, Gulhiz (2016). The evaluation of effectiveness of reciprocal teaching strategies on

comprehension of expository texts. ​Journal of Education and Training Studies, 4(​ 10),

232-247.

Schu¨nemann, N., Spo¨rer, N., Vo¨llinger, V. A., & Brunstein, J. C., (2017). Peer feedback

mediates the impact of self-regulation procedures on strategy use and reading

comprehension in reciprocal teaching groups. ​ ​I​nstructional Science: An International

Journal of the Learning Sciences​, ​45​, 395–415.

Stricklin, K. (2011). Hands-on reciprocal teaching: A comprehension technique. ​The

Reading Teacher, 64​(8), 620-625.

RECIPROCAL TEACHING
13
Spencer, M., & Wagner, R. K. (2018). The comprehension problems of children with poor

reading

comprehension despite adequate decoding: A meta-analysis. ​Review of Educational

Research. 88(​ 3), 366-400.

McAllum, R. (2014). Reciprocal teaching: Critical reflection on practice.​ Central West

Aukland, 15​(1), 26-35.

Nippold, M. A. (2017). Reading comprehension deficits in adolescents: Addressing

underlying language abilities. ​Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 48​.

125-131.
RECIPROCAL TEACHING
14
Appendix