Reciprocal Reading is an interactive and systematic approach to teaching comprehension that helps children to develop personal understanding of any given text. It encourages interactive dialogue or discussion between teacher and learners – that once established – enables groups of readers to explore, question and discuss the meaning of a range of text in collaborative independent groups. Children need to be explicitly taught the reciprocal reading strategies and be made aware that they travel from one reading activity to another. There are five roles within Reciprocal Reading that the children must carry out as follows:
Boss-Decides who will do each job. Tells the group what to read. Invites each ‘worker’ to do their job after reading each chunk. Makes sure everyone is joining in.
Predictor: Use what they have read or clues from the illustrations to help figure out what the group will learn or what will happen in the text. They can change their predictions as they read on.
Questioner: Ask questions which will help the group to understand what has been read. Thinks of questions to ask as they read the text.
Summariser: Tells the group what they have read in their own words. Only tell the important information, not the little details. Keep it as short as they can. It is a reminder of what has been read so far.
Clarifier: They must clarify whenever they:
– Read a word they don’t understand.
– Find a sentence that doesn’t make sense.
– Are confused by what they have read.
In St Teresa’s Primary School we introduce the children to these roles and what they need to do when assigned that role using the characters:
Boss Bill
Predictor Paula
Questioning Queen
Summariser Sammy
Clarifier Clare