Middle or high school students who struggle with reading skills often have low confidence, which makes it hard for them to stay motivated.
When I was a middle school teacher, one research-backed method I used to help these students build confidence and progress toward mastering literacy skills was reciprocal teaching. While this approach to small-group learning based on a shared text requires teachers to spend time defining roles and establishing norms, the results are well worth it.
Norms and roles of reciprocal teaching
For reciprocal teaching to be effective, students first need to understand what it means to respectfully engage in academic talk with their peers, and how to collaborate around a text. I recommend developing and displaying a written set of norms about “how we have discussions in this classroom,” and “how we engage in text-based discussions in this classroom.”
This process will give everyone in the classroom a common language and ways to respectfully correct their peers or help them get back on track.
An effective way to model peer-to-peer discussion for students is to have fellow teachers or other adults come into the classroom to show them what it sounds like in action. What they’ll hear is that academic discourse is built on positive observations such as, “You read with really strong expression right there,” and polite questioning like, “I didn’t totally know what you meant when you said that. Can you say more?”
Once the discussion norms are in place, students are prepared to learn the four fixed roles they’ll take on while reading the same text together:
- The Predictor is responsible for predicting what will come next in the narrative.
- The Questioner organizes all the questions the group has about ideas, characters, or motivations.
- The Clarifier’s role is to identify words the group doesn’t understand, find their meanings, and then teach those meanings to the rest of the group.
- The Summarizer distills the key points of the text that the class is studying.
To make sure students have a clear understanding of these roles, I recommend spending a day using an “I do, we do, you do” progression to model and enact each one, rotating students so they have a chance to take on all four roles. With this foundation in place, you’re ready to assign a passage or chapter and divide students into groups.
A flexible method
While reciprocal teaching centers on conversation among students, there are two simple tools that make those conversations more productive: role cards and graphic organizers.
Role cards are reminders of the responsibilities of each role. (I have seen classrooms where the teacher hands out role cards without the explicit instruction about each role, which is not as effective as using the cards to reinforce roles that have previously been clearly defined). Graphic organizers give students a place to take notes on what they’re learning in their own role and from their peers.
Another key to successful reciprocal teaching is rotating roles. Students should rotate through all four roles to develop the skills required for each one, and teachers should actively circulate as well. In my classroom, I would sit in with one group at a time, rather than requiring every group to report back to the whole class.
Speaking of time, I’ve found that reciprocal teaching is flexible. It can certainly take up an entire class period, but in summer school settings, for example, I’ve seen students benefit from 20- or 30-minute sessions.
Digging back in
This approach to literacy instruction gives students the opportunity to practice the skills they are struggling with in a safer and more intimate context than whole-class instruction.
I’ve found that middle and high school students are much more engaged when they take responsibility for a particular role.
This requires and inspires ownership of their unique deliverable. Teenagers really don’t like to let other teenagers down.
Reciprocal teaching builds students’ confidence by flipping the script and supporting them in becoming the teacher of a particular text. For students who aren’t used to academic success, becoming an expert is enormously motivating.
Taking on different roles also teaches metacognition. Students learn to think about how they think while they are engaging with a text.
Struggling readers move beyond saying, “I don’t get this,” and “I give up,” to saying, “I don’t understand this one specific part of this passage,” and digging back in.
The benefits of this model extend beyond the ELA classroom. Once students have the self-assurance to engage in academic conversations with their peers, they have a framework they can apply to any text in any subject. That skill builds their sense of confidence and motivates them to keep practicing and learning.
The illustration above was created with AI.
