The Fab Four!

 

The entire second chapter of the book "Reciprocal Teaching at Work; Powerful Strategies and Lessons for Improving Reading Comprehension" by Lori D. Oczkus can be found for free online (http://www.reading.org/Libraries/Inspire/03-507_Chapter02.pdf).

 

Here are a few highlights that I thought would be helpful for some of you guys wanting to get started:

 

How to Begin Using Reciprocal Teaching

With Your Students

One of the burning questions teachers often pose is, Should I teach

all four strategies before I put them together in a reciprocal teaching

lesson? This is a natural concern, as most students are not yet proficient

in any of the strategies, and it seems daunting to expect them to use

all four at once. However, studies suggest that teachers may introduce

all four as quickly as possible to benefit from the power and research

behind multiple-strategy instruction (NICHD, 2000; Reutzel et al.,

2005). Therefore, you do not have to wait until students are completely

competent or familiar with each of the four reciprocal teaching strategies

before you jump in and begin using them in lessons together. In one

urban school in which I worked, we introduced the strategies for just

a few days each and then taught guided reading groups using the Fab

Four. After three months, the struggling fourth graders moved from

reading at a second-grade level to their own grade level.

 

TIPS!!

• Write the four strategies and if you wish the starters on a board or

chart.

• Use the posters, icons, or Reciprocal Teaching Dial

• Have students create a "4 flap book" and laminate it (then they can write with Expo markers) or on sticky notes and re-use it again and again!

• Use a prop and/or puppet for each strategy

• Give students the bookmark with the question stems provided to help scaffold.
Here is a link that Danielle found if you want to check out this one: http://m.readingrockets.org/content/pdfs/reciprocalteaching_bookmark.pdf

• Teach students hand motions for each of the 4 strategies so you can quickly signal to them what to discuss during turn and talk. Also, the "leader" of a Book Club would know when someone needed something "clarified" as they saw the signal, and so on.