Reciprocal Teaching: The Fab Four

Valerie Vasti, District Literacy Coach

John Hattie, an educational researcher asked a very important question: “As measured by student achievement, what works BEST in education?” He pursued the answer to that question by leading a team of researchers over a period of twenty years in a meta-analysis of over 800 studies on effective teaching and learning! WOW! The team determined that Reciprocal Teaching had an effect size of.74, which is researcher talk for achieving two years of growth in one year of time! WOW! WOW! A lead researcher of Reciprocal Teaching dubbed this suite of comprehension strategies the FAB FOUR. (Oczkus). As one of the Top 10 most effective teaching techniques (of 138 in Hattie’s study), Fab Four is more than just a catchy name for kids!

Making meaning or deep comprehension is the goal of reading. Reciprocal teaching is a scaffolded discussion technique built on four strategies that good readers use to achieve the goal: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing (Palincsar & Brown, 1984).

Teacher Carol Sole shows how her 3rd grade students are actively engaged with the text they are working with by using the collaborative, student-led strategy of reciprocal teaching. Using this research-based approach to reading, students in her class can be seen engaging in meaningful conversations as they take on the roles of predictor, clarifier, summarizer, and questioner in their reading groups.

While this video spotlights Reciprocal Teaching with 3rd graders, the powerful efficacy of the Fab Four has been evidence-backed for:

• Striving Readers (Cooper et al, 2000)

• English Language Learners. (Fung, Wilkinson, & Moore, 2003; Hashey & Connors, 2003; Sollars & Pumfrey, 1999)

• Gifted Readers

The benefits of the Fab Four across ALL grade bands or ages include:

• Increased Reading Comprehension

• Increased Retention of the Material Covered in the Text

Meet the Fab Four:

Predicting:

• Good readers anticipate using evidence from the text, e.g., text features before reading and what's happening (fiction) or what we are learning (informational) during reading. Predicting isn't guessing because we can say WHY we think what we think.

Questioning:

• Good readers ask and answer questions. Again, we can cite text evidence to support our thinking! The 5Ws and 1H questions are universally helpful!

Clarifying:

• Good readers monitor their comprehension from a word to the whole of the text. We may use phonics skills to decode a word; context clues to to figure out confusing points, words, or phrases; and, rereading and discussion to figure out how text fits together.

Summarizing:

• Good readers track main ideas and details. Text structure can guide readers in determining main ideas and important details (informational); or, determining themes and conflicts, climaxes, and resolutions (narrative).

The Fab Four in school

In school, students use age appropriate supports like the ones that follow. You may be wondering why we use the metaphor of the puzzle. The Fab Four work together - like the Beatles - to produce the best results. While each strategy is research-based and evidence-backed on its own, the power lies in applying multiple strategies flexibly to achieve the full picture of deep comprehension.

We use the Fab Four in whole class; small group; and, intervention for Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III instruction. AND, the super news is YOU can use the Fab Four at home, TOO!

The Fab Four at home

Predicting:

• BEFORE reading, predict together with your scholar by talking about what you anticipate the text will be about. Use the title, the cover, picture & captions for your clues. Scan or flip through the text for additional clues in titles, and sub-titles.

• DURING reading, pause and predict what you both think will happen. Ask your scholar, "Why do you think that?"

Clarifying:

• DURING reading, pause to reread or clarify challenging words and phrases. Often the sentence before and/or the sentence after provides hints to support the process of clarification. And sometimes, the phrase next to a challenging word actually defines it.

• Many students find it helpful to add the strategy of visualizing to further support clarifying. Ask your scholar, "What are you 'seeing' in your mind?" Or, even give your scholar time to sketch. Ask your scholar to explain the sketch or match it to the text that prompted the details of the sketch.

Questioning:

• DURING reading, discuss the questions that arise for you and your scholar.

• DURING reading, ask the 5Ws and 1 H questions - and follow up with higher-level questions: "Why do you think...?" and "How do you think...?"

Summarizing:

• DURING reading, track main ideas and important details. A useful prompt for tracking is, "So far...."

• DURING reading, pause for genuine reader response: "This part surprised me because...." "This part is interesting because...."

• AFTER reading, challenge each other to write a summary statement of no more than 20 words!

I am including at home bookmarks in this blog for your enjoyment. Please feel free to stop by my office to pick up printed and laminated versions or to chat about bringing the Fab Four into your home!