Reciprocal Teaching at Work: Chapter 5

This is our final chapter of the book.  I hope you enjoyed reading and learning about reciprocal teaching.  Remember to visit Sarah and those that linked up at the end of this post.

The final chapter is about using reciprocal teaching in literature circles.

When using reciprocal teaching in a literature circle, you may decide to assign roles for each of the four strategies.  In addition " a discussion director" helps put these strategies together.   However, you may elect to have student freely discuss the book using the strategies.  Students are responsible for participation regardless of the structure.

What are the goals of reciprocal teaching in literature circles?

1) The goal is to increase comprehension using cooperative learning.

2) Allow students to work with the strategies using various texts types.

3) Allow student to be more responsible for use of strategies.

4) Foster independent use of strategies.

It requires extensive modeling and practice before you can ask student to work independently with the strategies in a literature circle.  After the foundation has been put into place you can introduce the literature circle with a group that the rest of the class watches to learn procedures.
These students have a role they model for the class and the class gets to try roles as well.


Jigsaw Huddles from Reciprocal Teaching at Work by Lori Oczkus from International Literacy Assoc on Vimeo.

The "jigsaw expert huddle" is another way to train students to be experts in their roles during literature circles.  Student have a role for each strategy. They come and huddle with the teacher to discuss their strategy.  They then return to their group prepared for discussion.

The discussion director was added to include other important reading strategies.  Role sheets are included in the book for student support.  Strategies should be continually modeled.   In addition, Students must have appropriate skills for conducting a discussion.  This includes listening and staying on topic. These need to be taught as well.

Literature circles invite opportunities to assess.
This can be done using teacher observation and notes.  Students can also record on the various discussion sheets individually or as a group. (These are included in the book.)


The remainder of the book includes additional references, lessons, handouts, and information to assist you in incorporating the reciprocal teaching in your classroom.  I recommend you get your own copy of the book to access all that is available for you to use.

Thank you for reading! Checkout Sarah's post!