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Updated on July 20, 2022

Reciprocal Teaching

Estimated reading: 5 minutes

Reciprocal Teaching at Work by Lori Oczkus is an invaluable book to own & reference to support instruction.  It has so many multi-sensory, direct approaches to teaching comprehension, with a focus on predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. Reciprocal Teaching by Lori Oczkus has ideas from Kindergarten to Grade 8 and above. It has so many wonderful multi-sensory strategies.

Each of the Fab Four should be introduced one at a time.  Here are some ideas:

  • Paula the Predictor

    • Paula is a clairvoyant. She looks into her crystal ball to make predictions. She speaks in a “clairvoyant’s” voice while making predictions about a book or reading passage. 
    • Paula uses words such as:  “I predict that…” “I see…” “I can tell that…”, etc. 
    • You can use a Magic 8 Ball or Snow Globe to represent an object for predicting (like a crystal ball).
    • Start to create a Four Corner Poster.  Take a large poster or piece of construction paper.  Fold over both sides, vertically.  Cut each of the sides in half horizontally, so that when folded, you have four “doors”.  The first door would say prediction.  Students can write the word, draw a picture (Paula could be on it), etc.  When you open the door, you would have phrases that help them make predictions such as: “I predict that…” “I think that…”, etc. (image?)
    • Teachers should model how to predict using a short passage.  
      • Next, students should get into groups of two or three and practice making a prediction with the same passage using the same language.
      • Finally, students should continue to practice making predictions with other short reading passages throughout the week using the same terminology that the teacher modeled.  
    • Have students role-play being “Paula the Predictor” for a certain book.  Here is an example of what students might say about Buzzy the Bumblebee by Denise Brennan-Nelson:
      • “Paula the Predictor”: (In a clairvoyant’s voice):  I am looking into my crystal ball.  I can see Buzzy the Bumblebee.  I see that Buzzy looks upset.  I think he is trapped on a flower.  I notice that he starts to climb down the flower, falls, and starts walking.  I predict that Buzzy stops flying and feels sad about it.  

  • Clara the Clarifier 

    • Clara points to words or phrases that she doesn’t understand.  This is another multi-sensory, direct approach to teaching the skill of clarifying.  It’s important that the teacher models this skill first. 
    • Use an object to represent clarifying such as a magnifying glass or eyeglasses to represent looking more “closely” at a word or idea.
    • Use a hand gesture such as putting two parallel hands up with palms facing in, to represent the “pause” button.  You could also have students hold their hands up to their eyes as though they have glasses.  These both represent stopping and looking closely at understanding the meaning of a word or idea. 
    • Create a poster with sentence stems such as:  I don’t understand the word _____.  I need help understanding _______.  I get confused where it says _________. 
    • Have students draw their version of Clara the Clarifier with keywords all around her.

  • Quincy the Questioner

    •  Quincy holds a microphone and asks many questions.  He is a reporter and wants to get the scoop.  When we think of questioning, we often think about the teacher asking questions as the students answer.  This is a very basic comprehension skill.  You want to focus on the student generating the questions, which is a much higher level of comprehension skill.  
    • Use an object such as a microphone when introducing generating questions.
    • Create a hand gesture to represent questioning such as holding up a “pretend” microphone.  
    • Fill in the third corner of your four-corner poster that has a picture of Quincy the Questioner.  Place question marks all around it along with questioning words (who, what, where, when, why).

  • Sammy the Summarizer 

    • The last component of Reciprocal Teaching is Summarizing. A summary retells the main ideas of the story in a shorter version. Oftentimes, students want to retell every detail of a story instead of summarizing the story with a few sentences. 
    • Introduce Sammy the Summarizer (Lori Oczkus’ Reciprocal Teaching at Work). He speaks in a southern accent and summarizes the story. 
    • To reinforce Sammy the Summarizer use a piece of rope or yarn as a lasso for an object or makes a lasso hand gesture when you summarize a story.
    • Use the “Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then (SWBST) strategy (see below for template). Students write one or two sentences with those 5 keywords. For example, Buzzy (somebody) wanted to fly, but he read in a book that his body was too big for his wings. So, he walked home where his parents told him to believe in himself.  Then, Buzzy could fly again. Create an anchor chart and have students write their ideas on post-it notes to place at each spot, or create a foldable with flaps for each title. 
    • As a follow-up to the SWBST activity, have students write a paragraph using each part piece. This helps structure their summary. 
    • Have students complete the last portion of their four-door poster for summarizing. 

For more amazing, multi-sensory ideas for teaching comprehension, see Reciprocal Teaching at Work by Lori Oczkus and check out the Reciprocal Teaching board on IMSE’s Pinterest page. 

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