What best describes reciprocal teaching and how would you implement it in the classroom?

• A. A dialogic strategy where students take turns leading discussions with predicting, questioning, clarifying, summarizing; implement through scaffolded prompts and turn-taking.
• B. A teacher-centered lecture approach with no student discussion.
• C. Independent silent reading with no guidance.
• D. Peer editing without discussion.

Answer: (A)

Reciprocal teaching is a collaborative dialogue that helps readers understand a text by having students take turns leading discussion and applying four key strategies: predicting what might happen, asking questions to probe meaning, clarifying unclear parts or vocabulary, and summarizing the main ideas. In the classroom, you start with modeling how to use these strategies while reading a passage with a small group. Then you assign roles so each student leads a part of the discussion—one person guides with predicting, another with questioning, another with clarifying, and another with summarizing—and you rotate these roles. You provide scaffolded prompts to support each strategy, such as “What do you think will happen next?” or “What does this paragraph mean?” or “Is there a word you don’t understand?” and “Can you summarize this section in your own words?” The prompts are gradually faded as students gain confidence, so they can carry the practice into other texts independently. This approach is distinct from teacher-centered lectures, silent reading with no guidance, or activities like editing that don’t involve structured, student-led discussion of strategies to monitor and improve understanding.