Contributed by Caitlin B

Rationale

     Cognitive Apprenticeship, as defined by Alvermann (2007) et al, is a method by which scaffolding is used to explicitly teach strategies to students.  As such, reciprocal teaching is one example of how this process can be implemented as a strategy.  Reciprocal teaching was first researched by Palinscar and Brown (1984) and was based on the socio-cognitive research done by Vygotsky (1978).  Empowerment and independence are benefits of this strategy as students take ownership of their own thinking and learning.  The key to success with reciprocal teaching is using authentic text and to model strategies as you teach them. focusing on Questioning, Clarifying, Summarizing, and Predicting.

Procedure

i.  Activities:  What reciprocal teaching looks like...

--begin by asking students to take out and open their common text A Place Where the Sea Remembers by Sandra Benitez to the first chapter, "La Curandera"

--Script of questioning:

Teacher:   Look at the title.  What questions do you have before we read?  I am wondering what a curandera is.  I can see that the subtitle says, "healer" but I am not convinced that is what the chapter will be about.     

(Wait for student questions to emerge.  Read first few sentences.  Prompt again for questions and write them down on an overhead as they come up)

Teacher:  Let's read the rest of the section on our own.  Mark down any parts that need clarifying.   

(students read the section "La Curandera")

Teacher: After reading, is there anything that needs to be cleared up?  I was not sure what she was doing at the edge of the sea.  I looked at it again, but I am still not sure.  

(Students may have clarifications of their own.  Try to let them work through them with teacher guidance, not answers.)

Possible student: It took me a while to understand that she had some kind of staff in her hand and that it was a swordfish beak. 

Teacher:  So, what do you think is the point of this section?  I think it has something to do with the rest of the story that we may not know yet.  Otherwise, why would it be here?  What do you think?

Possible student:  I think it might be to show the relationship she has with the sea.  She seems really close to it.

Teacher:  What will happen next?  Will we find out why she was there?

(allow students to give their predictions.  If you feel it’s needed, offer another model here.)

--Be sure to allow for enough modeling that within the timeframe of the script, students begin to be released to their own thinking.  Follow up with the students following the same order of strategies, questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and predicting, in small groups and recording their ideas on the next chapter.  Ask them to share these with the class at the next class meeting.

ii.  Resources: Benitez, Sandra (1993).  A Place Where the Sea Remembers.  Scribner Paperback Fiction: New York, NY.

iii.  Research: 

Alvermann, Donna, Stephen Phelps, & Victoria Ridgeway.  (2007). Content Area Reading and Literacy: Succeeding in Today's Diverse Classrooms.  Boston: Pearson, p. 105-109.

Palincsar, Brown. (1984). 

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes.  Cole M. John -Steiner V, Scribner S & Souberman E. eds.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.  p. 159.