Reciprocal Reading, also called reciprocal teaching, is a set of four strategies taught to struggling readers, primarily to develop their comprehension monitoring abilities. In pairs or small groups, participants sharing a common text take turns assuming the roles of teacher and student. The group members then pose questions that focus on main ideas. The group discusses and clarifies remaining difficulties in understanding and then makes a prediction about future content. Next, a second student takes on the role of teacher for a subsequent segment of text.
Students then question the teacher about the content.
After a subsequent segment of text is read, the teacher questions the students. As the questioning process continues, students learn to imitate the teacher's questioning behavior. Studies demonstrating the success of reciprocal reading with secondary students have used about 20 days for the intervention. Assessments in the form of observations, quizzes, and standardized tests were used to document student learning. Certified teachers who have taken a course in reading can implement the strategy from the descriptive overview provided here.