This study implemented Reciprocal Teaching as the pedagogical approach. A description of the participants will be presented first, followed by the teaching materials for the present study. Next, the instructional framework of this 6-week study will be detailed, including data collection, and data analysis.
Participants
The participants of this study were 34 first-year senior high school students in Taichung city, Taiwan. There were 13 males and 21 females in total. They attended the researcher’s English classes, which lasted 50 minutes, five times a week. Their English proficiency levels varied from elementary to intermediate. About 35% of them either attended cram schools or received tutoring sessions after school.
For the purpose of the study, six students were classified as high proficiency readers, for their English average scores in the first semester were all above 80 points.
Four students, whose English scores were below 60 points, were sorted into the low achieving group.
Materials
Five nonfiction articles were selected as the target genre for readers based on the following reasons. First, in order to build up students’ framework for English compositions, five nonfiction articles with clear organization in paragraphs, that is, the introduction, the body, and the conclusion were chosen. In addition, a rough survey of the 12 lessons in the textbook for Grade 10 English currently in use at the
up to 83% fell into the category of nonfictions, while only 2 lessons belonged to short stories, which proved the significance of the nonfiction genre had in high school textbooks. Since the whole treatment was administered in a regular English classroom, choosing materials from textbooks instead of other outside sources became a natural decision.
Table 3 presents the key information about each article, such as the number of words and paragraphs, as well as the readability based on Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease. The higher the score for reading ease is, the easier it is to read. As shown in Table 3, the scores range from 63.2 to 88.8, which means these articles should be easily understood by 7th to 8th graders, namely, the participants’ age. The average numbers of words and the paragraphs are 398 and 5. When given to the participants, the articles were printed on an A4 sheet of paper with the titles.
Table 3. The Comparison of Five Articles
No. Title
Instructional Framework
The whole study was divided into 3 stages, lasting for 6 weeks in Fall 2018 (see Table 4). At the first stage, the researcher introduced the four reading cognitive strategies of Reciprocal Teaching through demonstration and actual practice with students. A detailed lesson plan for the 100-minute course was provided in Appendix A. After the two periods of teacher-led instruction for stage 1, students had a comprehensive understanding of how these four strategies work.
The next stage was the treatment, starting from the second week to the fifth.
Nonfiction texts were particularly selected. Each article took two periods to complete the whole Reciprocal Teaching process. In the first half of the class, a teacher-led mode was utilized (see Table 5). Students were led to apply Reciprocal Teaching strategies one at a time, which was almost identical to teacher-led procedure for stage 1. Different articles were delivered each week. The four articles for students to read were as follows: What is Written in the Stars, Inventing a Better World, The Magic of Science, and Dancing to Nobody’s Tune. At the initial 5 minutes on the first day, the teacher gave out the target article and the worksheet “My Reciprocal Teaching Reading Journal” to the participants. After asking students to sit in groups of four based on their own choice, the teacher helped students review the four reading strategies of Reciprocal Teaching or cleared up confusion they had come across in application. When everything was ready, the teacher led students to go through the four strategies. What should be noted was that the teacher asked students to keep the worksheet themselves as they needed to finish at least one assigned role in the remaining worksheet at home for the next day’s discussion. Whoever successfully finished the homework gained 10 extra points for their English grades.
Table 4. The Three-Stage Plan
Stage Time Descriptions Materials
1 Week 1. Preparation
※ Students must finish writing at least one assigned role in “My Reciprocal Teaching reading journals” before student-led class.
- Articles:
Table 5.Teacher-led Discussion Procedures for Stage 2
Time Descriptions 5
(min)
a. The teacher asks students to sit in groups of four.
b. The teacher gives out the target article and the worksheet to students and reminds students to write down their own answers in blue pen.
40 (min)
The teacher guides students to apply Reciprocal Teaching strategies to the target paragraphs step by step.
a. Prediction:
- The teacher asks one student to volunteer to read aloud the title first, (and if necessary, the first sentence of the paragraphs) and asks the class to guess what this article may be about based on the title.
- The teacher asks students to share and discuss their guesses with group members. Students can pencil down answers they like from their members.
b. Clarification:
- The teacher asks everyone to read aloud the target paragraphs and underline any confusing parts. Students try to solve problems by themselves first.
- Students work in pairs to share and discuss the parts they don’t understand with group members. Students can pencil down answers they like from their members.
- The teacher asks students to volunteer to share their confusion and solutions orally with the whole class.
c. Summary:
- The teacher asks students to circle any key words they find important in the target paragraphs. After gathering one or two students’ answers, the teacher writes those key words on the blackboard and asks students to make one or two sentences by using them.
- Students work in pairs to share and discuss their summaries with group members. Students can pencil down answers they like from group members.
- The teacher asks students to volunteer to share their summaries orally with the whole class.
d. Question:
- Students write down self-generated questions in blue pen first.
- Students work in pairs to share and discuss their questions with group members. Students can pencil down what they like from their members.
- The teacher asks students to volunteer to share their questions orally and get the class to answer them.
5 The teacher makes sure that everyone finishes writing their worksheets for the
As for the remaining half of the class, the discussion became student-led (see Table 6). The student leader, played by the Predictor, conducted the whole discussion and kept the time. Students changed different roles for different articles in order to become seasoned with the four strategies. After every student had sat in groups and confirmed the roles, the teacher checked their worksheets first. This round, it was the predictor who monitored the Reciprocal Teaching process. The discussion sequence went on in the following sequence: predicting, clarifying, summarizing, and questioning. While students were doing Reciprocal Teaching discussions, whenever students came across ideas they liked from their members, they were encouraged to pencil the ideas down on their worksheets as a contrast to their own ideas in blue pen.
This was to distinguish the differences between original and revised answers and to develop their self-awareness of more refined thoughts and statements.
Table 6.Student-led Discussion Procedures for Stage 2
Duration Descriptions
5 (min)
a. Students sit in groups of four, and select a different role to play from the previous round.
b. The teacher checks the worksheet “My Reciprocal Teaching Reading Journal.”
※ Whoever successfully finishes the homework will gain 10 extra points for their English grades.
40 (min)
The Predictor plays the leader to guide the whole discussion. The role content and procedure are as follows.
a. Predictor: Reread the previous paragraphs or the summaries and share own predictions. Others listen or share their predictions.
b. Clarifier: Point out the reading parts he/she has problems with and shares own solutions. Others listen or share solutions or other problems.
c. Summarizer: Share his/her summaries for the target paragraph.
Others listen or share their summaries.
d. Questioner: Share questions. Invite others to answer or share theirs.
5 (min)
Students finish writing the discussion for the day and the teacher collects everyone’s worksheets.
Early in June 2018, a pilot study was conducted by the researcher. The results corroborated the findings by Hacker and Tenent (2002), who pointed out three key factors determining the success of Reciprocal Teaching implementation: strategy use, dialogue, and scaffolded instruction. As for strategy use, weekly teacher-led discussions were specially arranged to keep students on the right track of applying Reciprocal Teaching strategies adequately. Another effort made to improve the quality of students’ answers was that students were encouraged to compare and contrast their original answers with their group members’ in class, and note down any better versions to emulate others.
At the last stage, the researcher asked students to fill out the “Perception Questionnaire” for data collection and analysis in addition to the five reading journals.
In a word, the overall instructional framework of this study can be briefly displayed in the following table (see Table 7).
Table 7. The Overview of Implementation Procedures
Steps Time Descriptions
1 Jun. 2018 One-week Pilot Study
2 Oct. 2018 to Nov. 2018 1. One-week Preparation 2. Five-week Treatment
3 Dec. 2018 Wrap up with Questionnaires