Reciprocal Teaching:A Bridge To Effective

Accountable Talk

Dr. William Elkins, DirectorSchool Services, Senior High Schools

Clear Expectations is the Principle of Learning that was

emphasized throughout LAUSD during the 2001-2002 school

year.

The goal for the 2002-2003 school year regarding the

Principles of Learning is to continue the implementation of

Clear Expectations while adding Academic Rigor and Accountable Talk.

What is Academic Rigor?

Academic Rigor is defined by the level of expectations we have for

students!

What does rigorous work look like in each of the content areas?

Academic Rigor is associated with work that challenges

students to:• Think off of the page.• Read for “on-the-surface” as well as “under-the-

surface” information.• Produce grade level work that satisfies more than

Sgt. Joe Friday’s request to, “Just give me the facts Ma’am! I only want the facts!”

• Engage in the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy and develop the ability to effectively use skills such as analyzing, comparing, contrasting, explicating and synthesizing information.

What is Accountable Talk? What does talk that is truly accountable look like in the

content areas?

For decades, educators have enthusiastically promoted the value of student talk as part of instructional strategies such as

“Cooperative Learning.”

While student talk may enhance learning, there is no research proving that merely getting

students to engage in conversation results in improving

student achievement.

It sounds like a great idea for students to talk to one another in

the classroom! How can it be possible that students talking together, sharing ideas and

perspectives does not improve student achievement?

The answer to that question is very simple!

“You can not confuse activity with accomplishment.”

John Wooden

The notion of keeping students active is usually well meaning. But it can also result into little

more than unfocused, ineffective busy work.

Research has concretely demonstrated that only when

student talk is carefully orchestrated and conducted

within a thinking curriculum of rigorous and coherent

instructional tasks does student achievement improve.

What does this type of rigorous, coherent, thinking curriculum, where students talking to one

another actually improves student achievement, look like?

Accountable Talk is talk by both students and teachers that is

rigorous, coherent and equitably distributed.

Accountable Talk promotes academic rigor, is a characteristic

of quality instruction and is a crucial strategy for socializing

intelligence.

Reciprocal Teaching can serve as a bridge to facilitate effective

Accountable Talk.

What is Reciprocal Teaching?

• Reciprocal Teaching is a researched based instructional approach to help students improve their reading comprehension skills by mastering the four key strategies of questioning, clarifying, summarizing and predicting.

• Reciprocal Teaching is a coherent instructional process structuring student talk around the strategies of questioning, clarifying, summarizing and predicting.

“You can not confuse activity with accomplishment.”

John Wooden

How can Reciprocal Teaching provide a coherent framework for students in the implementation of Accountable Talk?

• In each discussion group, students have a specific responsibility for student talk, based on which of the four strategies they have been assigned.

• Students must make reference to the textbook or other information to support their position.

• Students must develop hypotheses and construct explanations.

• Students challenge the quality of one another’s assumptions, evidence and conclusions.

• Students must synthesize several sources of information.

How can Reciprocal Teaching provide a coherent framework for teachers to facilitate

effective Accountable Talk?• Teachers re-enforce for students their expectations

for respect, rigor and equitable participation.• Teachers insist that students explicate the

reasoning supporting their opinions, positions, predictions or theories.– “How did you arrive at that conclusion?”

• Teachers insist that the conclusions students make are based on coherent and sufficient evidence.– “So let us see if we understand your reasoning…”

What is Reciprocal Teaching?

• Reciprocal Teaching is a researched based instructional approach that teaches students the strategies that good readers use such as questioning, clarifying, summarizing and predicting.

• Reciprocal Teaching provides a tight, coherent and comprehensive framework that can serve as a bridge to facilitate effective discussion groups such as Accountable Talk.

• Reciprocal teaching can also serve as a bridge to introduce student led conferences based on student accountable.

Action Plan For A Culturally Relevant Education That Benefits African American

Students And All Other Students• Sponsored by Genethia Hudley Hayes• Presentation: Carol D. Lee, Ph.D. Associate

Professor, Northwestern University, School Of Education and Social Policy on October 31, 2001

• Paper: “It’s the Breath of the Ancestors ‘I Remember - I Believe’ Educating African American Youth”

- Oral tradition in the African American Community

Structure

Structure

Structure

The key to implementing Effective Accountable Talk!

“The more structure….the better the quality of student

talk…the greater the likelihood for

an improvement in student achievement.”

The key to implementing Effective Accountable Talk

“The less structure….the poorer the quality of

student talk….the least likelihood for an improvement in student

achievement”.

The moral to the story is Accountable Talk is a viable instructional strategy that can

help improve student achievement but only when

students talking to one another is structured within a framework of

a rigorous coherent protocol.

Reciprocal Teaching provides a structured, rigorous and coherent framework that can serve as an

ideal bridge to facilitate the effective implementation of

Accountable Talk.

Any attempt to implement Accountable Talk without a structured coherent framework of

this nature would make us guilty of:

• using instructional strategies that are worn out, have been proven to be unsuccessful in the past and then naively expecting these same strategies to produce effective results.

• failing to appreciate and respect the powerful difference between activity and accomplishment.

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