What is Balanced Literacy?

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APPLICATION OF RECIPROCAL TEACHING IN IMPROVING
READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS AN ACTION RESEARCH
WITH 5TH GRADE Serap Cavkaytar, PhD Sefik
Yasar, Prof. Dr. scavkayt_at_anadolu.edu.tr
syasar_at_anadolu.edu.tr ANADOLU
UNIVERSITY ESKISEHIR, TURKIYE 2011
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What is Reciprocal Teaching?

• Reciprocal teaching, first developed by Annmarie
  Palinscar and Ann Brown (1984). It is an
  instructional procedure for teaching students to
  use multiple comprehension strategies flexible
  and interactively to improve reading
  comprehension.

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What is reciprocal teaching?
http//projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title
Reciprocal_Teaching
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Problem

• Different research shows that the expected level
  required for language development has not been
  reached in Turkey.
• The results of PIRLS and PISA tests show that
  comprehension skill among Turkish students is
  below international average.
• There were some problems that we experienced
  during the application of the primary school
  program which was initiated in 2004.
• It is stated that 25 of the primary school class
  teachers find themselves lacking the skills to
  teach Turkish.

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Significance

• Many projects that have studied the reciprocal
  teaching and reading strategies have found that
  these are useful for enhancing reading
  comprehension skills. However, in Turkey, no
  research was found that focused on the
  application of the reciprocal teaching, in
  primary education, in 5th grade level.

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Purpose

• The purpose of this study is to investigate the
  efficiency of reciprocal teaching in improving
  reading comprehension skills of 5th grade
  students in primary education.

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Research questions

• How does the teaching which is applied according
  to the reciprocal teaching effect the students
  reading comprehension abilities?
• How are the reading strategies applied during the
  application process of the reciprocal teaching
  model?

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Design Action research

• The research was designed as an action research
  since it aimed to put forth the application
  process of the reciprocal teaching.
• This action research was conducted in the
  2007-2008 education year the spring term in the
  Turkish language arts lesson with 5th grade
  students.
• The teaching application was introduced to the
  whole class. But only the data from 6 students
  was analyzed.

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Data collecting techniques
Researcher Observation Reflective diary Video Records Students Video Records Reading comprehension tests Students artifacts Interview Classroom Teacher Teacher diary Interview Trustworthiness Committee Balanced literacy control form
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The Weekly Instructional Cycle
Preparation Preparation of the lesson plan
appropriate to the principles of balanced
literacy approach.
General Evaluation The researcher and
trustworthiness committee wached the video with
balanced literacy lesson control checklist.
According to the decisions made and the
evaluation results taken, preparing a new action
plan.
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Data analysis

• Quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques
  have been utilized.
• Analysis of Quantitative data
• Analysis of Qualitative data

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Analysis of quantitative data

• How did the teaching based on reciprocal
  teaching effect the students reading
  comprehension abilities?
• In the analysis of quantitative data, the average
  and the standard deviation of the grades,
  The students who participated in the research
  were given a pre and post test. The analysis of
  quantitative data and the average and the
  standard deviation of the grades were calculated.
  In the statistical analysis used in the research,
  the level of significance was accepted to be
  0.05.

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Analysis of qualitative data
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Research validity

• For the preparation of the action plans, the
  views of the trustworthiness committee which
  usually came together weekly were taken into
  consideration.
• In order to identify the requirements and to
  collect believable and reliable data, sufficient
  time was spent in the research environment.
• There were no comments on the qualitative data.
  However, direct references to the data were
  selected to explain the qualitative data.
• Relating the results gathered from the data of
  this study and other literature an attempt was
  made to present all of the findings as a whole.

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Conclusion

• It has been shown that the application of the
  teaching based on the reciprocal teaching in the
  fifth grade Turkish lesson was effective in
  promoting the students reading comprehension
  skills.
• In this research, on the whole, it was observed
  that the use of reciprocal teaching was effective
  in providing educational support in the
  education-teaching process.
• In the improving of reading comprehension skills,
  the findings which were obtained from qualitative
  data showed that students improved in predicting,
  clarifying, questioning, and summarizing skills
  by making use of balanced literacy in an
  interactive environment.

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Conclusion cont

• In the research it was observed that the
  component of shared reading was an effective
  component in teaching the reading comprehension
  strategies both directly and indirectly and that
  the students participation in reading was high.
• It was also observed that the usage of balanced
  literacy components and reciprocal teaching in
  reading comprehension affected students class
  participation positively.

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Conclusion cont

• The students were given opportunities to use the
  reading comprehension strategies they learned
  through their independent reading.
• Moreover, it was seen that the interactive
  teaching environment helped students in improving
  intellectual skills.
• According to the findings which were obtained
  from the ideas of the students at the end of the
  school term, students showed positive attitudes
  towards the Turkish art lessons.

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Suggestions

• The reciprocal teaching should be used to improve
  reading comprehension skills in the primary
  school fifth grade Turkish lessons by the
  teachers. In the planning the teacher will
  benefit from the reciprocal teaching.
• The effects of reciprocal teaching on developing
  students reading comprehension should be studied
  further for classes other than Turkish lesson.

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Selected References

• Carter, Carolyn J.(1997) Why reciprocal teaching?
  Educational Leadership, 54(6), 64-68.
• Feldman, A. (2008). Validity and qualitiy in
  self-study. Educational Researcher, 32(3), 26-28.
• Fitzgerald, J. (1999). What is this thing called
  balance?. The Reading Teacher, 53(2), 100-107.
• Hashey, Jane M., Connors, Diane J.(2003). Learn
  from our journey reciprocal teaching action
  research. The Reading Teacher, 57 (3), 224-232.
• Hubbard, R. S. ve Power, B. M.(2003). The art of
  classroom inquiry A handbook for
  teacher-researchers. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
• Johnson, A. P. (2005). A short guide to action
  research. (2. baski). USA Pearson Education,
  Inc.
• Kemmis, S. ve McTaggart, R. (1988). The action
  research planner. (3. baski). Australia,
  Victoria Deakin University Press.
• Kelly, Marrie, Moore, Dennis, W. Tuck, Bryan.
  F,. (1994). Reciprocal teaching in a regular
  primary school classroom. Journal of Educational
  Research, 88(1), 53-61.
• Mills, G. E. (2003). Action research. A guide for
  the teacher researcher. Upper Saddle River, NJ
  Pearson Education, Inc.
• Oczkus, Lori D.(2003). Reciproal teaching at
  work Strategies for improving reading
  comprehension. Orinda, California, IRA.
• Palincsar, A. S, Ransom, K., Derber, S. (1989)
  Collaborative research and development of
  reciprocal teaching. Educational Leadership,
  46(4), 3740.
• Rosenshine, B., Meister, C. (1994). Reciprocal
  teaching A review of the research. Review of
  Educational Research, 64(4), 479-530.
• Seymour, Jennifer., R., Osana, Helena,.
  P.(2003). Reciproal teaching procedures and
  principles two teachers developing
  understanding. Teaching and Teacher Education.
  19, 325-344.

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Acknowledgement

• Ali Ersoy and S. Dilek Belet are acknowledged for
  their contribution on the trustworthiness
  committee .