FFT’s Reciprocal Reading (Reciprocal Reading) aims to develop pupils’ understanding of a text and teach them important strategies for making sense of what they read. As a targeted intervention, the programme is used to address the reading difficulties of pupils who can decode a text, but struggle to understand it.
Reciprocal Reading is delivered to small groups (four to eight pupils) in addition to their usual reading/English lessons, by a trained teacher or teaching assistant (TA). It runs at least twice a week for 20 – 30 minutes, for a minimum of 12 weeks.
Teachers/TAs support pupils to repeatedly use the strategies ‘predict’, ‘clarify’, ‘question’ and ‘summarise’ on small sections of text to deal with any comprehension difficulties as they emerge. Through repeated use of these strategies, readers become more confident in dealing with misunderstandings and start to apply the strategies to their own independent reading.
Reciprocal Reading is provided by FFT Education and is available for Key Stage (KS) two and three pupils as a whole-class, cross-curricular or targeted approach. EEF has evaluated both the targeted and whole-class programme.
The version described here (and previously designated as a Promising Programme) is the targeted version, delivered to struggling readers in years 5 and 6.
Reading comprehension strategies, which focus on the learners’ understanding of written text are rated as high impact on the EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit. Alongside phonics, reading comprehension is a crucial component of early reading instruction, with lower attaining pupils appearing to particularly benefit from the explicit teaching of strategies to comprehend text.
The EEF trialled this specific targeted programme at both efficacy and effectiveness level. This means that the EEF have trialled this programme in both a smaller number of schools in best possible conditions and subsequently in a larger number of schools in circumstances that are as close as possible to everyday conditions.
Both trials showed a positive impact on attainment for reading. The first efficacy trial found that pupils in the targeted intervention made an average of two months’ additional progress in reading comprehension and overall reading, compared to an equivalent comparison group, with even greater benefits for pupils eligible for free school meals.
The effectiveness trial found that pupils in the targeted intervention made an average of one month’s additional progression in overall reading, compared to an equivalent comparison group. Analysis also indicated improvements in reading accuracy and sentence-level comprehension. However, it did not indicate improvements in passage comprehension, the programme’s main target.
This result has a four-padlock rating, meaning we are confident that this additional progress was caused by the intervention itself rather than other factors.
Further exploratory results showed that pupils who received at least 20 sessions over 12 weeks made roughly two months more progress than the average intervention pupil, suggesting that the intensity of the programme influences outcomes.
Teachers reported substantial increases in confidence, understanding of key concepts and practical knowledge following training, which was delivered with high levels of quality and attendance. Pupil engagement was consistently high, with the discussion-based format making reading feel more enjoyable and less like a task. The programme appeared to be more effective where pupils had strong prior reading skills and high engagement, and weaker where language or home factors posed barriers.
Taken together, these positive results have led the EEF to designate this as a ‘Promising Programme’.
- The latest effectiveness trial that took place in 295 schools across England.
- Approximately 30% of pupils involved in the trial were FSM-eligible.
- Around 90% of schools in the sample were urban, compared to 71% of schools at the national level. This limits the applicability of the trial’s results to rural settings.
- 50% of recruited schools were in Education Investment Areas, as defined by the terms of the Accelerator Fund from the DfE.
- 66% of the primary schools involved in the trial were rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted.
Programme delivery should be overseen by a teacher who can coordinate the staff who are trained to deliver Reciprocal Reading – usually teaching assistant (TAs). The teacher coordinator is provided with information on how to identify pupils most appropriate for the targeted intervention. This is a teacher judgement using existing knowledge of pupils and in-school assessment data on comprehension outcomes and decoding assessments to identify strong decoders who struggle to understand texts.
Two face-to-face training days, one attended at the start and one halfway through delivery, are provided for up to two teacher/TAs who will be delivering the intervention, alongside the teacher coordinator.
Teachers receive a 60-minute 1:1 online support meeting after each training day to support implementation. Schools also receive texts for the sessions, dictionaries and guidance materials. To support scale-up, Reciprocal Reading uses a train-the-trainer model: FFT trainers train teachers and TAs, while a Senior Trainer oversees them and monitors quality.
In both the efficacy and effectiveness trials, at least 12 pupils received the intervention, in groups of approximately six pupils, alongside normalEnglish/reading lessons. They received two 20 – 30-minute sessions per week, for at least of 12 weeks, to pupils in Years 5 and 6.
Some schools faced practical barriers such as timetabling issues, limited staff capacity and insufficient space for programme delivery. Despite this, most schools found workable solutions to support implementation.
In the effectiveness trial, pupil-reported enjoyment of the programme was linked to higher reading comprehension outcomes when assessed at the end of the intervention.
The average cost for one school to implement Reciprocal Reading for three consecutive years is £2,759 or £77 per pupil per year, assuming the intervention is delivered to 12 pupils each year (total of 36 pupils).
This is an estimate of holistic school costs to implement the programme at the time of the evaluation; schools will need to check the current purchase cost of the programme through Reciprocal Reading – FFT.
Reciprocal Reading is available nationally for KS2 and KS3 pupils, delivered as a whole-class, cross-curricular and an intervention approach. The version evaluated by the EEF, and deemed a Promising Programme is the targeted approach, for Year 5 and 6 pupils. The whole class version has also been evaluated by the EEF, at the same time as the targeted approach, but did not meet the criteria for a Promising Programme.
The Reciprocal Reading programme is offered in-person and remotely. The current model is the same as the version used in the trial. Small differences included an initial briefing session, which was primarily used to explain the trial details and allow time to identify targeted pupils, and two follow-up support meetings delivered online for 45 minutes to an hour. An anthology of ‘A Selection of Stories’ is included as part of the package, as it was in the trial.
To find out how to access training, see FFT’s website: Reciprocal Reading – FFT.
Practical, evidence-based recommendations that are relevant to all pupils, and particularly those struggling with their literacy can be found in the EEF’s Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2 guidance report.