FFT Reciprocal Reading (Reciprocal Reading) aims to develop children’s 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 children 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, with 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 children to use the strategies predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarising, repeatedly on small sections of the 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 KS three pupils as a whole-class, cross-curricular, or targeted approach. EEF has evaluated both the targeted and whole-class programme, however, the version designated as a ‘Promising Programme’, and described here, is the targeted version of Reciprocal Reading, which was delivered to Year five and six pupils.
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.
EEF trialled this specific targeted programme at efficacy level. This means EEF have trialled this programme in a number of schools in best possible conditions. The independent evaluation found that children in the targeted intervention made an average of two months’ additional progress in reading comprehension and overall reading, compared to an equivalent comparison group. This result has a three padlock security rating, meaning we are moderately confident that this difference was due to the intervention and not to other factors. Further exploratory results showed that the intervention potentially had a larger positive impact on children who were eligible for free school meals, gaining three months’ additional progress in reading comprehension and overall reading compared to an equivalent comparison group, although this is based on a smaller number of pupils, so should be interpreted with caution.
The positive results of this evaluation have led EEF to designate the targeted Reciprocal Reading programme as a ‘Promising Programme’.
The EEF are currently evaluating Reciprocal Reading as a targeted intervention at effectiveness level, to evaluate its impact when delivered on a wider scale under everyday conditions.
- This was an efficacy trial that took place in 98 schools. The schools were located in the North of England and the Midlands.
- 36% of the pupils receiving the targeted intervention were eligible for FSM. This is well above national average.
- 88% of the schools involved were Ofsted-rated Good or Outstanding schools. This is roughly average.
Programme delivery is overseen by a teacher who can coordinate the staff who are trained to deliver Reciprocal Reading – usually 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 against some simple guidelines to identify strong decoders but struggle to understand texts.
Two face-to-face training days delivered at the start and halfway through delivery, are provided for up to two teachers/TAs who will be delivering the intervention, alongside the teacher coordinator. There are two to three half-days of in-school support sessions following training, to support implementation. Schools also receive story books, dictionaries, and guidance materials.
In the trial, at least 12 children received the intervention, in groups of approximately six pupils, in addition to normal reading/English lessons, delivering two 20 – 30-minute sessions a week, for a minimum of 12 weeks, to pupils in Year five and six. In the evaluation, teachers spent substantially more time delivering the targeted programme than the minimum recommendation, delivering well above the minimum of 12 weeks. This suggests that the programme is highly feasible to implement.
Pupil-reported enjoyment of the programme was linked to higher reading comprehension when assessed at the end of the intervention.
For the programme as trialled in the evaluation, the average cost of FFT Reciprocal Reading for 6 pupils was around £2,436, or £135 per pupil per year when averaged over three years.
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 with versions for KS2 and KS3 pupils, delivered as a whole-class, cross-curricular and a targeted approach. The version evaluated by the EEF, and deemed a Promising Programme is the targeted approach, for Year five and six 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 targeted version available is very similar to that trialled but is offered in-person and remotely. Small differences include an initial briefing session prior to commencing the programme to allow time to identify targeted pupils, two follow-up support meetings delivered online for one to one and a half hours, and an anthology of ‘A selection of Stories’ is provided.
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.