Peer Reading
Research shows that when applied to reading, Reciprocal Learning can
play a major role in helping students read and summarize difficult passages
(Hashey & Connors, 2003). This application of the strategy is
called Peer Reading, and it is especially useful in helping students overcome
the reading challenges typically associated with textbooks and
dense nonfiction writing: too many details, difficulty in separating the
essential from the nonessential information, or no sense of the overall
structure of the text.
Peer Reading involves seven steps:
1. Select a reading and break it up into manageable sections.
2. For each section, create a question or a set of questions that will
require a pair of students (Reader A and Reader B) to summarize the section.
For example, 4th grade teacher Paul Costas developed this set of
questions for a reading called “Surviving Everest.”
∘ Section 1 Questions (for Reader A)
What factors make Mount Everest so dangerous to climb?
How do climbers survive with so little oxygen?
∘ Section 2 Question (for Reader B)
What are the effects of the jet stream on climbers who reach the
top of Mount Everest?
∘ Section 3 Question (for Reader A)
What can climbers do to prepare for the extreme cold and high
winds?
∘ Section 4 Questions (for Reader B)
What happens once a climber reaches the Death Zone?
Why is it more dangerous to climb down Mount Everest than to
climb up it?
3. Divide students into pairs. Distribute the reading and the summarizing
questions to students.
4. Ask students to read the first section, mark their text, and then
review and summarize in coaching partnerships (Reader A puts her
reading away while the coach asks the summarizing questions and uses
his marked text to coach Reader A to a more complete answer).
5. Instruct students to continue reading the text in sections, reversing
roles as reader and coach for each section.
6. When they have finished reading, have students use the questions
and their marked texts to create a summary together.
7. Encourage student independence by modeling and coaching students
through the process of breaking readings into manageable chunks
and creating summarizing questions to test comprehension.