Reading for meaning: Reciprocal Reading Secondary for struggling readers in KS3

Reciprocal Reading Secondary (RRS) is a catchup intervention designed to improve reading comprehension skills for struggling readers in Key Stage 3 (ages 11 to 14). This project will carry out a random controlled trial (RCT) to test the efficacy and scalability of RRS.

Reading is an essential skill to access the educational curriculum and participate effectively in life. However, approximately 1 in 5 children in England cannot read well by age 11. Significant effort has been put into early years and primary interventions to support literacy development. Less attention has been directed towards literacy interventions at secondary level on the assumption that by this stage children have acquired these skills, even though for many children this is not the case. At GCSE in 2019, approximately 30% of students did not achieve a grade 4/C or above in English Language. There is an urgent need for teachers to use evidence-informed pedagogical approaches to teach reading comprehension, empowering young people with the reading skills that will enable their success at GCSE and into employment.

The Reciprocal Reading Secondary programme represents a new metacognitive, instructional approach using collaborative learning aimed to improve reading at secondary stage. Through two days of professional training, RRS equips secondary teachers and teaching assistants with the skills needed to diagnose students’ reading issues and tackle the underlying causes of poor reading comprehension. The model involves collaborative work among small groups of students, facilitated by a teacher or teaching assistant, to support understanding of the text and the use of four comprehension strategies: predict, clarify, question, summarise.

This RCT will measure impact and process outcomes for disadvantaged students in 20 English secondary schools. In each school, up to 40 Year 7 students identified as good readers but with poor comprehension will be recruited to the study and randomly assigned to the intervention and control conditions. Intervention students will attend a 20 to 30 minute RRS session, once a week, in groups of 5-6, over a period of at least 6 months. All participating students will undertake a pre- and post-test using the standardised New Group Reading Test and Access Reading Test. ANCOVA analysis will be used to identify any changes in their reading comprehension, reading accuracy and overall reading abilities. A process evaluation will assess training attendance, programme fidelity and non-contamination, teacher perceptions and engagement, teacher and school burden, and the significance of what participating students miss from the standard curriculum while taking part in RRS.

The study will prepare the RRS programme for scalability and readiness for further trial if this evaluation shows a significant effect size.