Book Detectives: Reciprocal Teaching

Book Detectives is an amazing resource that I use during reading groups. It's not my idea (it came from Moray Council Aberdeenshire Council in Scotland), but I have made it my own and established it in my classroom routines.



The above task cards are developed by me using the Book Detective roles. I created Learning Intentions and Success Criteria to go with every role. On the back, there are examples, questions to consider, or other prompts to help pupils fulfill the success criteria.

I implement these task cards in different ways. I have 4 reading groups. Each reading day, I meet with 2 reading groups (by the end of the week, I meet with each group twice. We have 4 reading days). Every reading group is given a task from the Book Detectives ring that they must complete. Sometimes each group has the same task, sometimes different ones, depending on the book they're reading or the skills they need to practice. With older children, I would slowly train them to become more independent with the roles/tasks and have each member of the group fulfill a role and feedback to their reading group. I'm no where near that with my current class, but maybe some time in the future with a more able class I will be able to implement Book Detectives that way.

How do you implement and organise your reading groups?