Four main strategies are frequently taught as part of reciprocal teaching: generation of questions, summarization, seeking clarification when confused, and prediction of what might occur later in the text. Optional additions include question answering, making inferences or drawing conclusions, listening, monitoring, thinking aloud, and elaborating.  

In reciprocal teaching, the teacher models the reciprocal teaching strategies and explains the strategies as she models them. Named scaffolding by Lev Vygotsky, a Russian education psychologist, the teacher then turns use of the strategies over to a group of readers, one of whom is the leader for the reading group. The leader guides the group in applying the strategies in the presence of the expert teacher. By participating in a number of lessons with the role of leader rotated among group members, the use of the strategies is practiced and eventually internalized by group members.

See: Multiple strategies instruction and Evaluation of reciprocal Teaching