In the context of reciprocal teaching, what should a teacher try to eliminate during assessments?

In the context of reciprocal teaching, a teacher should focus on eliminating direct influence on student responses during assessments to ensure that the assessments accurately reflect the students' understanding and ability to engage with the material. Reciprocal teaching revolves around a collaborative learning framework where students take turns leading discussions and teaching each other. By minimizing the teacher's influence, the assessment can provide a true measure of how well the students have grasped the key concepts and are able to apply them independently.

When a teacher directly influences student responses, it can skew the results, as students may rely on the teacher’s prompts or cues instead of expressing their own understanding. This undermines the purpose of assessment, which is to gauge student learning and promote self-directed engagement with the content. As students participate in reciprocal teaching, it’s vital they develop skills to articulate and defend their own ideas without undue teacher input during evaluations.

The other options, such as visual aids, group discussions, and written assignments, play significant roles in the learning process and can enhance students' comprehension and retention of information, but they do not represent a direct influence on student responses in the same way that the teacher's intervention might.