ABSTRACT
Recitation teaching has been found to characterize many educational programs for language minority students and low-achieving at-risk students, as well as those for students in general (Goodlad, 1984). This instructional approach features highly routinized and/or scripted interaction, teacher domination, and a focus on isolated and discrete skills. Recent research, however, suggests the efficacy of responsive teaching, especially in conjunction with culturally compatible activity settings (Au, 1993; McLeod, 1994; Tharp, 1989). Responsivity is used here to mean assisted performance provided to a learner that is within the leamer's zone of proximal development (Dixon-Krauss, 1996; Tharp & Gallimore, 1989), that is, teaching adjusted to a level just above what an individual might accomplish independently. For teaching to fall within the leamer's zone of proximal development, constant monitoring of the learner must take place.
