America's educational system is graduating high school students who are unable to meet the literacy demands of the 21st Century. To be successful, a student must be able to gain knowledge, act as a problem solver, and possess the ability to make informed decisions in all aspects of life (Goldman, 2012). A deficit in reading comprehension can prevent students from meeting these practical demands. Thus, all instructors and students are responsible for reducing this deficit. The goal of the present study is to determine teaching strategies that are proven to work, placing a particular focus on the efficacy of reciprocal teaching strategies as a form of cooperative learning. Reciprocal strategies require students to alternate the role of instructor in a group setting while predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing the text. After the results were analyzed, the research did not indicate a statistically significant difference in the scores generating through reciprocal teaching and those generated through traditional teaching. The mean values, however, did indicate an improvement from the pretest to the post-test scores in the reciprocal reading group as well as the traditional reading group. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]