Three Low-Tech Active Student Responding Strategies for Inclusive Online Teaching

This article discusses how three low-tech instructional strategies, typically used in face-to-face teaching, can be successfully used in synchronous and asynchronous online instruction with students with high-incidence disabilities and their typical-learning peers in inclusive online classes. The three strategies are choral responding, response cards, and guided notes. Each strategy has been researched extensively and has been shown to result in high levels of active student responding, which improves students’ learning with and without disabilities across various academic subjects and grade levels. With high-tech tools, such as video conferencing platforms and learning management systems, educators can successfully use these strategies during online teaching. This article describes each strategy, presents research on its effectiveness, and suggests potential adaptations when used during inclusive online instruction, including students with high-incidence disabilities and those at-risk.

Using Electronic Active Student Responding for Students With EBD

Teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders often struggle with increasing student participation while maintaining a positive classroom environment. Active student responding (ASR) occurs when a student says, writes, or engages in some observable response following a question. This article identifies and describes three electronic approaches to ASR and provides teachers with tips for effective implementation with students with emotional and behavioral disorders.

Increasing Opportunities to Respond for Students With Internalizing Behaviors: The Utility of Choral and Mixed Responding

Increasing students’ opportunities to respond (OTR) is a low-intensity strategy effective in increasing engagement. Building on the work of Haydon and colleagues, we compared two types of OTR, choral and mixed (70% choral, 30% individual), to examine the utility of these strategies in increasing active student responding and accuracy during mathematics for two elementary-age students with internalizing behaviors. Results indicated the general education teacher implemented both OTR strategies with high fidelity with limited university support. However, results of this alternating treatment design were unable to distinguish either choral or mixed responding as superior to the other. Results suggested one student showed high active student responding with less than 80% accuracy, whereas the other student was highly accurate but responded less than 75% of the time. In the discussion, we highlight reasons why the two OTR strategies had similar effects on student outcomes, consider implications of these findings, and provide direction for future inquiry.

The Effect of Active Student Responding during Computer-Assisted Instruction on Social Studies Learning by Students with Learning Disabilities

An alternating treatments design with a best treatments phase was used to compare two active student response (ASR) conditions and one on-task (OT) condition on the acquisition and maintenance of social studies facts during computer-assisted instruction. Each week for six weeks, five students were provided daily computer-assisted instruction on 21 unknown facts divided randomly into Clicking-ASR (active responses with computer mouse), Repeating-ASR (active oral responses) or Listening-OT (on task or passive responses). For all five students, Repeating-ASR resulted in more facts correct on same-day, next-day, and one-and two-week maintenance tests. During weeks 7 and 8 with implementation of the best treatment condition, Repeating-ASR produced higher scores than all conditions (including Repeating-ASR) during the first 6 weeks.