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.

Applying High Leverage Practices to Increase Active Engagement and On-task Behavior of Students with Intellectual Disabilities during Literacy Activities

The high leverage practices of promoting active student engagement and using assistive and instructional technology can be implemented simultaneously in resource settings. The purpose of the study was to compare two commonly used methods of engagement, hand-raising and digital response cards, to determine their effect on students’ active engagement, on-task behavior, and reading comprehension. An ABAB design was used to evaluate the effects among high school students with intellectual disabilities during reading lessons. The results indicated there was a positive correlation associated with digital response cards on the level of active engagement, on-task behavior and skill acquisition as evidenced by whole group means.

Implementing Individual Opportunities to Respond in Online Teaching Environments

Teacher-provided opportunities to respond are a powerful strategy for improving behavior and academic outcomes of students with disabilities. However, online instruction makes opportunities to respond more challenging to implement. For the purposes of this article, online teaching refers to synchronous instruction taking place via video conferencing software (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Canvas Conferences, Blackboard Collaborate). This article presents strategies teachers can use to elicit individual responses from students through oral responses, response cards, and action responses.

Using Mentimeter to Elicit Student Responses in the EAP/ESP Classroom

The affordances and pedagogical benefits of technology in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classrooms are widely acknowledged. One potential use of technology is in eliciting and managing students’ responses, which is an area where EAP/ESP teachers often report difficulties. Traditionally, teachers either nominate students to respond or rely on students volunteering to answer questions. In practice, this condition tends to mean that the more confident students respond, or students are ‘put on the spot’ by being nominated to speak by a teacher. One way to address this issue is through response cards. Students can respond in unison with a card or whiteboard displaying the answer. Response cards are effective at all levels of education. They increase active responses, improve test scores, and motivate learners. There are now digital alternatives to response cards called ‘student response systems’ (SRS). These systems provide a flexible and diverse way for students to respond using their mobile devices. SRS include Mentimeter, Kahoot, Plickers, GoSoapBox, and Poll Everywhere. Due to its versatility and unlimited number of participants, we believe Mentimeter has greater potential in the EAP/ESP classroom. This tech review will provide an overview of Mentimeter’s features and potential uses.

Teacher-Delivered Strategies to Increase Students’ Opportunities to Respond: A Systematic Methodological Review

We conducted this systematic review to map the literature and classify the evidence-based status of teacher-directed strategies to increase students’ opportunities to respond (OTR) during whole-group instruction across the K-12 continuum. Specifically, we conducted this review to determine whether OTR could be classified as an evidence-based practice according to Council for Exceptional Children’s Standards for Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education. We examined the extent to which 21 included studies addressed quality indicators and evidence-based practice standards using a modified, weighted criterion for methodologically sound studies. Three studies met all eight quality indicators and 11 studies met or exceeded 80% of quality indicators following a weighted criterion to define methodologically sound studies. Results indicated teacher-directed OTR strategy of response cards in K-12 school settings to be a potentially evidence-based practice. Educational implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Response Cards to Increase Engagement and Active Participation of Middle School Students With EBD

This study employed an A-B-A-B design to examine engagement and active participation among five middle school students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) while using response cards for mathematics instruction. Students with EBD often exhibit off-task behaviors, which limit their engagement with classroom learning. This is of concern as students with EBD tend to have lower academic achievement compared with their peers and have shown a marked decline particularly in mathematics performance as they move from the elementary into secondary grades. When students have increased opportunities to respond (OTR)—through methods such as response cards—they are more likely to be engaged with and actively participate in instruction. In the baseline phase, students participated by traditional hand-raising. The intervention phase introduced the use of response cards. Visual analyses reveal that response cards increased the engagement of all participants. Findings were translated into the between-case standardized mean difference effect size estimates and the effect size was 1.3, suggesting that response cards may be an inexpensive and easily implemented method for increasing OTR for students with EBD.