Active Student Response
Resources
Learning Guide
Why: Active student response increases student engagement by offering multiple opportunities for students to read, write, demonstrate, speak, and listen during classroom instruction. It also has the added benefit of making student learning visible which gives teachers important information to drive future instruction.
Outcome: Participants will explore examples of active student response, and through discussion and reflection will deepen their understanding of what active student response is and how to implement this strategy in their own classroom.
Background: Active student response, also referred to as Opportunities to Respond, is a strategy that prompts students to make their learning seen and heard. This strategy requires strategic lesson planning that breaks down learning tasks for students, designed to:
- enhance student engagement and participation by offering multiple opportunities to read, write, demonstrate, speak, and actively listen during classroom instruction,
- increase frequency of accurate and actionable feedback about levels of learning, and
- promote deeper understanding of rigorous content.
Some examples of effective Active Student Response types include:
Types and Descriptions
Non-Verbal Demonstration
An instructional question, statement or gesture made by the teacher or student seeking or demonstrating an academic response from students
Reading
An engagement strategy where students are actively reading and responding in a visible manner
Speaking and Listening
Students actively speaking and listening to each other and the teacher demonstrating an academic
Writing
Writing in response to an academic question, statement, or image
Examples (see below for references)
Talk Moves: These strategies encourage students to build upon their classmates' responses, rather than waiting for “correct” or final answer from the teacher.
Annotating for a Purpose: Annotating for a Purpose is a reading strategy that requires students to annotate for a specific purpose as they read.
No Opt-Out: The goal of No Opt-Out is that the student will eventually state the answer, even if that amounts to repeating an answer that you or another student supplied.
Everybody Writes: is a low-stakes writing strategy that can be used to help students solidify their thinking before verbal discussion, provide students the opportunity to more clearly articulate their thinking, and help teachers check for understanding.
Activity #1: Strategies for Implementation: Active Student Response
Step 1: Read and Reflect On your own, read the background section. For each type of active student response, write down either a question you have the strategy type, an additional example of the strategy type, or a specific way you could use this in your own class.
Step 2: Give One, Get One When the timer is set and starts, get up and find another person from another table or other side of the room. Take around a minute to explain one of the active student response strategies you reviewed in Step 1. Then, listen to the other person explain their selected active student response strategy to you. Additionally, use the following questions to enrich your discussion:
- Why did you choose this Active Student Response strategy?
- How would you use this with your students?
- What are the pros and cons of using that type of Active Student Response strategy with your students?
- What steps would you take to introduce this strategy to your team?
Step 3: Video Analysis--Speaking and Listening
Click Here to watch a video of a teacher using the Cold Call Technique to engage students during a lesson. As you watch, consider the following:
- Which types of Active Student Response did you see evidence of in the video?
- How might you use or adapt the strategy of Cold Calling for your own classroom?
Step 4: Video Analysis--Writing
Click Here to watch a video about a writing strategy to engage students at the end of a lesson. As you watch, consider the following:
- Besides serving as an exit ticket, what are other ways you could adapt this strategy in your classroom?
Step 5: Discuss with a partner, discuss your insights from the two videos and ways that you might use similar approaches in your classroom. Consider the following:
- What benefits do you see for your students in using this technique?
- What are some potential barriers to implementation of this strategy? What are some possible solutions?
References
Talk moves: Conceptua Math.http://teach.conceptuamath.com/talk-moves. Accessed 10 October 2019.
Annotating for Purpose: El Education. https://curriculum.eleducation.org/curriculum/ela/2012/grade-6/module-4/unit-1/lesson-5. Accessed 10 october 2019.
No Opt-Out: Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like a Champion. Josey-Bass Teacher. San Francisco, CA.
Everybody Writes: Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like a Champion. Josey-Bass Teacher. San Francisco, CA.