Choral Responding

Description of the Strategy

Choral responding is an instructional technique that allows a teacher to solicit active responses from a group of learners. During choral responding, students generate their own reply to an instructional prompt and respond orally in unison. Teachers utilize this strategy to increase active student participation during large-group instruction. Soliciting choral responses during instruction increases students' opportunities to practice skills throughout a lesson.

When correctly executed, choral responses offer a teacher effective and efficient feedback on student performance. To maximize the effectiveness of choral responding, a teacher may use a signal to ensure that students reply in unison. Obtaining unison responses is a critical feature of choral responding. When students respond in unison, each learner has the opportunity to generate a response. In addition, opportunities for low performers to wait until others reply before initiating their own response are minimized. Signaling unison responses can be accomplished using an auditory or visual prompt. When students are looking at materials on their desk, an auditory signal is most appropriate. During instructional tasks in which students are all looking at the same stimulus (e.g., a whiteboard at the front of the room or overhead transparency), a visual prompt may be used. The [Page 1219]effectiveness of a signal depends on how well it has been taught and used predictably in the past.

Research Basis

A large body of literature on effective teaching recommends that teachers solicit high rates of active student responses in the instructional environment. The benefits of soliciting student responses during instruction are well documented. Numerous studies have demonstrated that students' achievement increases as the number of opportunities to actively respond during instruction increases. In addition, higher rates of soliciting student responses are frequently associated with higher rates of on-task behaviors and decreased problem behaviors among students.