Teachers can increase student engagement by providing frequent opportunities to respond (OTRs) to questions during instruction. Rather than asking individual students to respond to questions, teachers can ask questions that foster group verbal and non-verbal responses. OTRs are best used when students are first acquiring content knowledge to check for understanding or as a maintenance activity for review. Feedback must be given following students’ responses. Using teacher-directed OTRs is an effective strategy to increase academic achievement and appropriate behavior in the classroom (MacSuga-Gage, A. & Simonsen, B., 2015). By utilizing OTRs, teachers can quickly assess student learning to determine if content needs to be retaught or if students need more opportunities to practice and build fluency.
