Opportunities to Respond

the What, Why, When, & How — explained by teachers

CREDIT: @terrinoel

This is a prevention strategy.

They create conditions in which the behaviors we want to see are more likely to occur than the behaviors we don’t.

Slow and Fast

Triggers 🧨

AKA “Setting Events”

and “Antecedents”

Undesired

Behavior 💥

Pleasant

Consequence 🥳

that maintains the behavior and

keeps the pattern repeating

RESPONSE

strategies weaken the pattern

“Better” Behavior 👍

that achieves the same thing for the

student (ex. asking for a break instead

of running out of class)

PREVENTION

strategies put student in a position to succeed

Pleasant

Consequence 🥳

that maintains the behavior and

keeps the pattern repeating

REINFORCEMENT

strategies strengthen the pattern

TEACHING

behavior expectations and skills

“Best” Behavior 🙌

what is ultimately best for the student (ex. persisting with learning)

Competing Pathways Chart

What and Why?

Opportunities to Respond (OTRs) means asking an academic question.

There are many techniques (e.g., nonverbal choral response w/ fingers, cards, or white boards).

A higher rate of OTRs and more students included in each OTR =

⬆️ Increased learner engagement

⬇️ Decreased disruptive behavior (e.g., blurting)

CREDIT: @thefamilybehaviorist

A behavior analyst explaining how frequent response opportunities prevents disruptive behavior (1:12)

🤔 What would you amplify about what she said or add on to what she said about the impact of frequent opportunities to respond on disruptive behavior?

Where & When? Research on Rate

(MacSuga-Gage and Simonsen, 2015; Simonsen and Myers, 2015)

• Simple responses
• Such as: unison choral responses, gesture, response cards
• Opportunities per minute: 3-5
• More complex responses
• Such as: partner sharing, written answer math problem
• Opportunities per minute: At least 1
• VERY complex or involved responses
• Such as: worksheet prompt, completing experiment
• May provide an opportunity to respond every 10 to 30 min

🛠️ Opportunity to Respond (OTR) mini-poster

A visual reminder of your OTR options during any lesson.

🤔 How much prep would each of these options take? Which ones would be easier to use spontaneously vs. those that require more planning?

Find this tool + similar resources on the webpage for this strategy.

🛠️ Opportunity to Respond (OTR) Self-Reflection

Take a minute to browse a menu of OTR techniques and self-reflect.

🤔 What did you notice about your areas of “bread and butter”? What about your “room to grow”?

Find this tool + similar resources on the webpage for this strategy.

🛠️ Opportunity to Respond (OTR) Menu

A menu of slide templates designed to be easily embedded into a lesson.

🤔 Which OTR technique are you most curious about? Where do you see it fitting into an upcoming lesson?

Find this tool + similar resources on the webpage for this strategy.

3 Tips on Planning Your OTRs

1. Use the ripple — Have every student respond, then group/partner students up to share their thinking, and then proceed to calling on/hearing from individual students. (Source: 📚 Total Participation Techniques)
2. Match your OTR to the context and purpose — Do you have time and materials for it? Is it a familiar routine to the students or does it need rehearsal with low-key content? What is the learning objective (ex. ranking activities help students evaluate).
3. Teach it as a routine (neutral subject matter if possible) — For example, community building at the beginning of the school year is a great opportunity to teach and rehearse OTR techniques before you dive into content.

Nonverbal Responses

A middle school teacher shares how she has students hold up 1-4 fingers to indicate an A, B, C, or D answer (0:34)

🤔 What did you notice or wonder while watching the video?

🛠️ See slide template

CREDIT: @teachthenseetheworld

An elementary teacher models a hand shake/”yes” knock (0:21)

🤔 How might you use this type of opportunity to respond in your classroom?

An elementary teacher models holding up fingers on chests (2:45)

🤔 What do you like about this way of having students answer?

Verbal Responses

CREDIT: @teachthenseetheworld

A middle school teacher explains how she teaches students to successfully engage in a turn and talk routine (2:01)

🤔 What parts of this overlap or don’t overlap with how you’ve taught this procedure in the past?

🛠️ See slide template

CREDIT: @darylwilliams__

A middle school teacher shares how you can call on a second student to restate a correct answer in their own words (1:19)

🤔 What did you notice or wonder while watching the video?

Anita Archer, who literally wrote the book on explicit instruction, models a variety of OTR techniques in an elementary classroom (17:14)

🤔 What did you notice or wonder while watching the video?

An elementary teacher models calling on individual students (1:20)

🤔 What did you like about how the teacher included so many students and asked so many academic questions?

A secondary teacher explains and models how to run Fishbowl discussions (1:00)

🤔 How might you use this activity in your classroom?

🛠️ See slide template

A secondary history teacher explains how to run and assess Harkness discussions (7:49)

🤔 How might you use this activity in your classroom?

CREDIT: @mrv_history

A high school history teacher explains the details of how he plans Harkness discussions (2:37)

🤔 What did you notice or wonder while watching the video?

CREDIT: @history_4_humans

A secondary history teacher explains how he uses a “Hot Seat” in his Socratic seminars (0:59)

🤔 What did you notice or wonder while watching the video?

Using Equipment

An elementary teacher models mini white boards (1:38)

🤔 How did she make fairly complicated math problems fun and interactive?

🛠️ See slide template

A secondary teacher models response cards (1:33)

🤔 How might you use this type of opportunity to respond in your classroom?

🛠️ See slide template

CREDIT: @randazzled

A teacher shares her observations about how worksheet formats affect student responses (0:11)

🤔 Have you noticed similar trends in student response? What other factors affect how students respond?

CREDIT: @toopoolforschool

A high school teacher explains how she facilitates a primarily whole-class hexagonal discussion (2:19)

🤔 What did you notice or wonder while watching the video?

🛠️ See slide template

CREDIT: @literallyleonard

A secondary teacher explains how she facilitates a primarily small group hexagonal discussion (2:59)

🤔 What did you notice or wonder while watching the video?

🛠️ See slide template

The “how” of hexagonal thinking discussions is explained and the “why” of critical thinking (2:55)

🤔 How might you use this activity in your classroom?

🛠️ See slide template

A high school history teacher shares a Notice-Wonder-Think activity he uses to begin lessons (1:32)

🤔 Have you used this questioning sequence? Why do you think he is so fond of the way students respond to it?

CREDIT: @history_4_humans

🛠️ “Cue & Follow Through” Poster

A mini-poster reminder to follow through with affirmative attention after we ask a question. 🎥 Learn more

🤔 How do you think this promotes positive behavior?

Find this tool + similar resources on the webpage for this strategy.

Turn & talk

• What ideas do you have for how to build up and/or maintain a habit of frequent, varies, and unpredictable OTRs?
• What are some potential barriers to effectively using this strategy? How could they potentially be overcome?
• What’s the first thing you’re going to do to carry this forward?

Professional Development Activities

OTR Competition

Facilitator notes

🖨️ Printing:

• OTR mini-poster (double sided) for every participant to take with them
• OTR menu (1-2 per team)

​

Other prep: Plan to lead your own 5 minute mini-lesson

Supplies:

• Bring a full OTR kit

Small Group Competition

1. Demo lesson, seeing how many OTRs I can fit into 5 minutes
2. In your small groups (4) → 10 min of group work time to prep your lesson
3. Group presentations: 5 minutes per group, 2 minutes for discussion

Topic ideas:

• Sports team
• Shopping tips
• Beauty/makeup tips
• Vacation planning
• Tips for a good night’s sleep
• Weeknight recipes
• Fun winter activities

Competition rules:

• We’ll go in the order teams volunteer
• Once it’s your team’s turn, you have to be ready (~20 seconds of grace period)
• 1 or more team members can lead lesson
• 1 point per type of OTR (i.e., 8 T/F questions = 1 point)
• Good sportsmanship & finish prep before groups start presenting

OTR Show & Tell

OTR Show & Tell

1. Use bit.ly/pbis-OTRs to jump onto the OTR webpage. Then open the OTR Menu.
2. Explore the menu by yourself or with a partner.
3. Objective: (A) pick a fave OTR that you use often and/or (B) pick an OTR you're eager to try out and where you plan to.
4. After 10 minutes of exploration, we’ll take turns modeling/explaining the OTRs we picked (by yourself or with your partner).