Strategies for Active Engagement in the Classroom and on Zoom for Autistic Children
You’ve likely heard the phrase “Busy hands are happy hands,” but the same is true for our brains. One of the hardest skills for autistic students is what to do in the classroom when they’re expected to “sit and get” their instruction in a lecture format. This is when some minor challenging behavior like blurting out, making distracting noises, or pacing might occur—if the student continues to be disengaged in the lesson, these minor behaviors can escalate into major problems like elopement, property destruction, or aggression.
So when planning for instruction, how can we stop the problems before they occur? By having intentional and meaningful opportunities for our autistic students to engage and respond to the lesson.
Opportunities to Respond
What is it?
Active engagement through participation means being intentional and frequent in the types of prompts or questions provided for the students and making sure the students can interact with the academic content. It can be done with the whole class, a small group, or individually. It is most effective when used with concepts the students already have a basic understanding of or are being taught errorlessly.*
Why do it?
The benefits of planning for opportunities to respond are tremendous. If done individually, it can be a way to quickly and informally assess every student; in small groups, it could provide natural occasions for peer tutoring and modeling.
Behavioral benefits:
When students are actively engaged in their learning, they have fewer opportunities to engage in problem behaviors because their minds are too busy being involved in the lesson. With behavior being effectively managed, the actual instruction can flow as the teacher has intended—without having to frequently redirect off-task students.
Academic benefits:
Having this increased on-task behavior gives students the chance to improve their skill fluency through frequent application and interaction with the information being presented, increasing their likelihood of content retention. If students can fluidly and quickly use their skills through these frequent and intentional opportunities to respond, there’s a higher chance that the information will “stick.”
How to do it:
- Choral Response: The entire group answers, all together. This can be used to answer a question, a fill-in-the-blank prompt, or even as an attention-getter to bring the class back on task or topic (“When I say Hey, you say Ho. Hey! ___").
- Questioning: This is more than simply asking a question to the whole group and calling on one student. To give all students an equal opportunity to respond, consider using a cooperative learning style of questioning such as having students move desks to answer questions, perhaps with pre-assigned partners. Dividing the room into 4 corners that each corresponds to an answer is another way to have students think, pair up, and then share their thoughts or rationale for the answer.
- Drawing sticks: Having all students’ names or numbers written on sticks can randomize when any student will be called on to answer a question. I love this strategy because if you pull the stick toward you so students can’t see, you can call on any student you think needs to be re-engaged or may be able to answer the question. Props for sneaky but effective teachers! A word of caution on this strategy—always replace the student’s stick after you call on them; if you don’t, the student may think they’re “off the hook” from answering any more questions and thus more likely to tune out.
- Signal: A great and simple way to check for understanding is using a quick signal with students. It can be a simple thumbs up or down or be more complicated. For example, in the fist-to-five check, after giving students information or some other opportunity to respond, the teacher can ask for a show of hands with a fist meaning the student doesn’t get it, a 1 asking for more help, up to the 5 to show they completely understand.
- Response cards: This strategy involves students individually or in a small group holding up a card that can be used for true/false questions, agree/disagree, or ABCD responses.
Variations can be to use color cards or even cups. Another quick way to check for understanding or to get a student response can be to use red, yellow, or green cups.
Example:
Rate your knowledge of opportunities to respond
Green – I use it every day, using multiple ways to respond
Yellow – I have a few ways to implement opportunities to respond in my classroom
Red – Not sure what this is, but I want to know more
- Whiteboards: Whiteboard responding can be done on an individual or small group basis. It can be used just like a response card system or students can show their thinking or work for different questions. It’s a quick way to gauge understanding and get students involved.
- Guided or Cloze notes: Frankly, sometimes you have to teach lecture style. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find ways to make the information engaging for students and still give them opportunities to call and respond with answers while you are teaching. Cloze or guided notes are a fill-in-the-blank style of notes that go along with the content you’re teaching. It cues students to be looking for specific information, which helps focus their attention and also provides them an opportunity to respond.
- Web-based electronic response systems: With the advent of technology, there are also various online ways to give students opportunities to respond which can be used for in-person or online learning. If you’re looking for some to explore for use in your classroom, you might start with Nearpod, Kahoot, or Gimkit. Embedded in each program are opportunities for students to respond and they can even be competitive-based if desired. Each has free trial options, which can then be purchased if you like the format for your classroom.
Opportunities to respond aren’t limited to in-person learning but can be implemented in online settings. In fact, setting expectations and encouraging students to interact and respond during remote instruction can be even more important in improving on-task behavior and increasing content acquisition.
Here are some ways for students to stay engaged using Zoom:
- Camera: Create opportunities to respond. Have the students respond with a signal to increase participation (ex: thumbs up/down, number of fingers, hand gestures).
- Annotate: Students can share responses on a Zoom whiteboard or screen-shared slide presentation. They can select the stamp tool to mark their answer, write something using the text option, or draw a picture (ex: respond to a rating scale or 4-corner activity).
- Non-verbal feedback: Students can provide feedback and opinions by clicking icons in the participants’ panel.
- Meeting reactions: Students can select an emoji that shows on their video by clicking the reactions button. The reactions then disappear after 10 seconds. This can be a great way for students to engage and interact when others speak without interrupting.
Providing frequent and intentional opportunities to respond is a best practice for all learners, but even more so for autistic individuals who can struggle with the processing and comprehension of content.
Which of these strategies are you looking to implement in your classroom? What are some other ways you provide your students with opportunities to respond?
*Errorless Teaching is a teaching procedure in which the child is prompted to make the correct response immediately, ensuring a correct response each time. The prompts are slowly faded to promote accuracy with the least amount of errors and frustration.