Structured Coral Responses

Submitted by: Lisa McAvoy 

Grade 1/2 

Marion School 

MAME Executive Member & Blog Editor  

In February 2025, with the support of funding provided by MAME, I attended the 30th Plain Talk About Literacy and Learning conference in New Orleans. This three-day conference is presented each year by the Center for Literacy and Learning and focuses on evidence-based reading research and strategies for educators of all grade levels. I attended a number of very informative and useful sessions. Two sessions I attended focused on increasing student engagement and provided a lot of simple ideas I could start using in my classroom immediately. 



The first session was presented by Dr. Anita Archer. Dr. Archer argues that hand raising is inequitable and she encouraged teachers to use structured coral responses rather than asking students to raise their hands to answer questions. When teachers ask for raised hands we only hear one student’s voice and can only assess that one student’s knowledge. Often we see the same students raising their hands and this can discourage others from participating. With structured coral responses all students are expected to respond to questions. They are actively engaged, thinking and responding throughout a lesson. Structured coral responses are used when answers are short and the same. For example, when a teacher is showing a series of letters and students are responding with the corresponding letter sound, or students are reciting times tables or addition facts. To prevent students from blurting out, teachers can use a hand signal to indicate thinking time and then another signal when students can respond. (e.g. opening and closing your hand). Dr. Archer also encouraged the use of class coral reading from projected slides and the use of group cloze reading, where the teacher reads and then students fill in missing words. Other suggestions for whole class responses were to have students hold up fingers to indicate a certain answer or have printed response sheets where students could hold up a piece of paper to indicate a response. For these hold up questions, Dr. Archer says questions should be clear, students need think time, and they should wait until the teacher asks for responses to be shown. 

Another presenter, Jake Dagget also encourages structured coral responses. Many people may know Jake Dagget from his popular Instagram videos where he uses songs, chants and gestures to teach and reinforce concepts and encourage active student engagement. You can see some of Jake’s chants on his Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jake_daggett/?hl=en

You can also learn more about structured coral responses and adaptations that can be made for students with additional needs at this website https://www.aisnsw.edu.au/teachers-and-staff/teaching-and-learning/literacy-and-numeracy/foundations-of-effective-instruction/engagement-strategies/choral-responses.

The next Plain Talk About Literacy and Learning conference is being held March 11-13 2026  in New Orleans. Check out

https://www.mycll.org/plain-talk  for more information.