SIPPS instruction is most effective when all students consistently respond chorally rather than individually. The use of choral responses affords every student the maximum amount of accurate practice necessary to build independence. It can also be supportive of readers who may be hesitant or reluctant to respond individually.
To support choral responses:
- Use sufficient wait-time before prompting students to respond.
- Require that students wait for your verbal and physical prompts before responding.
- Have students respond to error corrections chorally.
- If students don’t respond chorally, provide a reminder of the expectation and repeat the prompt
Sometimes a teacher may feel they need to prompt for a “popcorn”-type response to ensure that they hear individually from each student. There are other opportunities during SIPPS lessons for individual assessment (e.g., fluency practice or Mastery Tests) so individual responses are not needed. During the direct instruction components of the lesson, it is more important that each student has the maximum amount of opportunities to actively engage with and practice the skills and content.
Sometimes students don’t respond chorally because they need more “think time” to be ready to respond. If a group of students is not responding chorally, try extending the wait-time between the stimulus and the prompt to respond.
Note that choral response means that 100% of the students are responding to the prompt; it does not mean that the teacher is responding along with the students. Outside of a couple of exceptions (teaching a new skill or providing corrective feedback), the teacher does not respond along with students during SIPPS instruction. This ensures that students are doing the “heavy lifting” and engaging in the type of practice that will lead to independence and automaticity.