The Responsive Classroom Approach
An approach informed by the belief in following basic tenets
1. The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.
2. How children learn is as important as what children learn.
3. The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.
4. There is a set of social skills that children need to learn and practice in order to be successful. They form the acronym CARES – cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, self-control.
5. We must know our children individually, culturally, and developmentally.
6. Knowing the families of the children we teach is as important as knowing the children.
Teachers and administrators must model the social and academic skills that they wish to teach their students.
Discipline in the Responsive Classroom Approach
The approach to rules and discipline described in the Responsive Classroom Approach is neither autocratic nor permissive. Often referred to as an efficacious, positive, or judicious approach, it aims to help children develop self-control, begin to understand what socially responsible behavior is, and come to value such behavior. It does not rely on punishment or rewards to “get students to behave.” Neither does it ignore behavior that is detrimental to the child or to the group. Rather, this approach offers clear expectations for behavior and actively teaches children how to live up to those expectations. When children break rules, the teachers help children recognize and fix the problems their actions may have caused.
Teachers using this approach strive to be firm, kind, and consistent in their approach to rules and rule breaking. Their aim is to create calm, safe, and orderly classrooms – one where teachers can teach and children can learn – while preserving the dignity of each child.
This requires a constant balancing of the needs of the group with the needs of the individual, the need for order with the need for movement and activity, the need for teachers to be in control of the classroom with the need for students to be in control of their own lives and learning. It requires taking the time to teach children how to be contributing members of a caring learning community.
Just as teachers don’t expect children to come to school knowing how to read and write, teachers using this approach don’t make assumptions about the social skills children bring to school. Some children will come to school with highly developed social skills and many years of experience being part of a large group. Others will need to start from the beginning.
School provides an ideal setting for social learning. There are endless opportunities at school for children to learn to control their impulses and to think about the needs and feelings of others. Whether they’re learning to wait their turn to talk, ask politely for markers, welcome a newcomer into a group, or disagree with someone’s ideas without attacking them personally, school is rich with opportunities for children to learn to think and act in socially responsible ways. The time teachers spend on classroom rules is an investment that will be richly repaid.
Rather than being “handed down from above”, rules in these classrooms and schools are created collaboratively with students and teachers during the early weeks of school. Not only are students more motivated to follow rules that they’ve helped to create, but in the process of creating the rules students learn much about the role of rules in a democratic society. They are better able to understand that the rules are there to keep them safe and help them achieve their goals in school.
One of the most effective ways of building trust in the classroom is through a special kind of meeting: Morning Meeting, a fifteen-to thirty-minute whole-class gathering at the beginning of each day. This routine is simple, yet powerfully establishes a positive climate for learning, reinforcing academic and social skills, and giving students daily practice in showing respect, empathy, cooperation, and self-control. Morning Meeting works as a form of proactive discipline because it satisfies children’s need for a sense of significance, belonging, and fun. Much social science research has confirmed that in all human beings. Behavior is motivated by these intrinsic needs. Children will always strive to fulfill these needs. If they can’t find positive or constructive ways to fulfill them, they’ll seek unproductive and even destructive ways. Morning Meeting offers this all-important positive outlet and it sets the tone for the rest of the day.
The meeting consists of four parts: Greeting, share, group activity, and morning message.
Taken from Rules in School (2003), Kathryn Brady, Mary Beth Forton, Deborah Porter, Chip Wood
Our class is busy developing into a caring learning community. We begin each day with Morning Meeting, a twenty-minute gathering during which we practice some of the academic skills we’re working on as well as important social skills such as listening, speaking, problem solving, and group participation.
Morning Meeting has four parts:
1. Greeting: Children greet each other by name. The greetings are structured and often include shaking hands, clapping, singing, and other activities.
2. Sharing: A few children share news and interests, usually personal news, and respond to each other, articulating their thoughts, feelings, and questions in a positive manner.
3. Group Activity: The whole class does a short activity together (cooperation game, recite a poem, sing a song, or do a math or language activity.)
4. Morning Message: Students practice academic skills and build their sense of community by reading and discussing a daily message written by the teacher.
Purposes of Morning Meeting:
1. Morning Meeting sets the tone for respectful learning and establishes a climate of trust.
2. The tone and climate of Morning Meeting extend beyond the Meeting.
3. Morning Meeting motivates children by addressing two human needs: the need to feel a sense of significance and belonging and the need to have fun.
4. The repetition of many ordinary moments of respectful interaction in Morning Meeting enables some extraordinary moments.
5. Morning Meeting merges social, emotional, and intellectual learning.
Morning Meeting is a wonderful part of our day!
Mrs. Paris
Taken from The Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete and Parents and Teachers Working Together by Carol Davis and Alice Yang
A Special Note About Sharing:
Sharing is an important part of our Morning Meeting. It is a structure in which students present news they wish to share and respond to each other by asking questions and offering comments.
Highlights of Sharing:
1. Provides an arena for students to share news
2. Helps students develop the ability to gauge the appropriateness of sharing various kinds of news with different audiences
3. Allows students to practice framing constructive, purposeful questions
4. Helps students develop a repertoire of responses to different kinds of news
5. Develops good oral communication skills-both presentation skills and listening skills
6. Lets students learn information about each other
7. Enhances vocabulary development and reading success
8. Offers practice in speaking to a group
9. Gives practice in considering other’s perspectives, developing empathy and social consciousness
10.Empowers students by letting them run their sharing.
Taken from The Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete
An approach informed by the belief in following basic tenets
1. The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.
2. How children learn is as important as what children learn.
3. The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.
4. There is a set of social skills that children need to learn and practice in order to be successful. They form the acronym CARES – cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, self-control.
5. We must know our children individually, culturally, and developmentally.
6. Knowing the families of the children we teach is as important as knowing the children.
Teachers and administrators must model the social and academic skills that they wish to teach their students.
Discipline in the Responsive Classroom Approach
The approach to rules and discipline described in the Responsive Classroom Approach is neither autocratic nor permissive. Often referred to as an efficacious, positive, or judicious approach, it aims to help children develop self-control, begin to understand what socially responsible behavior is, and come to value such behavior. It does not rely on punishment or rewards to “get students to behave.” Neither does it ignore behavior that is detrimental to the child or to the group. Rather, this approach offers clear expectations for behavior and actively teaches children how to live up to those expectations. When children break rules, the teachers help children recognize and fix the problems their actions may have caused.
Teachers using this approach strive to be firm, kind, and consistent in their approach to rules and rule breaking. Their aim is to create calm, safe, and orderly classrooms – one where teachers can teach and children can learn – while preserving the dignity of each child.
This requires a constant balancing of the needs of the group with the needs of the individual, the need for order with the need for movement and activity, the need for teachers to be in control of the classroom with the need for students to be in control of their own lives and learning. It requires taking the time to teach children how to be contributing members of a caring learning community.
Just as teachers don’t expect children to come to school knowing how to read and write, teachers using this approach don’t make assumptions about the social skills children bring to school. Some children will come to school with highly developed social skills and many years of experience being part of a large group. Others will need to start from the beginning.
School provides an ideal setting for social learning. There are endless opportunities at school for children to learn to control their impulses and to think about the needs and feelings of others. Whether they’re learning to wait their turn to talk, ask politely for markers, welcome a newcomer into a group, or disagree with someone’s ideas without attacking them personally, school is rich with opportunities for children to learn to think and act in socially responsible ways. The time teachers spend on classroom rules is an investment that will be richly repaid.
Rather than being “handed down from above”, rules in these classrooms and schools are created collaboratively with students and teachers during the early weeks of school. Not only are students more motivated to follow rules that they’ve helped to create, but in the process of creating the rules students learn much about the role of rules in a democratic society. They are better able to understand that the rules are there to keep them safe and help them achieve their goals in school.
One of the most effective ways of building trust in the classroom is through a special kind of meeting: Morning Meeting, a fifteen-to thirty-minute whole-class gathering at the beginning of each day. This routine is simple, yet powerfully establishes a positive climate for learning, reinforcing academic and social skills, and giving students daily practice in showing respect, empathy, cooperation, and self-control. Morning Meeting works as a form of proactive discipline because it satisfies children’s need for a sense of significance, belonging, and fun. Much social science research has confirmed that in all human beings. Behavior is motivated by these intrinsic needs. Children will always strive to fulfill these needs. If they can’t find positive or constructive ways to fulfill them, they’ll seek unproductive and even destructive ways. Morning Meeting offers this all-important positive outlet and it sets the tone for the rest of the day.
The meeting consists of four parts: Greeting, share, group activity, and morning message.
Taken from Rules in School (2003), Kathryn Brady, Mary Beth Forton, Deborah Porter, Chip Wood
Our class is busy developing into a caring learning community. We begin each day with Morning Meeting, a twenty-minute gathering during which we practice some of the academic skills we’re working on as well as important social skills such as listening, speaking, problem solving, and group participation.
Morning Meeting has four parts:
1. Greeting: Children greet each other by name. The greetings are structured and often include shaking hands, clapping, singing, and other activities.
2. Sharing: A few children share news and interests, usually personal news, and respond to each other, articulating their thoughts, feelings, and questions in a positive manner.
3. Group Activity: The whole class does a short activity together (cooperation game, recite a poem, sing a song, or do a math or language activity.)
4. Morning Message: Students practice academic skills and build their sense of community by reading and discussing a daily message written by the teacher.
Purposes of Morning Meeting:
1. Morning Meeting sets the tone for respectful learning and establishes a climate of trust.
2. The tone and climate of Morning Meeting extend beyond the Meeting.
3. Morning Meeting motivates children by addressing two human needs: the need to feel a sense of significance and belonging and the need to have fun.
4. The repetition of many ordinary moments of respectful interaction in Morning Meeting enables some extraordinary moments.
5. Morning Meeting merges social, emotional, and intellectual learning.
Morning Meeting is a wonderful part of our day!
Mrs. Paris
Taken from The Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete and Parents and Teachers Working Together by Carol Davis and Alice Yang
A Special Note About Sharing:
Sharing is an important part of our Morning Meeting. It is a structure in which students present news they wish to share and respond to each other by asking questions and offering comments.
Highlights of Sharing:
1. Provides an arena for students to share news
2. Helps students develop the ability to gauge the appropriateness of sharing various kinds of news with different audiences
3. Allows students to practice framing constructive, purposeful questions
4. Helps students develop a repertoire of responses to different kinds of news
5. Develops good oral communication skills-both presentation skills and listening skills
6. Lets students learn information about each other
7. Enhances vocabulary development and reading success
8. Offers practice in speaking to a group
9. Gives practice in considering other’s perspectives, developing empathy and social consciousness
10.Empowers students by letting them run their sharing.
Taken from The Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete