Building a Responsive Classroom Environment

1. Responsive Classroom • Seven Principles • The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum • How children learn is as important as what children learn • The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction • There is a set of social skills that children need to be successful academically and socially

2. Responsive Classroom • Seven Principles cont’d • Knowing the children we teach is as important as knowing the content we teach • Knowing the parents of the children we teach is as important as knowing the children • Teachers and administrators must model the social and academic skills which they wish to teach students

3. The First Six Weeks • The first six weeks is devoted to four intentions: • Create a climate and tone of warmth and safety • Teach the schedule and routines of the school day and our expectations for behavior in each of them • Introduce students to the physical environment and materials of the classroom and school (and teach them how to use and care for them) • Establish expectations about ways we will learn together in the year ahead

4. Morning Meeting • Morning Meeting is a 20-30 minute daily routine used to begin the school day in elementary and middle school classrooms • Greeting • Sharing • Group Activity • News and Announcements

5. Guided Discovery • Guided Discovery is a focused, playful activity to introduce students to new things • Introduction – naming • Generating ideas and modeling exploratory work • Children explore • Children share their explorations and observations • Clean up and care of materials

6. Establishing Rules with Students • It is critical to learn students hopes and dreams and work to incorporate those in class rules • What do students want to learn? • Why do they want to learn this? • How will they use this to achieve their hopes and dreams? • How can they create rules that respect others’ hopes and dreams?

7. Modeling Behavior • Teacher names and presents the desired behavior • The teacher demonstrates the desired behavior • The teacher asks students to notice and name elements of the behavior • The teacher focuses on the “tricky” parts • Students practice the “tricky parts”

8. Modeling Behavior cont’d • Teacher reinforces observed positive behaviors • The teacher continues to reinforce, remind, and redirect as needed

9. Logical Consequences • A discipline technique that focuses on the consequences of misbehavior • Emphasizes internal control rather than external control • Three criteria for consequences • Related • Respectful • Reasonable

10. Logical Consequences Cont’d • Most logical consequences will fall into three categories: • Making reparations “You Break it- You fix it” • Mishandling responsibility “More Limits Need to be Set” • Time Out