Responsive Classroom
Responsive Classroom
About Responsive Classroom
The Responsive Classroom® is a research-based approach to teaching and learning that fosters safe, challenging, and joyful classrooms. Developed by classroom teachers, it consists of practical strategies for bringing together social and academic learning throughout the school day. For more information, please visit:
Guiding Principles
Responsive Classroom follows seven basic principles:
- The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.
- How children learn is as important as what they learn: Process and content go hand in hand.
- The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.
- There is a set of social skills children need in order to be successful academically and socially: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control. (CARES)
- Knowing the children we teach - individually, culturally, and developmentally - is as important as knowing the content we teach.
- Knowing the families of the children we teach and working with them as partners is essential to children's education.
- How the adults at school work together is as important as individual competence: Lasting change begins with the adult community.
Teaching Practices
These six elements are a regular part of our experiences in the first-grade classroom:
Morning Meeting: A daily routine that builds community, creates a positive climate for learning, and reinforces academic and social skills.
Rules and Logical Consequences: A clear and consistent approach to discipline that fosters responsibility and self-control.
Guided Discovery: A format for introducing materials that encourages inquiry, heightens interest, and teaches care of the school environment.
Academic Choice: An approach to giving children choices in their learning that helps them become invested, self-motivated learners.
Classroom Organization: Strategies for arranging materials, furniture, and displays to encourage independence, promote caring, and maximize learning.
Family Communication Strategies: Ideas for involving families as true partners in their children's education.