Responsive Classroom

Responsive Classroom Guiding Principles:

Principle 1: Teaching SEL skills is just as important as teaching academic content.

Principle 2: How we teach is as important as what we teach.

Principle 3: Great cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.

Principle 4: How we work together as adults to create a safe, joyful, and inclusive school environment is as important as our individual contribution or competence. 

Principle 5: What we know and believe about our students- individually, culturally, developmentally- informs our expectations, reactions, and attitudes about those students.

Principle 6: Partnering with families- knowing them and valuing their contributions- is as important as knowing the children we teach.

Responsive Classroom Elementary Practices & Learning Structures:

Morning Meeting:  Everyone in the classroom gathers in a circle for twenty to thirty minutes at the beginning of each school day and proceeds through four sequential components: greeting, sharing, group activity, and morning message.

Establishing Rules: Teacher and students work together to name individual goals for the year and establish rules that will help everyone reach those goals.

Energizers: Short, playful, whole-group activities that are used as breaks in lessons.

Quiet Time:  A brief, purposeful and relaxed time of transition that takes place after lunch and recess, before the rest of the school day continues.

Closing Circle:  A five- to ten-minute gathering at the end of the day that promotes reflection and celebration through participation in a brief activity or two.