The Responsive Classroom approach was developed by the Northeast Foundation for Children. This approach to teaching and learning is informed by the belief in seven 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 academically and socially.
CARES - cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, self-control.
5. Knowing the children we teach is as important as knowing the content we teach. 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.
7. Teachers and administrators must model the social and academic skills that they wish to teach their students.
The Responsive Classroom approach fosters safe, challenging, and joyful elementary schools. Developed by classroom teachers, this approach consists of practical strategies for bringing together social and academic learning throughout the school day. The practices provide an instructional delivery system that promotes engaged learning for all children and builds friendly, supportive communities within the classrooms and the schools.