Do you have days when you feel like you aren’t reaching every child in your classroom? Are your days filled with cramming as much information as possible into your students’ minds before testing? Do you ever leave feeling that you have failed to build a positive relationship with a student? As a new teacher, are you struggling with how to implement rules and procedures? Or are you asking how to create a positive classroom environment? You are NOT alone. These are all issues that I have struggled with before. NEWS FLASH: Every teacher has struggled with this.
This year, I will be moving to a Responsive Classroom School. If you had asked me at the beginning of the summer what a responsive classroom is, I would have guessed, but I actually had no clue. Thankfully, last week, I was able to attend a Responsive Classroom (RC) workshop to prepare for the new school year and I just HAVE to share with you all of the valuable information I learned that I am excited to implement in my classroom this fall.
Since I am just beginning my Responsive Classroom journey, I will only be sharing what I took away from the workshop I attended and what I intend to do with this, but as I learn and build my RC, I will add more posts that really get into the nitty gritty of a Responsive Classroom.
I am a total nerd at workshops. I sit in the front, I bring my laptop, and I frantically take notes on everything the instructors are saying. Thankfully, this character trait (that is probably super annoying to all of the other workshop goers sitting near me) comes in handy when I can look back at everything I wanted to hold on to from a workshop. The best note I made was a quote that I will be taking to heart this year.
“What you look for, you will see more of. If you look for GOOD, you will see more GOOD.”
This struck a chord with me as often times as teachers we are quick to notice what is going wrong in our classrooms much more than we notice what is going RIGHT. I encourage you (and myself) to look for the good in our classrooms. Look for the good in our students. Look for the good in those around us, because the more we look for it, the more we will see it! Now, more notes!
First of all, the Responsive Classroom approach is based on the idea that social-emotional growth and academic improvement are equally important and that learning really blooms through social interaction. (For THIS hands-on teacher, that is music to my ears!)
The most useful tools I took away from the Responsive Classroom workshop are:
TEACHER LANGUAGE
This was a great reminder that our words make a difference in the hearts of our students. The Power of Our Words: Teacher Language that Helps Students Learn is a useful resource book if you are searching for one! Our language and tone are the heart of a calm, responsive classroom. Whether we realize it or not, the things that we say and the way we say them affect our students.
One goal of mine is to be more direct with my language in the classroom. I tend to water down my directions and use lots of “fluff” in my sentences that aren’t actually necessary. The less we say, the more our students hear. Haven’t you heard the saying, “say what you mean and mean what you say”? Well, that’s exactly what we should be doing!
Pretty much, instead of asking vague questions, using sarcasm, or stating negative behaviors, we should turn our language around to state the positive behavior we want to see displayed. For example, if Johnny is running in the hallway, instead of saying “Stop running!” we would state the positive behavior we want to see and even better, link this to a classroom expectation the student is familiar with. For example, “Johnny, walk in the hallway. This keeps everyone safe.” Much better!
The Responsive Classroom involves three categories of teacher language:
1. Reinforcing Language
2. Reminding Language
3. Redirecting Language
Have you ever sat through a teacher workshop and realized you do the VERY thing that the instructor is telling everyone in the room NOT TO DO? Well, I am no exception. A small thing that I do constantly was brought to my attention. A student is proud of their drawing, they bring me their work, beaming with pride and say, “Mrs. Nelson! Look at this!” My response is, “Wow! I love it!” That is the end of our conversation. Another useful tool I took away from this workshop is to avoid using so many personal judgements in my responses. Instead of simply saying, “I love it!” or “Good job!” and moving on, I could use these moments for a short conversation with that child. For example, I could ask, “Susie, I noticed that you chose pink and purple for your drawing, why did you choose this?” Then Susie has the chance to open up with me and we can connect about her drawing. Much better! Now, I am interacting with this student and they feel a sense of pride in their work even without my personal approval.
MORNING MEETING
I will be making an ENTIRE post dedicated to Morning Meeting, so right now it will be brief. I am SO excited to implement this in my classroom. Of course, I have always done my own version of a Morning Meeting when my students enter the classroom, but now I intend on using this 15-20 minutes each morning in a more intentional and consistent way. Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start the day, build a strong sense of community, and set students up for success both academically and socially.
Goals of a Morning Meeting:
· To set a tone for respectful and engaged learning.
· Build a positive community.
· Model and practice social and emotional skills.
· Merge social, emotional and academic learning.
Components of a Morning Meeting:
Greeting: Students and teachers greet each other by name.
Sharing: Students share information about important events in their lives. Listeners often offer comments and ask clarifying questions.
Group Activity: Everyone participates in a brief, lively activity.
Morning Message: Students read and interact with a short message written by their teacher. The message helps students focus on the work they’ll do in school that day.
Now, there is so much more to a morning meeting! There are endless ways that you can incorporate each component. I will be going in to more detail and sharing creative ideas with you in a future Morning Meeting post, so stay tuned!
INTERACTIVE MODELING
Maybe you are that teacher that is looking for effective ways to teach students a routine or procedure. We know this is key to a calm and effective learning environment. When I first saw Interactive Modeling I thought, “duh”. I thought I already did this, but I quickly realized that I DO NOT follow all of these steps thoroughly and now I am eager to see how well Interactive Modeling works in my classroom when I follow the seven-step process. Interactive Modeling can also be used to teach academic and social skills!
Seven Steps of Interactive Modeling:
1. Briefly state what you will model, and why.
2. Model the behavior exactly as you expect students to do it (the right way, not the wrong way, and without describing what you’re doing unless you need to “show” a thinking process).
3. Ask students what they noticed. (You may need to do some prompting, but children soon notice every little detail, especially as they gain expertise with this practice.)
4. Invite one or more students to model the same way you did.
5. Again, ask students what they noticed the modelers doing.
6. Have all students model while you observe and coach them.
7. Provide feedback, naming specific, positive actions you notice and redirecting respectfully but clearly when students go off track.
ACADEMIC CHOICE
Now, chances are that you already incorporate Academic Choice into your classroom. However, I am going to be more intentional about putting this into my lessons. Academic Choice is a powerful tool used to motivate students in which teachers decide on the goal of the lesson or activity, then give students a list of options for how to go about their learning in order to reach the goal. Often times, when students have choices in their learning, they become more engaged and productive. This gives them a sense of ownership in their learning. For example, you can give students small choices about how they would like to show what they know about a topic. They could create a poster, write a report, or present to the class, etc.
Most of a student’s day is not a choice. Everything is already chosen for them, so adding little pockets of choice into their day brings some ownership and excitement!
ENERGIZERS & INTERACTIVE LEARNING STRUCTURES
Oh these were so much fun! I will definitely make a separate post of ideas for energizers (brain breaks) and interactive learning structures, because there are so many ways to incorporate these throughout the day.
Energizers are exactly what they sound like, short ways to add energy to the classroom and leave students feeling refreshed so they can do their best learning.
INTERACTIVE LEARNING
Structures are purposeful activities that give students opportunities to engage with content in active and interactive ways.
I will be incorporating BOTH of these more in my classroom this year and I can’t wait!
Overall, I learned so much from this workshop and I am excited to continue sharing with you as I build my own Responsive Classroom!
Visit www.responsiveclassroom.org for more informatio