Responsive Classroom
The classroom teachers at Haley Elementary embrace pieces or all aspects of the Responsive Classroom approach to teaching and learning. This philosophy was introduced to the staff through book studies and professional conversations with teachers. We've had several formal trainings and implementation is in progress.
The Responsive Classroom is an approach to teaching and learning that fosters safe, challenging, and joyful classrooms and schools. The Responsive Classroom approach helps to create learning environments where children thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
Visit responsiveclassroom.org for more information.
Responsive Classroom Principles
Seven basic principles underlie this approach:
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The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.
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How children learn is as important as what they learn: Process and content go hand in hand.
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The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.
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To be successful academically and socially, children need a set of social skills: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.
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Knowing the children we teach–individually, culturally, and developmentally–is as important as knowing the content we teach.
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Knowing the families of the children we teach and working with them as partners is essential to children's education.
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How the adults at school work together is as important as individual competence: Lasting change begins with the adult community.
Responsive Classroom Teaching Practices
The Responsive Classroom approach includes the following main
teaching practices:
- 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.
- Working with Families: Ideas for involving families as true partners in their children's education.
