Responsive

Classroom
Erich & Michaela
What is a Responsive Classroom?
● An evidence based approach to
teaching and discipline that aims
to engage students, create a
positive learning community,
promote effective classroom
management, and developmental
awareness.
● Findings from two research
studies show RC:
○ Increases student engagement
○ Improves academic achievement
○ Decreases discipline problems
 7 Key Beliefs of the RC approach
1. The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum
2. How children learn is a 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 in order to be successful academically
and socially.
5. Knowing the children we teach is as important as knowing the content we teach
6. Knowing the parents of the children we teach is as important as knowing the children
7. Teachers and administrators must model the social and academic skills which they wish
to teach their students.
Engaging Academics
“Learner-centered lessons that are participatory, appropriately challenging, fun,
and relevant and promote curiosity, wonder, and interest.”

● Balance between teacher-directed and child-initiated experiences.

● Interactive Learning Structures — students learn best when they have the opportunity to
make choices about what they are learning and make their own discoveries through trial
and error. Students engage in activities that allow for them to explore content in active,
hands-on, and interactive, social, ways
○ Guided Discovery
○ Guided Academic Choice
● Integrated academic and social curriculum
● Set high expectations and teach students how to meet them
Positive Community
“A safe, predictable, joyful, and inclusive environment, where all students have a
sense of belonging and significance.”

● Getting to know both the students and parents in one’s classroom is essential for
creating a caring community.
● Successful social environment allows for a successful learning environment
○ Smart goals connected to classroom and school rules
○ Logical consequences
● Holding a Morning Meeting can help build community and give students a shared sense
of ownership in the wellbeing of their class.
Effective Management:
Have a calm and organized learning
environment to promote responsibility and
high in class engagement.

● Tips to have effective classroom management

include:
○ Create a positive community
○ Keep students on track
○ Have a routine in the classroom
○ Respond to misbehavior with empathy
■ How are you responding to misbehavior?
● Because we are virtual at the moment, make
sure that you communicate with parents and
guardians of your students to make sure that
they have all of the supplies and materials that
they need to be successful for their at home
learning.
Developmentally Responsive Teaching:
All teaching decisions and discipline should be based
on research and the knowledge of how the students
will respond socially, emotionally, physically, and
cognitively.

● Tips to have developmentally responsive teaching include:

○ Be flexible - look at the needs of your students and change things
and ways of teaching accordingly.
○ Model behaviors that will come up with the students and act
accordingly when situations arise.
○ Recognize that as students get older, their behaviors will change -
especially when comparing the beginning of the year to the end of
the year.
○ Change your strategies when needed - the same teaching strategies
that you started with in the beginning of the year might not be the
same strategies that work at the end of the year.
 What is the Morning Meeting?
4 Key Components
● Greeting
● Sharing
● Group Activity
● Morning Message/News & Announcements

Why?

● Both students and teachers get to know each other better

● Set the tone for respectful and engaged learning in a climate of trust
● Create positive power of community where students fulfill their need to belong
● Model & practice social and emotional skills
● Merge social, emotional and academic learning