Elementary School Archives

Teaching C.A.R.E.S. in an Elementary School Classroom

In addition to identifying a set of academic competencies, the core belief of Responsive Classroom lays out a set of social and emotional competencies that students need in order to be successful in and out of school. Those competencies—cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self-control—are captured in the acronym C.A.R.E.S. Incorporating…

Apr 14 2023

Everything You Need to Know to Use Morning Meeting at the Start of the School Year

Morning Meeting is an effective way to start any day throughout the school year, but it is especially impactful at the beginning of the year when you are looking to build a strong sense of community with a new class of students. Whether you are interested in trying Morning Meeting…

Aug 12 2022

I’m Not Acting as Role Model, I’m Serving as a Role Model: A Conversation with Authors Julie Kelly and Kirsten Howard

Julie Kelly and Kirsten Howard are Responsive Classroom consulting teachers and contributing authors for the forthcoming Empowering Educators series (Julie worked on Empowering Educators for Grades 3, 4, 5; Kirsten worked on Empowering Educators for Grades K, 1, 2). For these new resources, both authors wrote about the importance of…

Oct 01 2021

Empowering Educators to Get to Know Their Students: A Conversation with Authors Andy Moral and Heather Young

Early in the school year, all educators are faced with the same important task: getting to know their new students. To learn some effective strategies for making connections with students at the beginning of a new school year, Responsive Classroom sat down with Andy Moral and Heather Young. Andy…

Sep 24 2021

Empowering Adults to Support Each Other at the Beginning of a New School Year: A Conversation with Authors Emily Parrelli and Lisa Dewey Wells

Empowering Adults to Support Each Other at the Beginning of a New School Year: A Conversation with Authors Emily Parrelli and Lisa Dewey Wells Emily Parrelli and Lisa Dewey Wells are Responsive Classroom consulting teachers and contributing authors for the forthcoming Empowering Educators series (Emily worked on Empowering…

Sep 17 2021

Meaningful Learning Through the Natural Learning Cycle

A new book from CRS Publishing, Make Learning Meaningful: How to Leverage the Brain’s Natural Learning Cycle in K–8 Classrooms, offers a brain-based approach to sustaining student engagement and provides examples of what the natural learning cycle looks and sounds like for teaching academics, discipline, and social-emotional skills in…

Sep 03 2021

Trust Yourself – You Know a Lot Already

Did the first half of the school year give you a “déjà vu” feeling from your first year of teaching? Everything feels new and unfamiliar. A lot of time is spent ironing out kinks in systems that you thought would be seamless, only to discover – that’s not going to work! A…

Jan 26 2021

My Approach to Virtual Kindergarten

Last spring, when terms like global pandemic, virus, hybrid-, distance-, synchronous-, and asynchronous-learning first became a regular part of educators’ vernacular and most educators across the country were thrown into unfamiliar territory, I couldn't wait for the school year to be finished. Everything felt new, uncomfortable, and stressful, and trying to…

Nov 12 2020

Setting Goals, Hopes, and Dreams: Connecting Students to the Community

Watching a student show up to school each day excited to learn is one of the great joys of teaching. We give our students that spark when we help them figure out what they want to achieve during the school year, then show them the ways they can achieve those…

Sep 03 2019

Highlighting Academics with Belonging, Significance and Fun

“When we start the day with everyone together, face to face, welcoming each person, sharing news, listening to individual voices, and communicating as a caring group, we make several powerful statements. We say that every person counts. We say that the way we interact individually and as a group is…

Jan 02 2019

2018 – The Responsive Classroom SEL Year in Review

It’s been another great year at Center for Responsive Schools! We are grateful for the opportunity to continue sharing the Responsive Classroom approach to Social-Emotional Learning with educators around the world. Here are some fun facts that sum up how we did just that in 2018. Responsive Classroom Around…

Dec 20 2018

The ACS International School Campus, Cobham cc-by-sa/2.0 - © David Howard - geograph.org.uk/p/3220022

A Unified Approach to Teaching in a Diverse International School

Students come to ACS Cobham International School in England from all over the world. Some stay for their entire pre-collegiate school experience and others make a home there for just a few years before the next stop on their globe-trotting journey. “There is a huge range of cultural expectations [among…

Dec 07 2018

Responding to Misbehavior with Empathy

Taking proactive steps to build a strong learning community, with practices like positive teacher language, interactive modeling, and investing students in rules through Hopes and Dreams, does a lot to prevent misbehavior before it starts. However, there will still be occasions when you need to respond to misbehavior. These moments…

Dec 06 2018

This Room Was Made for You and Me

Children need a classroom environment they can understand and trust. They need to understand the routines and to know where to find things, they need uncluttered spaces to do their work, and they need clear, safe pathways for moving about. It’s essential that classrooms be well organized, predictable, and orderly,…

Jun 20 2018

Setting a Vision for the Future

As the bustle of the after-school and after-work hours wound down for the night, I found my eight-year-old daughter in tears in her bedroom. She was hunched over her sketch pad. Colored pencils and multiple versions of self-portraits were spread all over the desk. When I asked her what was…

Apr 12 2018

Bring Social Studies Into Morning Meeting

It’s the end of the week and Mrs. Cofie’s fourth-graders are gathering in the meeting area to begin Morning Meeting. As they find their places in the circle, they review the morning message. In Mrs. Cofie’s classroom, Friday’s message is always connected to the week’s social studies learning. There’s a…

Jun 21 2017

What Is Morning Meeting?

Responsive Classroom Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for success socially and academically. Each morning, students and teachers gather together in a circle for twenty to thirty minutes and interact with one another during four purposeful…

Jun 07 2016

The Building Blocks of Collaboration: Partner and Small-Group Chats (Grades 5–6)

Children learn a great deal, academically and socially, by collaborating—working together toward common goals. A good way to help students begin developing collaboration skills is by teaching them how to exchange ideas, information, and opinions as they converse with partners or in small groups. Partner and small-group chats require complex…

Apr 09 2015

Doing Language Arts in Morning Meeting

Responsive Classroom Morning Meeting is a great way to set a positive tone for the day of learning ahead while also having fun and building community. It’s also a great way to give students rich experience with the language arts. Into each meeting component—greeting, sharing, group activity, and morning message—teachers…

Feb 05 2015

Planning Morning Meetings for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

When Elizabeth Powell and I co-taught in an inclusion program for students on the autism spectrum, we discovered that Morning Meeting offered an excellent opportunity to address these students’ needs and to help them connect to their classmates by using two of their often overlooked strengths: humor and a passionate…

Apr 03 2014

Asking Strategic Questions

Adapted from the new book The Language of Learning: Teaching Students Core Thinking, Listening, & Speaking Skills Curiosity is at the heart of learning—and a healthy curiosity depends on questioning. Learning to ask questions moves children beyond themselves; they become able not only to consider what they know or think…

Jan 03 2014

Morning Meeting & Science

How can we build upon children's natural sense of wonder about the world around them? How can we include more science learning during our busy school days? An answer is the Responsive Classroom Morning Meeting. Beginning each day with this purposeful structure helps strengthen the community of the classroom and…

Jul 29 2013

Articles

Teaching C.A.R.E.S. in an Elementary School Classroom

Everything You Need to Know to Use Morning Meeting at the Start of the School Year

How Do You Know It Is Happening? Six Clues That May Indicate Cyberbullying

What Should I Do? Six Strategies to Use When You Notice Cyberbullying

Bringing Things Into View: Strengthening Family Involvement

I’m Not Acting as Role Model, I’m Serving as a Role Model: A Conversation with Authors Julie Kelly and Kirsten Howard

Empowering Educators to Get to Know Their Students: A Conversation with Authors Andy Moral and Heather Young

Empowering Adults to Support Each Other at the Beginning of a New School Year: A Conversation with Authors Emily Parrelli and Lisa Dewey Wells

Meaningful Learning Through the Natural Learning Cycle

Trust Yourself – You Know a Lot Already

My Approach to Virtual Kindergarten

Setting Goals, Hopes, and Dreams: Connecting Students to the Community

Highlighting Academics with Belonging, Significance and Fun

2018 – The Responsive Classroom SEL Year in Review

A Unified Approach to Teaching in a Diverse International School

Responding to Misbehavior with Empathy

This Room Was Made for You and Me

Setting a Vision for the Future

Bring Social Studies Into Morning Meeting

What Is Morning Meeting?

The Building Blocks of Collaboration: Partner and Small-Group Chats (Grades 5–6)

Doing Language Arts in Morning Meeting

Planning Morning Meetings for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Asking Strategic Questions

Morning Meeting & Science

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