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Improving Academic Outcomes Using the Responsive Classroom Approach

The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (often referred to as The Nation’s Report Card) was recently released. The results made clear that today’s students are struggling with both reading and math, as there were noticeable declines in both subjects compared to previous report cards. How Social and Emotional…

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Movement Activities That Help Learners of Every Age Refocus

An increase in wiggles and whispers or holes torn in papers from too much erasing can be important clues that your students are beginning to reach their individual or developmental limit for focus or endurance. Responsive Classroom teachers are always on the lookout for signs their students may be in…

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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…

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Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Academic Engagement in the Home Stretch

You’ve made it to the last few months of the academic year! From spring fever to state testing, there are lots of reasons why students might need a nudge to stay engaged in academics around this time of year. Here are some tips that can help! Keep things moving Attention…

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Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

A Teacher Shares

Get Moving! It’s 1:30 in the afternoon, and our class is preparing for language arts block. Recess and lunch seem like hours ago, and we still have an entire content area to teach. As my co-teacher and I begin setting up for the lesson, we notice Jenna rocking in her…

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Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Active, Engaging Test Prep: The Walking Quiz

In my previous post, I talked about the importance of incorporating movement into classroom work and gave an example of one way to do that with an editing activity. In this post, I’d like to share a way to add movement when the class is reviewing material right before a…

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Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Keep Your Class Moving!

It's 1:30 in the afternoon, and our class is preparing for language arts block. Recess and lunch seem like hours ago, and we still have an entire content area left to teach. As my co-teacher and I begin to set up for the lesson, we notice Jenna rocking in her…

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Test Prep with Less Stress

As we approached testing season, the already anxiety-prone fourth graders I teach began asking questions about test dates, format, and content. These signs of stress, combined with antsiness brought on by the arrival of long-awaited spring weather and a week of spring break, all came at once this year. I…

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Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Challenges Are Fun!

Recently I've been thinking about how enthusiastically the students in my class take on challenges, and how challenging them has helped us build a more positive community and made learning more fun for all of us. How things have changed since the beginning of the year! As I got to…

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Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Movement Breaks to the Rescue!

While giving the January spelling assessment, I paused to look around the classroom and here's what I saw: Sara was yawning. Ben held his head in his hands. Julie's head was down on her paper, and Justin was tapping his pencil while jiggling his feet under his chair. It was…

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Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Are You Having Fun?

One afternoon in late October, my third grade class laughed together for the first time this year. It happened as we were getting ready to transition from science to math. "Okay," I said, "we need to put away our ecosystem books, our papers and pencils, and then make a standing…

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Lecture Less

So we know students need to sit still to accomplish some school tasks, but we don't want to keep them sitting for too long. How can we minimize the amount of time we require children to sit still? One great strategy is to keep direct teaching lessons short. A friend…

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Sitting Too Much?

“My students have such a hard time sitting still! They call out all the time! They’re constantly out of their seats!” After hearing this refrain over and over again from teachers, I decided to do a little research. However, instead of trying to verify whether teachers were right about how…

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Do You Have a Chatty Class?

I hear a lot from teachers who are feeling frustrated by students' "chattiness." They say things like "Mike, they're not bad kids, they just won't stop talking to each other. As soon as I stop talking, they start," and "The constant chatter is interfering with their learning. They're not paying…

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Morning Meeting

Singing with Children

I remember singing along with friends in my elementary school days. Teachers and students together began each day with singing. We learned about music from our music teacher, but we sang everywhere, in our classrooms and on the playground. One winter at recess, we stepped out on snow banks to…

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Classroom Management & Discipline

Positive Community

Teacher Language

Morning Meeting

Engaging Academics

First Weeks of School

Energizers & Activities

Positive Language

Special Times in the Year

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