No matter where in the year you are, when you’re feeling ready to start using the Responsive Classroom approach, that’s the right time to begin! But where do you start?
“It’s all about knowing your kids and what they need,” says Nicole Doner, Responsive Classroom consulting teacher.
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MAY
04
2021
Responding to Learning Loss
In June 2020, the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company released “COVID-19 and Student Learning in the United States” a report that outlined the alarming potential impact of school closures on learning.…
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OCT
01
2015
Taking Positive Language Schoolwide
Positive language is a powerful tool for building a calm, safe school climate. The words we use when we talk to students, the intention behind these words, and how we deliver them…
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JUN
04
2015
How’s Your Reinforcing Language?
Once June arrives, it’s tempting to focus on the more leisurely days ahead. That’s important to do—we all need rest and rejuvenation. But before you begin that well-earned downtime, pause for a…
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SEP
25
2014
What’s in a Name?
How do you refer to the students in your class when addressing them? At first glance, this may seem like a trivial issue; but consider how many times throughout the day we…
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APR
16
2013
Naming What Children Can Do
Mr. Park's fourth grade class was the most impulsive and squirmy group of children he'd ever taught. Children speaking out of turn, talking to neighbors, playing with small objects, or making odd…
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APR
10
2012
Want Positive Behavior? Use Positive Language
"Hello, Tasha! How's your new baby brother?" the principal says as she greets a student in the hallway during morning arrival. Just then a teacher comments to a student at his classroom…
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NOV
30
2009
Use Reinforcing Language to Keep the Learning Going
Often, when I talk with teachers who have started trying out Responsive Classroom practices such as interactive modeling, they reflect, “Interactive modeling worked great for a while. My students did really well…
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NOV
01
2009
The Power of Teacher Language
As the children come back from lunch, they are slow to quiet down. Calmly, the teacher rings a chime, a well-rehearsed signal for attention. She waits a moment until the last child…
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AUG
01
2008
Watching and Learning
Question: In The Power of Our Words and The First Six Weeks of School, you write about how important it is for teachers to get to know their students at the beginning…
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FEB
01
2008
Getting Past “I Can’t”
When I taught fourth grade, I introduced two-digit multiplication around the middle of each year. This would always stump a number of students who had breezed through math up until that point.…
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FEB
01
2007
Open-Ended Questions
Language is one of the most powerful tools available to teachers. We can use language to stretch children’s curiosity, reasoning ability, creativity, and independence. One effective way to do this is by…
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FEB
01
2007
Words That Encourage Positive Behavior
Question: What's one way you use language to encourage positive behavior?
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NOV
01
2003
The Power of Language
A teacher's language is a powerful teaching tool. Our language can build children up or tear them down. It can model respectful and caring social interactions or just the opposite. Effective language…
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AUG
01
2002
Powerful Words
In 1993, after teaching for twenty years, I still loved my chosen profession, but I often felt frustrated. It seemed as though I spent an inordinate amount of time on classroom management…
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APR
01
2002
Teaching Children to Care
Editor’s note: Teaching Children to Care by Ruth Sidney Charney, first published in 1991, has transformed many teachers’ practices. This well-loved book has sold over 70,000 copies and is widely used as…
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