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Articles

Four Powerful Ways You Can Shift Your Teacher Language to Welcome Students

Starting the Year With Effective Teacher Language The skillful use of teacher language has the power to help create and maintain a positive, encouraging, and respectful classroom community, especially in those first weeks when there is so much to model, explain, and encourage! When we focus on using positive language,…
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Sep 02 2022

Valley of Voice

Teacher language can have a transformative effect not just on your students' approach to learning, but on your relationship to teaching as well. In the poem below, Julie Kelly reflects on the remarkable places her own journey with teacher language has taken her.   As I look back to look…
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Mar 25 2022

Apps That Grew My Responsive Classroom Practices Despite the Hurdles COVID Created

The past two years have undoubtedly shaken up the way I approach teaching. Beginning the 2020–2021 school year virtually produced many daunting questions. How could I build community? How could I create opportunities for my students to be engaged in my reading intervention class? How could I keep growing my…
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Nov 05 2021

The Power of Purposeful Assessment

Every educator had hoped to begin this school year in a more familiar fashion, but as the year kicks off, it is clear that we are still not even close to normal. After the learning disruptions of the past two school years, it is reasonable for educators to wonder, “What…
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Oct 15 2021
routines and procedures

Preparing Students to Become Independent Learners using Routines & Procedures

It’s the start of a new year! Day one is either right around the corner or has just recently taken place. The beginning of the year is filled with so many fresh faces watching your every move and listening eagerly for the next direction. With all this newness, it can…
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Sep 05 2019
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Reinforcing Language: Giving Middle Schoolers Supportive Feedback

An adapted excerpt from The Power of Our Words for Middle School: Teacher Language That Helps Students Learn. This compact guide offers middle school teachers many practical, easily do-able ideas for using reinforcing language and four other types of positive teacher language: envisioning, reminding, redirecting, and open-ended questions. Learn more…
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May 09 2016
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Public Discipline Systems

Public discipline systems—like Class Dojo, stoplights, moving clothespins along a colored card, writing names on the board—can certainly be appealing. Some days can feel as if they’re spent just disciplining, and public discipline systems promise to turn that around by decreasing misbehavior and increasing motivation through the use of visual…
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Jul 13 2015
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

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 moment to bring closure to your year of teaching—to consider what went well in your teaching and how…
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Jun 04 2015
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

A Guide on the Side

It's still summer, but I'm thinking ahead to winter. I'm picturing writing workshop time mid-way through the year: Students are busy at the computers, working with an intensity that's balanced by smiles and the occasional excited whisper, "Did you see my comment yet?" Each student is fully engaged in writing…
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Jul 18 2014
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Waiting to Speak

Recently, more than a handful of my first graders were struggling with waiting to ask questions or make comments during direct instruction. I responded by using tried and true teacher practices: giving a clear signal (shaking my head no) to let the child know this was not an appropriate time,…
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Mar 11 2014

Reinforcing, Reminding, and Redirecting

Adapted from the new 2nd edition of The Power of Our Words  Language—our words, tone of voice, and pacing— is one of the most powerful tools available to teachers. It permeates every aspect of teaching and learning. We cannot engage children in learning, welcome a student into the room, or…
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Jan 03 2014
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

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 noises continually interrupted class discussions. Despite much time spent devising and discussing rules for group meeting behavior, the…
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Apr 16 2013
Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

The Value of Struggle

"When did your courage surprise you?" I was profoundly moved by this question when it was posed at a conference I attended years ago, and it came back to me recently when I heard Alix Spiegel reporting about cultural perceptions of the role of intellectual struggle in learning on NPR's…
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Nov 19 2012

Positive Reinforcement

Last week I took part in a panel discussion about the pros and cons of positive reinforcement on Rae Pica’s online radio show. Her producers asked me to join because they read "Goodbye to 'Good Job'!," an article I wrote for ASCD Express. I feel passionate about using positive and…
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May 12 2011

Class Clown

Question: I am a parent of a very bright second grader. He reads at roughly a fourth-fifth grade level and has very strong math skills. The problem is he seems to have developed the role of class clown.The disapproving responses from his teacher have given my son a negative view…
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May 10 2011

What to Do About Tattling

"Jaime isn’t lining up in the right place." "Grayson said a bad word." "Olivia hit me!" I know from teaching young children myself how challenging it can be to face a seemingly endless parade of students reporting things to you as you’re trying to teach. Figuring out how to deal…
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Apr 01 2011

The Method of Grandmother

Chip Wood recently shared a link on the Yardsticks blog to TED talk by Sugata Mitra, an educational researcher who’s done some compelling research on child-driven education and technology. Midway through the video, Mitra describes what he calls “the method of grandmother,” a strategy that reminded me of what the…
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Dec 01 2010

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 with whatever I modeled and they practiced. Then, things slowly started to slide.” Of course, I’m not in…
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Nov 30 2009

Teacher Language & Transitions

In this video clip, third grade teacher Kerry Tuttlebee uses several different positive language strategies to keep students moving during a transition while maintaining control in the classroom. I am really inspired by the way Kerry uses reinforcing, reminding, and redirecting language here, and by her calm-yet-firm tone of voice.…
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Nov 12 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 is settled, quiet, and looking at her, then says in a conversational voice, “I see that everyone is…
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Nov 01 2009

Gremlins

Miguel hunched over a blank page in his notebook, scowling and biting his lip. I approached him and whispered, "I see you're having a hard time getting started. Is your writing gremlin acting up?" He nodded slightly, so I continued. "Could you calmly tell your gremlin that even though writing…
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Nov 01 2008

Words That Encourage Positive Behavior

Question: What's one way you use language to encourage positive behavior? A: When I comment on children’s work, I try to be very specific. Describing what I notice — “You took your time getting this finished, and it’s extremely neat” or “I remember when writing was a struggle for you.…
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Feb 01 2007

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 and discipline. My approach at that time was basically authoritarian, and language was one of my primary tools.…
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Aug 01 2002

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