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 components.
The Four Components of Morning Meeting
Greeting: Students and teachers greet one another by name.
Sharing: Students share information about important events in their lives. Listeners often offer empathetic comments or ask clarifying questions.
Group activity: Everyone participates in a brief, lively activity that fosters group cohesion and helps students practice social and academic skills (for example, reciting a poem, dancing, singing, or playing a game).
Morning message: Students read and interact with a short message written by their teacher. The teacher crafts the message to help students focus on the work they’ll do in school that day.
Goals of Morning Meeting
Set the tone for respectful and engaged learning in a climate of trust
Build positive community by fulfilling students’ need to belong, feel significant, and have fun
Model and practice social-emotional skills
Review or practice academic skills or content in a way that gets students interested in the learning to come
Morning Meeting and Academics
Rather than something separate to do that takes time away from academics, Morning Meeting is an ideal practice for highlighting academic content in a way that is active and interactive, leading to joyful and energetic learning. Making learning fun and engaging during these gathering times encourages students to be intrinsically motivated to learn. For more on ways you can incorporate academics into Morning Meeting, check out “Improving Academic Outcomes Using the Responsive Classroom Approach” and browse our Doing Academics in Morning Meeting book series, which you can find out more about in the Further Resources section below.
Keeping Morning Meeting Greetings Fresh and Fun – After doing many Morning Meetings, teachers often wonder how to keep the sense of comfortable routine while also varying the meetings enough to keep students (and adults) interested and engaged.
The Power of Morning Meeting – The earnest fourth grade girl straightened up tall and looked around the circle, drew a deep breath and began: “Our greeting today will go like this. First you say your name, then you say when you would like to have lived. Then we’ll all greet you back by saying ‘Hello’ and your name. I’ll go first so you can see how it’s done.” I noticed her hands folding and unfolding in her lap—perhaps she was a bit nervous—but her eyes sparkled.
Morning Meeting is for Everyone – Welcome to Morning Meeting in my full inclusion classroom. Twenty-one first graders sit in a large circle on a brightly colored rug. I’m in a small rocking chair, my hand lightly touching one child’s back. Another adult sits behind a child, supporting him as he sits with his legs, encased in blue braces, stretched out. Wiggling beside him, another child sits on a sissel seat that encourages balance and provides tactile input.
Further Resources
The Responsive Classroom bookstore has comprehensive Morning Meeting resources for teachers new to the practices and those who have a wealth of experience and are looking for new component ideas to share with the students.
