THE RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM APPROACH

1. The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.
2. How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content go hand in hand.
3. The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.
4. To be successful academically and socially, children need to learn and practice specific social skills.  Five particularly important skills are cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.
5. Knowing the children we teach-individually, culturally, and developmentally- is as important as knowing the content we teach.
6. Knowing the families of the children we teach is as important as knowing the children we teach.

1. Morning Meeting: Teachers lead students in a daily gathering that uses a format for greeting each other, sharing news, having fun together, and warming up for the day ahead.
2. Creating Rules: Teachers collaborate with students to develop classroom rules that support everyone's learning.
3. Classroom Organization: Teacher organizes materials, furniture, and displays which encourages student independence, cooperation, and productiveness.
4. Logical Consequences: Teacher responds to misbehavior with consequences that are respectful of the children and supportive of their efforts to learn how to fix their mistakes.
5. Academic Choice: Teachers use children's interests and the powerful learning cycle of planning, working, and reflecting to maximize students' academic growth.