Taking the Responsive Classroom Approach Schoolwide

Dame School

Location: Concord, NH
Grades: PreK–2
Student body: 350; 12% ESL; 40% free or reduced-price lunch
Began Responsive Classroom initiative: 2002
Presenters: Ed Barnwell, principal; Barbara Hemingway, coordinator; Linda Stephenson, guidance counselor; Summer Turner, kindergarten teacher

Where We Began

Until about five years ago, we were ineffective and inconsistent in our discipline approach, relying almost exclusively on reactive, punitive, externally motivating policies and procedures to deal with problematic student behavior. Consequently, many of our students were not making the social and academic improvements we believed they could, and should, be making. Removing students from classrooms for disruptive behaviors became the norm (as many as twelve per day during the worst period). There was little sense of community and a lack of common beliefs among the school’s adults. Morale was low, and staff were getting more and more discouraged.

We all knew we needed to do something to solve this crisis, beginning with a more proactive and positive discipline approach. Eventually, after investigating various approaches, visiting schools, and taking introductory workshops, we chose to go with the Responsive Classroom approach. We began by funding six staff in Responsive Classroom I training through a grant. Next, we formed a School Leadership Team as part of our involvement in the New Hampshire Best Schools Initiative. The team applied for, and received, a three-year federal Comprehensive School Reform grant to allow all staff to receive training (a One-Day Introductory Workshop, the Responsive Classroom I Week-Long Institute, or the Responsive Classroom II Week-Long Institute, as appropriate).

Since beginning our Responsive Classroom work, we’ve made great strides toward developing a school culture that is calm and respectful—a culture in which discipline problems are far less frequent. Each year, we try to get better at one or more elements of our Responsive Classroom implementation. We continue to make significant changes in our schoolwide practices as we work to become a more responsive school community.

Key Points Discussed During the Conference Session

• Dame School’s progress was made possible by the conscious decision to shift from a punitive approach to discipline (punishing children because they lack the skills of good behavior) to a positive approach (teaching children the skills of good behavior, reinforcing these skills, and using logical consequences nonpunitively when behavior is inappropriate).
• A critical element of Dame’s school culture is the belief, reinforced continually, that “discipline is everybody’s business.” All adults in the school community are responsible for teaching and helping children maintain responsible behavior.
• Any discipline plan is more likely to succeed if it rests on a firm foundation of shared expectations, beliefs, and practices among the adults at school.
• Because every school is different, the specifics that help Dame encourage appropriate behavior may not work for another school. The Dame educators suggest, however, that a carefully thought-out schoolwide discipline plan is key. Moreover, they say, a discipline plan developed collaboratively by the whole staff, integrated with the school’s culture, and appropriate for the children served is likeliest to be workable and sustainable over the long term.
• A schoolwide discipline plan should be a living document, deserving of continual revisiting and refinement.
• It’s important to devote time, thought, and resources to family outreach and support. When families are engaged in school, children are more likely to be engaged in school. That engagement results in fewer discipline problems.

Hayshire Elementary School

Location: York, PA
Grades: K–3
Student body: 410; 18% minority; 2% ESL; 19% free or reduced-price lunch
Began Responsive Classroom initiative: 1997
Presenters: Carla Gabert, kindergarten teacher; Matt Miller, assistant principal; Barbara Snare, principal; Lori Wiltshire, counselor

Making the Initiative a Success

The first Responsive Classroom component we tried was Morning Meeting, and it has now become the “soft landing place” from which we launch each school day. We’ve built our Responsive Classroom schoolwide implementation upon our success with Morning Meeting. In Morning Meeting we actively reinforce the skills children need to do well academically and socially. Similarly, actively teaching and reinforcing academic and social skills has become the underlying foundation for all we do at Hayshire.

We continually emphasize being specific about behavioral expectations and using supportive teacher language. In managing problem behaviors, we’ve kept our focus on plans for success with individual students. Using the “Green Circle” program (a human relations education program designed to promote positive intergroup relationships) in our guidance program helped us extend the Responsive Classroom philosophy.

Our principal and counselor have been constant supports. Also critical to our success is teachers’ belief the Responsive Classroom approach makes a difference. Not only do students respond positively to the approach, but parents notice and appreciate the school’s emphasis on teaching positive behavior.

Key Points Discussed During the Conference Session

• Hayshire teachers find that Morning Meeting can serve as the first opportunity to observe children’s mood and how their morning at home might have affected them. Warm, welcoming, and engaging interactions during the crucial first twenty or thirty minutes of school can help smooth a rocky start and get children off to a good day of learning.
• Time, patience, and small steps are essential elements to successful Responsive Classroom implementation. Hayshire has taken this incremental approach in its schoolwide Responsive Classroom work.
• Learning new ways of interacting with children is hard work. At Hayshire, there’s recognition that just like students, teachers trying to learn new skills need to have the skills taught and modeled and then need opportunities to practice them. Staff development can specialists offer this crucial support. Counselors, too, are important team members who can support and guide both teachers and students.
• It’s important to take care of the adult community at school. Adults as well as children need to feel a sense of belonging and significance.
• As Hayshire has seen, involving families helps solidify all the work that schools do with children. Parents can reinforce school practices at home, and their active engagement shows children that school is important.

High Bridge Elementary School

Location: High Bridge, NJ
Grades: K–5
Student body: 300; high percentage of children with special needs; 3% ESL; 11% free or reduced-price lunch
Began Responsive Classroom initiative: 2003
Presenters: Lynn Hickey, first grade teacher; Carol Howell, principal; Lauren Richardson, first grade teacher

How the Initiative Began and Grew

Our principal had attended a One-Day Introductory Workshop and a Responsive Classroom I Week-Long Institute in a previous district. At our school, she began by purchasing several Responsive Classroom professional resources and, with our school’s guidance counselor, sharing small aspects of the approach during the 2003–2004 school year.

In February 2004, we hired an NEFC consultant to facilitate a One-Day Introductory Workshop onsite, and that summer several teachers attended a Week-Long Institute. These teachers became our “core group,” who would help to guide our school in its Responsive Classroom implementation. That summer, the core group revised our teacher handbook to reflect what they learned during the Week-Long Institute. They also developed our yearly theme to incorporate the social skills emphasized in the Responsive Classroom approach: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.

Early on, several teachers began holding Morning Meetings in their classrooms, and on the opening day of school in the fall of 2004, we held our first staff meeting in a Morning Meeting format. As a staff, we developed our Hopes and Dreams for the school year and displayed them on a bulletin board outside of our main office. Teachers guided their classes in developing their classroom rules and then all the classes and teachers together created a set of school rules and displayed them on posters around the school. The rules read, “At High Bridge Elementary School we take care of ourselves, take care of others, take care of our environment, and take care to do our best work.”

Since then, the staff has continued working together on putting Responsive Classroom principles and practices into action, sharing successes and struggles at faculty meetings and learning together through book study groups. The principal and guidance counselor worked with cafeteria aides to revamp lunchtime procedures. And after learning about all-school meetings and visiting a school during one of their meetings, we now hold these all-school events regularly throughout the year.

In January 2006, we hired an NEFC consultant to spend the day at our school modeling Morning Meetings and Guided Discovery, as well as holding follow-up discussion groups. This refresher was a very positive and rewarding day for our staff. Our schoolwide Responsive Classroom implementation is a work in process, but we’re progressing well toward our goal.

Key Points Discussed During the Conference Session

• How teachers talk with children is critical, setting the tone for the whole school culture and modeling for children what respectful interactions sounds like. Teacher language is an emphasis at High Bridge.
• As High Bridge has found, the Responsive Classroom approach works best when the principles of the approach permeate school life and teachers consciously use the ideas, practices, and language at every opportunity. For example, it’s as important to use reminding and redirecting language in the lunchroom as it is in the classroom.
• schoolwide service-learning projects can support children’s ethical and empathetic development as well as building a sense of community across grades. schoolwide, year-long themes (such as “One to One, We Change the World”) offer further opportunities for solidifying children’s sense of themselves as one learning community.
• Music can play a huge part in building community. For example, children love singing with their classmates and teachers as they gather for and disperse after all-school meetings at High Bridge. Shared songs deepen children’s sense of their school community as one of warmth, stability, and consistency.
• schoolwide implementation is an ongoing process. Not only is continually reflecting, asking questions, and practicing vital to success, but it’s a way to show children an example of life-long learning.
• Children need to see school as a safe haven, a place where they will be supported and protected, not just taught and tested.

K. T.  Murphy Elementary School

Location: Stamford, CT
Grades: K–5
Student body: 490; 41% ESL; 56% free or reduced-price lunch; 50% of students attend preschool
Began Responsive Classroom initiative: 1996
Presenters: Toni D’Agostino, first grade teacher; Michele Sabia, staff developer

The Key Pieces From the Beginning

From the beginning of our Responsive Classroom implementation, we envisioned the Responsive Classroom as a schoolwide approach to teaching and learning. As the first few teachers began attending workshops and institutes, other teachers caught their excitement and also wanted to learn, so they began reading Responsive Classroom literature and observing their colleagues who were already using some of the elements.

Slowly, we began adding schoolwide initiatives. These included Morning Meeting in all classrooms, all-school meetings, and a schoolwide discipline policy that emphasized the consistent use of a firm, kind, and respectful approach to handling inappropriate behavior. We also revised our lunch schedule to make time for an organized play period.

To build our adult community, we established study groups and organized faculty and PTO meetings using the Morning Meeting format. Another important initiative was our all-school field trip. It’s become an annual tradition that does much to strengthen our sense of ourselves as a strong, inclusive school community.

Continuing Challenges

We need to work harder at consistently following the procedures outlined in our schoolwide discipline policy. On a daily basis, we’ll be emphasizing using logical consequences appropriately and using teacher language to remind or redirect students whose behavior is beginning to go off track.

We want to provide more support for our adult community by providing ongoing follow-up coaching to our teachers who have attended Responsive Classroom institutes. We also want to support our teachers in including daily Academic Choice lessons.

Another important goal is training guest teachers, parents, and volunteers in Responsive Classroom principles and practices.

Key Points Discussed During the Conference Session

The K.T. Murphy team members view their implementation of the Responsive Classroom approach schoolwide in terms of five interconnected structures.

• Professional development includes creating structures and schedules that enable teachers and support staff to talk together at school and to visit each other’s classrooms. Sharing successes and struggles within and across grade levels breaks down teachers’ traditional isolation. Such sharing also promotes the idea that “These are our children, not my children,” and that everyone in school is responsible for teaching every child.
• Creative thinking about scheduling aims to ensure that teachers and students have adequate time for Morning Meeting, a relaxing lunch, structured play (with adults leading and participating in games), monthly all-school meetings, and planning and reflecting.
• schoolwide guidelines help ensure that Responsive Classroom practices infuse the school culture so that children have a coherent, consistent context for learning. Such guidelines might include ones for schoolwide discipline, welcoming children during the first six weeks of school, managing homework, and taking care of guest teachers.
• schoolwide routines help children understand behavioral expectations, learn social skills, and feel secure and cared for. A sense of community develops as all children and all teachers participate in school routines, from the small (daily procedures in the classroom, lunchroom, and at recess) to the large (a traditional all-school spring field trip celebrating a year of learning together).
• Respectful home-school partnerships are important to supporting children’s learning. Key ways to increase parents’ participation in their children’s education include welcoming them to Family Night and PTO meetings; providing a parent handbook explaining the school’s mission, expectations, and procedures; and developing a school improvement plan that demonstrates the school’s continuing efforts to better care for and educate their children.