An Overview of the

Responsive Classroom Approach

Responsive Classroom is an approach to teaching and learning that fosters a safe, challenging, and joyful classroom and school at large. Developed by classroom teachers, Responsive Classroom consists of practical strategies that bring together social and academic learning throughout the school day. It allows children to reach their full potential by involving them in decisions about curriculum, classroom organization, classroom management, and discipline.

In urban, rural, and suburban settings, educators using these strategies have reported an increase in student motivation, responsibility, social skills,academic engagement,learning,and decreases in problem behaviors.

Responsive Classroom strives to meet the following human needs: to feel you belong, do things that are significant, and have fun.

Guiding Principles of the Responsive Classroom Approach

1. The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.

2. How children learn is as important as what children learn.

3. The greatest cognitive growth occurs through positive, social interaction.

4. There is a set of social skills that children need in order to be successful academically and socially: Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy, and Self-control (CARES).

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 and working with them as partners is essential to children's education.

7. How adults at school work together is as important as our individual competence.

Classroom Practices

The Responsive Classroom approach consists of a set of practices that build academic and social-emotional competencies and can be used along with many other programs. The following classroom practices are the heart of the approach:

  • Morning Meeting—gathering as a whole class each morning to greet one another, share news, and warm up for the day ahead.

Morning Meeting is a great way to build community, set a positive tone for the day, increase excitement about learning, and improve academic and social skills. Every day, Morning Meeting lets children know that school is a safe place where all feelings and ideas are important, and helps them to learn about each others' lives and interests.

There are 4 parts to most Morning Meetings: greeting, sharing, group activity, and morning message. We begin greeting each other by name in a friendly and cheerful manner. Next students share some news of interest, usually personal in nature, and respond to each other with questions and comments. Then the whole class usually does a short activity together, building class cohesion through active participation. Finally we practice academic skills and build community relations by reading and discussing a daily message written by the teacher.

  • Rule Creation—helping students create classroom rules to ensure an environment that allows all class members to meet their learning goals.

At the beginning of the yearour class takes time to discuss our hopes and dreams for the school year. This communication of our hopes and dreamssets a tone of collaboration and mutual respect, builds community, helps children get to know each other, invites children to have a say about what they learn in school, and enables children to understand and feel invested in the classroom rules. We post our hopes and dreams in our classroom to remind ourselves of what we would each like to accomplish this year.

  • Logical Consequences—responding to misbehavior in a way that allows children to fix and learn from their mistakes while preserving their dignity.

Discipline in a Responsive Classroom is both proactive and reactive. Proactively we work with children to create, teach, and practice classroom rules. Reactively we use logical consequences to help children regain control, make amends, and get back on track when they forget or choose not to take care of themselves or others. Logical consequences are a way of responding to inappropriate behavior in a natural way that allows children to learn from their mistakes. Logical consequences are respectful, relevant, and realistic. These are the three kinds of logical consequences.

You Break It, You Fix It- Children are responsible for fixing the mess, material(s), or mending the relationship they hurt. To mend a relationship, children will be asked to enact an "apology of action”- the child who damaged the friendship must choose a way to repair the friendship. A student might ask the other child to play at recess or give a compliment, but it is important that the action matches the hurtful behavior. For example, if a child excludes a friend from a game at recess, an appropriate action would be for him or her to ask that friend to play at the next recess.

Loss of Privilege- When children misuse materials/work areas or abuse a privilege, I may remove the material or privilege until they are ready to make better choices and try again.

Take a Break- When children are beginning to lose control, I may ask them to "take a break," and remove them from the group until they are able to regain self-control and are ready to rejoin the class by participating in a positive way.

All of the logical consequencesare discussed as a class with concrete and clear examples, and the children become familiar with which logical consequence best fits their individual situation.

  • Interactive Modeling—teaching children to notice and internalize expected behaviors through a unique modeling technique.
  • Positive Teacher Language—using words and tone as a tool to promote children’s active learning, sense of community, and self-discipline.

It is often thought that praising children can only be a good thing. Praise, however, disempowers children making them dependent on the approval and judgments of others, and undermines a child's ability to evaluate his or her own efforts. It also compares children and establishes worth in relation to the work of others. This pressures children to always need to measure up to the standards which earned them praise, all to please adults.

Encouraging and empowering language has many benefits. Such language focuses on the child's process rather than product, creates a learning environment where it's safe to take risks and make mistakes, accepts children as they are,helps build self-confidence, gives specific feedback, and allows children to define their own limits.

Try these Encouraging and Empowering Phrases…

* I notice…
* I see…
* What do you think of …?
* Tell me about…
* How does this work?
* I hear…
* How do you feel about your work?
* Show me…
* Remind me …

  • Guided Discovery—introducing classroom materials using a format that encourages independence, creativity, and responsibility.
  • Academic Choice—increasing student learning by providing students with teacher-structured choices in their work.
  • Classroom Organization—setting up the physical room in ways that encourage students’ independence, cooperation, and productivity.
  • Working with Families—creating avenues for hearing parents’ insights and helping them understand the school’s teaching approaches.
  • Collaborative Problem Solving—using conferencing, role playing, and other strategies to resolve problems with students.

To learn more about the Responsive Classroom components, feel free to e-mail me or visit the official Responsive Classroom website at

Information taken from, paraphrased, directly extracted, or otherwise summarized from the Responsive Classroom Institute Level I Workbook and other publications by Northeast Foundation includingThe First Six Weeks of School by Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete.