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Responsive Classroom
The Responsive Classroom approach fosters safe, challenging,and joyful elementary classrooms and schools. Developed by teachers, it consists of practical strategies for bringing together social and academic learning in a strong ans safe school community. Items marked with * are part of the NNREC Members Lending Library (for books on this page only, teachers may borrow if they have taken an environmental education workshop from NNREC or one of its partners, even if they are not a member). All of these books are available from Northeast Foundation for Children, and from Amazon.
The Power of Our Words: Teacher Language that Helps Children Learn, Paula Denton, 2007, ISBN: 1-892989-18-2. Language may be a teacher’s most powerful tool. Every day the words, phrases, tone, and pace you use have the power to help students develop self-control, build their sense of belonging, and gain skills and knowledge. This book, by an author with more than twenty years of experience teaching children and educators, will help you recognize the influence your words have on the children you teach. It will show you how to use language more skillfully, building a classroom where students feel safe, respected, appreciated, and excited about learning. Full of practical tips, real life anecdotes, and concrete examples, this warm and thought- provoking guide includes specific suggestions about language to adopt and language to avoid. Topics include:
- using language to help children envision success
- open-ended questions that stretch children’s thinking
- listening and using silence skillfully
- the 3 Rs of teacher language: reinforcing, reminding, and redirecting
- saying what you mean and meaning what you say
- giving brief, concrete instructions
- offering meaningful, specific encouragement
* Teaching Children to Care: Classroom Management for Ethical and Academic Growth K-8, Ruth Sidney Charney, 2002, ISBN: 1-892989-08-5. This definitive work about classroom management will show teachers how to turn their vision of respectful, friendly, academically rigorous classrooms into reality.
The revised edition includes:
- Setting priorities and expectations with children
- Establishing classroom routines
- Generating rules with students and using logical consequences
- Working with families and staff to support the rules
- Planning and conducting social conferences and class meetings
- Avoiding power struggles
- Choosing effective teacher language and tone
- Helping children with challenging behavior problems
* The Morning Meeting Book, Roxanne Kriete, 2002, ISBN: 1-892989-09-3. Morning Meeting is a powerful teaching tool for building community, increasing student investment, and improving academic and social skills. This comprehensive guidebook has helped thousands of teachers across the country use Morning Meeting to launch their school days. The expanded edition offers:
- Step-by-step guidelines for implementing Morning Meeting in any K-8 classroom
- Clear explanations of purposes
- 45 greetings, 66 group activities, and many samples of morning message charts
- Frequently asked questions and answers
- A chapter on implementing Morning Meeting in middle schools
- Ideas for adapting Morning Meeting for use with second language learners
* Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14, Chip Wood, 1997, ISBN: 0-9618636-4-1. Written with warmth, humor, and deep reverence for children, Yardsticks helps teachers and parents better understand children. Wood draws upon his many years of experience as an educators, parents, and researcher to offer clear and concise descriptions of the universal characteristics of children at different ages. Teachers will use these "yardsticks" to shape curriculum and parents will use them to determine whether their child's development needs are being met at school.
* The First Six Weeks of School, Paula Denton and Roxanne Kriete, 2000, ISBN: 1-892989-04-2. Learn how to structure the first six weeks of school to lay the groundwork for a productive year of learning. Discover how taking the time to build a solid foundation in the early weeks of school can pay off all year long in increased student motivation, cooperation, responsibility, and self-control.
This comprehensive guidebook for K-6 teachers features:
- Daily plans for the first three weeks and commentary about these plans at three grade levels: primary (K-2), middle (3-4), and upper (5-6)
- Detailed guidelines for:
— Building community
— Creating rules and teaching routines
— Introducing engaging curriculum
— Fostering autonomy
— Integrating social and academic learning
— Establishing high expectations for learning and behavior - An extensive collection of games, activities, greetings, songs, read-alouds, and resources especially useful during the early weeks of school.
* Learning Through Academic Choice, Paula Denton, 2005, ISBN: 1-892989-14-X. A powerful instructional tool, Academic Choice motivates students and encourages autonomous learning. Children select from several teacher-offered ways to meet learning goals and practice a three-part process of planning, working, and reflecting. Step by step, this book helps you introduce Academic Choice into your teaching:
- Learn how to build a strong foundation for Academic Choice
- Follow a teacher through each phase of implementing an Academic Choice lesson
- Learn the details of planning an Academic Choice lesson
- Find a wide range of specific lesson plans and activity ideas for grades K-6
Rules in School, Kathryn Brady, Mary Beth Forton, Deborah Porter, and Chip Wood, 2003, ISBN: 1-892989-10-7. Learn an approach for helping students become invested in creating and living by classroom rules. K-8 teachers in a wide range of settings have used this approach to establish calm, safe learning environments and teach children self-discipline.
Written by four experienced classroom teachers, this book offers practical techniques for:
- Helping students articulate their hopes and dreams for school
- Involving students in generating classroom rules that grow out of their hopes and dreams
- Modeling, practicing, and role playing the rules
- Using teacher language effectively to reinforce the rules
- Teaching children about logical consequences for rule breaking
- Choosing effective logical consequences
- Teaching children to live by the rules outside the classroom
Parents & Teachers Working Together, Carol Davis and Alice Yang, 2005, ISBN: 1-892989-15-8. How can teachers build positive relationships with parents and work with them to support their children’s learning? This book offers a wealth of manageable ways. It combines the voice of a master teacher with spotlights of a dozen other teachers in action in rural, urban, and suburban schools. Sample letters and forms throughout. Topics include:
- Working with diverse family cultures
- Setting the stage for a positive relationship during the early weeks of school
- Keeping in touch all year long
- Talking with parents about child development
- Involving all parents, including those who can’t make it to school
- Helping parents understand classroom practices
- Problem-solving with parents
Classroom Spaces That Work, Marlynn K. Clayton, 2001, ISBN: 1-892989-05-0. Create a physical environment that is organized, welcoming, and well suited to the needs of students and teachers, an environment that is conducive to learning and makes your best teaching possible. Written by a teacher with over thirty years of experience, this comprehensive guide is for new and experienced teachers alike, grades K-6. It is filled with practical ideas for:
- Arranging furniture
- Establishing pathways
- Selecting and organizing materials
- Eliminating clutter
- Storing supplies
- Creating meaningful displays
- Setting up a meeting area
- Accommodating special needs
- Making the space healthy
- Keeping the classroom clean
