Responsive Classroom

Crystal Lake School is currently in its third year of implementation of the Responsive Classroom approach to elementary teaching.

The Responsive Classroom approach is a way of teaching that emphasizes social, emotional and academic growth in a strong and safe school community. There are ten core components of the Responsive Classroom approach: Morning Meeting, Rule Creation, Interactive Modeling, Positive Teacher Language, Logical Consequences, Guided Discovery, Academic Choice, Classroom Organization, Working With Families and Collaborative Problem-Solving. Crystal Lake School has a three year plan to implement all ten of these components.

The goal of the Responsive Classroom approach is to enable optimal student learning.

Urban, suburban, and rural schools nationwide implementing the Responsive Classroom approach consistently experience higher teaching quality, increased student engagement, academic gains, and fewer discipline problems.

A study by the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education found a link between the Responsive Classroom approach and:

  • Increases in math and reading test scores
  • Improved social skills
  • High-quality instruction and greater teacher efficacy.

No Child Left Behind considers the design of this study to meet its rigorous standards for providing valid evidence of effectiveness.

The goal of the Responsive Classroom approach is to enable optimal student learning. Developed by classroom teachers and continually refined to meet schools’ needs, the Responsive Classroom approach is based on the premise that children learn best when they have both academic and social-emotional skills. The approach consists of classroom and school-wide practices for deliberately helping children build academic and social-emotional competencies day in and day out, year in and year out.

Guiding Principles of the Responsive Classroom ® Approach

Crystal Lake School CARES

www.responsiveclassroom.org