In my fifth grade class the students doing the thinking is more obvious. I saw one great activity where the teacher had the theme of Think Different. For this theme he had each of the students create a poster that said Think ....... and then whatever word they wanted to describe themselves. The students then each created a self portrait with things about themselves to go around a picture of their face. The teacher then took these pictures and hung them outside the wall so students could guess and see if they could figure out which student had created which one. This teacher also gives students time to socialize for 1 minute with other students during the day. It gives the students a good break from their daily activity and helps transition to a different subject.
Here is a great video to watch about Responsive Classrooms and how/why teachers should use it in the classroom.
To see more about the responsive classroom and things that are included in it click on this link.
It sounds like your learning a lot of great skills that will help you to create a responsive classroom in the future. I think its great that learning different ways to incorporate this in the classroom at all levels. Many people think that school is ALL about academics and the teachers job is to educate students in the core subject areas. In reality, we all know that it would be impossible to help students succeed in the classroom without addressing social emotional aspects of their development.
ReplyDeleteAwesome job :)
Responsice classrooms are definetely the best kind, I totally agree. There's nothing better than seeing students in the classroom take responsibility and leadership in their own thinking. I love the idea of focusing on the whole child, not just the academics. As you and Lauren both mentioned the social and emotional aspects are just as crucial to a student's overall development and success. I think this was also a key element that we learned in Dr. Falconer's class, when we did case studies on how the student's development in three domains affect thier academics. Having a responsive lassroom that encourages students to grow socially and emotionally will develop students' abilities to succeed both inside and outside the classroom. Great points, Sarah!
ReplyDeleteI am at Lynbrook Elementary and they also employ the idea of a responsive classroom. Watching it in action is awesome. I love all that it really stands for. It's all about a student centered approah and really is so much more hands on. It's definitely the way I would love to run my class. They make sure that the students take part in everything and they create EVERYTHING!
ReplyDeleteLike Lauren said, we tend to overlook the social aspect of school. Students need that social learning as well. As teachers, it is our responsibility to help shape the future generation. We need to teach them how to cooperate with others, communicate effctively and just live in a world full of diveristy.
That's a really neat activity that you got to observe. Thanks for sharing!
Sarah--I JUST blogged about this!!! I really like the whole responsive classroom idea. I had never even heard of it before spending time at Lynbrook. I was at another school last semester, and we always did morning meeting--but they never mentioned anything about responsive classroom.
ReplyDeleteI love how it also tries to socialize the students as well as educate them. The social aspect truly is just as important as the educational content--so I appreciate that these schools are realizing that!