Has your child ever come home talking about Morning Meeting? The Snake Greeting? Mother Gooney Bird? Or What’s the News? Some of these activities may sound a little funny at first, but they help to energize students and promote collaboration among them, and they are part of Murch’s increased integration of Responsive Classroom (RC) techniques.
To enable optimal student learning, Murch follows the principles of RC throughout the school. Responsive Classroom is an approach to elementary teaching that emphasizes social, emotional, and academic growth in a strong and safe school community. Responsive Classroom complements encourages students to see their school and classroom as a community of learners made up of unique individuals, each deserving respect.
Key RC principles include:
- Social curriculum is as critical as academic curriculum.
- Children need social skills, such as cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy and self-control, to succeed academically and socially.
- Social interaction is where the greatest cognitive growth takes place.
- Families are key partners in children’s education.
Some of the specific RC practices are: Morning Meeting; Rule Creation; Positive Teacher Language; Logical consequences; Academic Choice; Working with Families; and Collaborative Problem Solving. Murch uses Responsive Classroom techniques across age groups — from Pre-K to 5th grade. The involvement of parents and guardians is vital for reinforcing the behaviors and activities that are modeled through RC.