Schools That Think The Responsive Classroom by Sara Terry Fast Company April, 2000 pages 306-310

Greenfield Center School in Greenfield, Massachusetts, is considered the home of the Responsive Classroom. Chip Wood and five other teachers founded the Greenfield Center School in 1981. The schools mission is to integrate lessons on civility, humanity, and diversity into everyday education. It began in a four-room rented building and now occupies two buildings on a campus in the Berkshire hills. The classroom learning is rooted in academics, but its mission is the nurturing of social skills like cooperation, responsibility, empathy, assertion, and self-control on a continual basis. There are no academic requirements for entrance and the tuition is based on parents ability to pay. The student body is chosen to maintain racial, gender, and economic diversity. Its parent organization is the Northeast Foundation for Children which provides consulting and publishing materials to further the mission of the Responsive Classroom. The foundation regularly publishes books written by the teachers and staff, as well as, a newsletter that is mailed to about 50,000 educators nationwide. People that visit Greenfield Center School will see a kind of teaching that refuses to compress learning about character and civic values into a single lesson, but instead models social skills learning into every aspect of school life. Each morning, in every classroom, all children greet one another and are given time to talk through sharing in a morning meeting session. Once a week, the entire school meets for a special morning meeting to celebrate academic an personal achievements. From the third grade on, students take the California Test of Basic Skills and it has been found that their scores consistently go up, so that by the seventh and eighth grades they are in the ninetieth percentile. At Greenfield Center School, students are evaluated constantly. Teachers regularly keep classroom journals and report cards are actually detailed assessments that cover specific academic and social skills. It was exciting for me to read an article published in Fast Company that dealt with the same topic as my research paper. It helped confirm that I am involved in an experiment in education that is being talked about as a positive life-long learning experience for all students. I first became interested in the Responsive Classroom, in March of 1998, when I attended a one day introductory workshop at Hamline University. I felt, at that time, that this was an approach to teaching that would work well in the multi-age setting at Falls Elementary School. I was fortunate to attend a one week workshop in August of 1998, in St. Paul, through St. Catherines. Upon my return to International Falls, I conducted a mini inservice with my teaching partners in the multi-age classrooms. That fall, I was asked to speak to the other teachers at Falls Elementary, Holler, and St. Thomas. I also presented an inservice to the local Project Respect Committee. This committee is made up of parents, teachers, administrator, law enforcement, and community members from International Falls. The purpose of the committee was to observe student behaviors and conduct a student survey to assess whether or not there was a need for a behavior intervention program in Independent School District #361. After reviewing the results of the survey, the Project Respect committee decided to find an established social skills and violence prevention program. They elected to fund a workshop which provided training for teachers, in the International Falls area, interested in implementing the Responsive Classroom. I have used the Responsive Classroom approach in my class for two years. In August of 2000, I will be taking Responsive Classroom II, which is a one week workshop for teachers who have already been train in this approach. I am looking forward to finishing the research project on Responsive Classroom and heading into my third year of implementation.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2000

Answers

MaryAnn, I hope this will be easier to read.

Schools That Think

The Responsive Classroom

by Sara Terry

Fast Company

April, 2000

pages 306-310

Greenfield Center School in Greenfield, Massachusetts, is considered the home of the Responsive Classroom. Chip Wood and five other teachers founded the Greenfield Center School in 1981. The schools mission is to integrate lessons on civility, humanity, and diversity into everyday education. It began in a four-room rented building and now occupies two buildings on a campus in the Berkshire hills. The classroom learning is rooted in academics, but its mission is the nurturing of social skills like cooperation, responsibility, empathy, assertion, and self-control on a continual basis. There are no academic requirements for entrance and the tuition is based on parents ability to pay. The student body is chosen to maintain racial, gender, and economic diversity.

Its parent organization is the Northeast Foundation for Children which provides consulting and publishing materials to further the mission of the Responsive Classroom. The foundation regularly publishes books written by the teachers and staff, as well as, a newsletter that is mailed to about 50,000 educators nationwide.

People that visit Greenfield Center School will see a kind of teaching that refuses to compress learning about character and civic values into a single lesson, but instead models social skills learning into every aspect of school life. Each morning, in every classroom, all children greet one another and are given time to talk through sharing in a morning meeting session. Once a week, the entire school meets for a special morning meeting to celebrate academic an personal achievements.

From the third grade on, students take the California Test of Basic Skills and it has been found that their scores consistently go up, so that by the seventh and eighth grades they are in the ninetieth percentile. At Greenfield Center School, students are evaluated constantly. Teachers regularly keep classroom journals and report cards are actually detailed assessments that cover specific academic and social skills.

It was exciting for me to read an article published in Fast Company that dealt with the same topic as my research paper. It helped confirm that I am involved in an experiment in education that is being talked about as a positive life-long learning experience for all students. I first became interested in the Responsive Classroom, in March of 1998, when I attended a one day introductory workshop at Hamline University. I felt, at that time, that this was an approach to teaching that would work well in the multi-age setting at Falls Elementary School. I was fortunate to attend a one week workshop in August of 1998, in St. Paul, through St. Catherines. Upon my return to International Falls, I conducted a mini inservice with my teaching partners in the multi-age classrooms. That fall, I was asked to speak to the other teachers at Falls Elementary, Holler, and St. Thomas. I also presented an inservice to the local Project Respect Committee. This committee is made up of parents, teachers, administrator, law enforcement, and community members from International Falls. The purpose of the committee was to observe student behaviors and conduct a student survey to assess whether or not there was a need for a behavior intervention program in Independent School District #361. After reviewing the results of the survey, the Project Respect committee decided to find an established social skills and violence prevention program. They elected to fund a workshop which provided training for teachers, in the International Falls area, interested in implementing the Responsive Classroom.

I have used the Responsive Classroom approach in my class for two years. In August of 2000, I will be taking Responsive Classroom II, which is a one week workshop for teachers who have already been train in this approach.

I am looking forward to finishing the research project on Responsive Classroom and heading into my third year of implementation.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2000