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Classroom Practices

A. Morning Meeting: Morning meeting is a time for the class to come together and make sure

they’re all on the same page. The students can hear what the schedule for the day is, which is

great for children with schedule anxiety, and all the other kids know what’s coming next. It can

be a time to create a classroom community through activities, an opportunity to practice a skill,

and learn about your students to be able to better teach.

1. Allow kids to share one good thing about the day before/the weekend. Kids love to tell

stories and listening to other peers’ stories can bring kids closer together. It also gives a

chance for the teacher to listen and learn about their lives and what they feel is important

enough to share.

2. Use morning meeting message as a chance to learn grammar strategies, and encourage

problem solving skills by scrambling words or introducing new vocabulary. Morning

Meeting Ideas

3. “Find a Friend Who,” list some questions for the kids, such as “Find a friend who likes

the same sport as you,” or “find a friend who has the same animal as you,” or “find a

friend who likes the same subject at school as you.” Encourage kids to walk around and

talk to other students to find their match. Ask as many questions as necessary. Find a

Friend Game

B. Rule Creation: If the class is a part of creating classroom rules they’re more likely to be

followed. It’s easier to hold someone accountable for things they themselves put in place. They

learn what others expect from them and what they should expect from their peers. It’s a way to

have kids think about how they want the year to go any how they want to control themselves.

1. This is a resource explaining the importance of creating rules with students and shares 3

ways on how you can create rules with your students. Creating Classroom Expectations
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2. This is a resource that gives other ways on how you can create rules as a class, but also

gives a list of questions to ask the students in order to generate their thinking on what

they think would be appropriate rules for the class. Education World

3. This website gives a similar overview of a way you can create rules with students,

however it incorporates role playing to practice and come up with more rules.

Responsive Classroom

C. Interactive Modeling: “I do, we do, you do” is an important part of learning. Interactive

modeling is the “we do” section. Just explaining isn’t enough for kids to retain what they’re being

told. By using interactive modeling you can show students exactly what you’re looking for.

Model behaviors to give a solid and clear understanding of what is expected.

1. This explains the difference between interactive modeling and traditional modeling, and

how interactive modeling has more benefits to learning. Responsive Classroom

2. A teacher can use interactive modeling to successfully teach things as simple as talking

to their partner. Talking to a Partner Video

3. Interactive modeling should be purposeful and this planning guide from Responsive

Classroom can help guide you to make it a successful lesson. Planning Guide

D. Positive Teacher Language: Positive teacher language creates positive behaviors. Positive

teacher language includes naming the behavior that you’re looking for, not naming the behavior

you don’t. “Use your walking feet,” instead of “no running.” We use positive language to show

children that they are capable of doing what we ask of them, instead of pointing out what they’re

doing wrong. That way there isn’t a question about what they should be doing, and they don’t

get defensive over being corrected.

1. Here’s an overview on the benefits of positive teacher language. Want Positive

Behavior? Use Positive Language


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2. This resource gives ideas on what teacher language to use and how to use it. It shows

types of language you can use for what kind of response you’re looking for. Powerful

Teacher Language Empowers Students

3. This is a book that I read for school, and I believe it’s an amazing resource for

understanding positive teacher language and how to shape your language in order to

encourage students. Power of Our Words (Barnes and Noble)

E. Logical Consequences: Logical consequences are consequences that fit the broken rule or

misbehavior. There’s no reason to impose an illogical consequences on something small, like

losing recess over tapping a pencil. Likewise, only a warning when a child is doing something

very dangerous or mean is damaging and shows a child they can do what they want and the

consequence will be worth it.

1. Logical consequences can be made into an anchor chart to hang into the classroom. It

gives the students an easily accessible resource on how they can fix their misbehaviors

and it encourages them to take responsibilities for their own actions. This is a link to a

free printable consequences anchor chart. Consequences Chart

2. There are three types of logical consequences, which can be used for the anchor chart,

and this resource outlines them. Types of Logical Consequences

3. Another type of consequence is natural consequences, this resource describes both and

gives explicit examples of both to give a better understanding of when to use which one.

Natural and Logical Consequences

F. Guided Discovery: Guided discovery is a great chance for a child to see and feel materials

before they have to be serious with them. There will always be a “this is a tool, not a toy”

conversation with most materials, but if it’s appropriate to give the kids a chance to just play

around with something it makes it much easier to be serious with them after. During my clinical
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placement if there was a material that the kids frequently wanted to play with, before we’d use

them I’d give them an opportunity to do that. Especially with whiteboards, the urge to draw on

them is too great and kids deserve a chance to have fun for a little bit to keep them focused.

1. Responsive Classroom gives step by step instructions on how to create a guided

discovery lesson. Guided Discovery in Action

2. This is an even further analysis on the process of guided discovery lessons. Guided

Discovery

3. This gives an example lesson on teaching grammar using the guided discovery

approach. Teaching English Grammar

G. Academic Choice: Going along with choosing rules, children are more likely to participate

and learn if they can make their own decisions. Just by being their own decision there’s a spark

of internal motivation that can keep them learning. The easiest academic choices may be

choosing what kind of activity you get to do with a certain lesson. That way the whole schedule

can stay on track while still giving kids a chance to choose.

1. This is a book written about learning through academic choice and how to use it to build

a community, encourage motivation, and increase academic skills. Learning Through

Academic Choices (Barnes and Noble)

2. Quiet time is an easy place to start trying to allow student choice. Responsive

Classroom lays out how to teach quiet time and how to encourage student choice during

it. What is Quiet Time?

3. This is a video on academic choice in action during a lesson. The teacher Ms. Porfirio,

teaches a lesson on retelling a story and uses academic choice to keep the kids

engaged. Academic Choice Lesson


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H. Classroom Organization: Classroom organization promotes a healthy learning environment.

If a classroom is too busy then the energy of the room may be stressful and loud. If it’s

unorganized then it’s impossible to find things and have a place for everything to go. A class

should be organized to best fit the number of students and everything should have a place to

be.

1. This is a resource that gives you an easy checklist and step by step guide on how to

better organize your classroom. 20 Ways to Better Organize Your Classroom

2. Scholastic has a web page with 100 classroom organization tips to keep everything

where it needs to be. Scholastic

3. A short video giving tips on how to repurpose other supplies for your classroom to save

money and help the environment by reusing everyday items. Cheap Classroom

Organization Ideas

I. Working with Families: Families should be a teachers number one ally. They’re the ones that

know their own child the best and have the most knowledge on what’s going on at home. By

keeping parents involved early you can avoid conflicts in the future, especially if a child starts to

show problems. It’s important to keep parents in the loop with the good and the bad because

then when the bad comes they’re more likely to want to work with you. They’ll already know that

you see the good in their child and just want the best for them.

1. This is a main resource with several other resources inside for new teachers on how to

talk with parents. It gives tips on using meet the teacher, conferences, how to develop

relationships, parent participation, and using technology. New Teachers Working with

Parents

2. This gives tips on how to deal with all level parent involvement, from absent to helicopter

parents. Working with Parents


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3. A way you can keep up with parent involvement is to regularly send updates about their

children, and make a point to send more positive reports than negative. Weekly

newsletters can also encourage parent involvement because then they know what’s

been going on and can talk with their children about it.

J. Collaborative Problem Solving: Social curriculum is just as important as academic and

collaborative problem solving can do both. It encourages kids to work with each other, which

they’re going to have to do no matter what jobs they have as adults. Role playing allows them to

become someone else and to better understand how some people may feel in certain situations,

and it’s a way that teachers can explain to kids what’s appropriate and what’s not.

1. This is an entire company that’s based off collaborative problem solving to help children

with behavior problems. They have links for teaching and learning, and host trainings.

Think:Kids

2. A resource for using collaborative problem solving to help students follow classroom

rules and expectations. Helping Students Follow Classroom Expectations and Rules with

Collaborative Problem Solving

3. Part of problem solving is allowing students to get “stuck” and “unstuck.” This teacher

talks about the lesson she uses teach collaborative problem solving. Teaching Problem

Solving: Let Students Get 'Stuck' and 'Unstuck'

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