Academic achievement is advanced through an integrated social and academic curriculum. Research confirms that the time spent on social and emotional learning is earned back in terms of classrooms that run more effectively and efficiently. However, we also know that social skills are not taught just so that the children behave better in order to get on with the “real” business of schooling. Rather, social skills are intertwined with cognitive growth and intellectual progress. A person who can listen well; frame a good question; have the assertiveness to pose it; and examine a situation from a number of perspectives will be a strong learner. All these skills — essential to academic learning — are modeled daily through our social skills program, Responsive Classroom. Responsive classroom is an approach to teaching and learning that fosters safe, challenging, and joyful classrooms and schools.

The Guiding Principles of Responsive Classroom are:

• The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.


• How children learn is as important as what they learn — process and content go hand in hand.


• The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.


• There is a set of social skills children need in order to be successful academically and socially: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self control (CARES).


• Knowing the children we teach — individually, culturally, and developmentally — is as important as knowing the content we teach.


• Knowing the families of the children we teach and working with them as partners is essential to children’s education.


• How the adults at school work together is as important as individual competence — lasting change begins with the adult community.

The Teaching Practices of Responsive Classroom are:

• Morning Meeting — A daily routine that builds community, creates a positive climate for learning, and reinforces academic and social skills.


• Rules and Logical Consequences — A clear and consistent approach to discipline that fosters responsibility and self-control.


• Guided Discovery — A format for introducing materials that encourages inquiry, heightens interest and teaches care of the school environment.


• Academic Choice — An approach to giving children choices in their learning that helps them become invested, self-motivated learners.


• Classroom Organization — Strategies for arranging materials, furniture and displays to encourage independence, promote care and maximize learning.


• Working with Families — Ideas for involving families as true partners in their children’s education.