Morning Meeting, a program from Responsive Classroom (www.responsiveclassroom.org) is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for success socially and academically. Each morning, students and teachers gather in a circle for twenty to thirty minutes and interact with one another during four purposeful components.
The Four Components of Morning Meeting
- Greeting: Students and teachers greet one another by name.
- Sharing: Students share information about important events in their lives. Listeners often offer empathetic comments or ask clarifying questions.
- Group Activity: Everyone participates in a brief, lively activity that fosters group cohesion and helps students practice social and academic skills (for example, reciting a poem, dancing, singing, or playing a game).
- Morning Message: Students read and interact with a short message written by their teacher. The teacher crafts the message to help students focus on the work they’ll do in school that day.
- Devotions: Timothy staff add the essential component of devotion to their Morning Meeting. Students will pray, read the Bible, and sing during this time.
Goals of Morning Meeting
- Begin the day with our God in sincere and meaningful community and devotion.
- Set the tone for respectful and engaged learning in a climate of trust.
- Build positive community by fulfilling students’ need to belong, feel significant, and have fun.
- Model and practice social-emotional skills.
- Review or practice academic skills or content in a way that gets students interested in the learning to come.
Morning Meeting and Academics
Rather than something separate to do that takes time away from academics, Morning Meeting is an ideal practice for highlighting academic content in a way that is active and interactive, leading to joyful and energetic learning. Making learning fun and engaging during these gathering times encourages students to be intrinsically motivated to learn.
Some information taken from www.responsiveclassroom.org