Nurturing Social and Academic Success

“I feel that my classroom community grows more connected and more productive every day as I continue to implement Responsive Classroom techniques and strategies." - Libby Donovan Kun

Like Lincoln School teacher Libby Donovan Kun, many Brookline educators are finding that Responsive Classroom (RC) techniques help develop a strong learning community. RC is an approach to teaching in kindergarten through grade five that emphasizes students’ social and academic growth.

This summer, a Brookline Education Foundation (BEF) grant supported attendance by Lincoln teachers Andrea Beaser, Libby Donovan Kun, Maggie Nichols, Courtney O’Leary, and Becky Reinhold at a weeklong training session in the second level of RC training. In fact, the BEF has funded RC training for nearly 100 Brookline educators.

The feedback that we have received praising RC methods has been remarkable. Nichols reports, “The RC approach to teaching allows me to be the kind of teacher I have always wanted to be by providing clear, concrete ways to combine socialization and academics.”

Kun describes equally dramatic results. “The Responsive Classroom training has been instrumental in framing my approach to daily classroom life,” she states. “ It reaffirmed my core belief about the importance of developing social AND academic skills simultaneously to result in the most successful learning. In doing so, it helped me to put my philosophy for teaching into action by guiding me in making thoughtful, proactive decisions about how I set up my classroom's physical space, how I structure daily routines, the language I use with children, and the explicit modeling I do to communicate clear expectations.”

Nurturing successful social and academic learning at Lincoln doesn’t stop at 5^th grade. Developmental Design, a companion program to RC, is an approach to teaching at the middle school level that continues RC strategies while addressing the social behavior of young adolescents.

Although the two programs are designed for different age groups, they apply the same methodology and terminology for helping students attain respectful and empathetic social skills. Thanks to a BEF grant, Lincoln Music teacher Crystal Liddiard is collaborating with other Brookline educators this year to learn to apply Developmental Design methods in her classes with older students.