ERIC ED369531: Teaching Children to Care: Management in the Responsive Classroom.

306 Pages·1993·5.1 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
PS 022 279
ED 369 531
Charney, Ruth Sidney
AUTHOR
Teaching Children to Care: Management in the
TITLE
Responsive Classroom.
Northeast Foundation for Children, Greenfield, MA.
INSTITUTION
ISBN-0-9618636-1-7
REPORT NO
PUB DATE
93
NOTE
306p.
Northeast Foundation for Children, 71 Montague City
AVAILABLE FROM
Road, Greenfield, MA 01301 ($22.50, plus shipping.
Discount on quantity orders).
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Classroom Communication; Classroom Environment;
DESCRIPTORS
*Classroom Techniques; Conflict Resolution;
*Discipline; Elementary Education; Language; Peer
Relationship; Problem Solving; *Prosocial Behavior;
*Self Control; Teacher Student Relationship; Timeout;
*Values; *Values Education
Classroom Thoughtfulness; School Rules
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
This book is about managing a responsive classroom
and teaching children to care. The aim of every chapter and technique
is the creation of self-controls and community, defined as the
capacity to care about oneself, others, and the world. The 16 chapter
(2) techniques
(1) goals of self-control and community;
topics are:
of the first 6 weeks of school and their extension through the rest
(3) basic classroom rules and how children can be
of the year;
(4) a system of logical consequences for
involved in their creation;
(5) problem-solving class meetings; (6) a
children's actions;
(7) approaches to children who engage in power
time-out procedure;
(8) ways to approach problem-solving with individuals and
struggles;
(9) the
groups based on a teacher's ability to notice and reflect;
powerful link between words and actions; (10) the use of specific
language by children and teachers; (11) different ways teachers can
invoke authority, such as the Golden Rule, rules for safety and
(12) formation of "Clear Positives," or
order, and personal rules;
(14) class
basic ideals; (13) social arrangements and expectations;
and group expectations for learning content and procedures;
(15)
individual expectations; and (16) "critical contracts." The
conclusion addresses the idea of authentic teaching. Six appendixes
and a 43-item bibliography of books, articles, audiotapes, songs,
videotapes, and other resources are included. (TJQ)
*************)-4***********************************************
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TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)"
Teaching Children to Care
Management in
the
Responsive Classroom
RUTH SIDNEY CHARNEY
Northeast Foundation for Children
1992
3
All net proceeds from the sale of Teaching Children to Care: Management in the
Responsive Classroom support the work of the Northeast Foundation for Children,
Inc. It is a nonprofit, educational foundation established to demonstrate through
teaching, research, and consultation, a sensible and systematic approach to
schooling.
Copyright © 1991 by Northeast Foundation for Children
ISBN 0-9618636-1-7
Library of Congress catalog card number 91-068573
Printed by Eagle Printing, Binding & Mailing, 75 South Church Street,
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Fourth Printing September 1993
Northeast Foundation for Children
71 Montague City Rd.
Greenfield, MA 01301
1-800-360-6332
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote
brief passages in a review.
Designed by Intext Publishing Services
Cover photo by Jan Doyle
Additional photography by Apple Lord
4
To my best teachers:
Hattie and George, parents
Jay, husband
Daniel, Emma, Apple, Hannah, children
Jane Lazarre, dear friend
5
Contents
ix
Foreword
Section I: I See You, I See Everything
3
Introduction
9
Intentions
1
19
I See You, I See Everything
2
51
3 The Rules
65
4 Using Logical Consequences
75
5 Problem-Solving Class Meetings
93
6 Small Things
Time Out
111
7 Power Struggles
Section 11.: Voices of Teaching
125
Introduction
129
8 Teachers as Mirrors: Using Social Conferences
What You Say
151
9 Empowering Language: Say What You Mean & Mean
161
10 Stress the Deed, Not the Doer
171
11 The Changing Voices of Authority
Section III: Clear Positives
181
Introduction
,
185
12 Clear Positives
197
13 Choosing Social Arrangements and Expectations
207
14 Introducing Clear Positives to Groups
225
15 Clear Positives for Individuals
239
16 The Critical Contract
255
Conclusion: Authentic Teaching
261
Appendices
301
Bibliography/ References
6
v
Acknowledgments
But I must do what I believe in or nothing at all. Life's so short.
Sylvia Ashton-Warner
Teacher
teachers doing
Teaching Children to Care is a book about teaching and about
from the practice
what they "must." The ideas represent what I have learned
With this book, I hope
of many teachers and the writings of many educators.
those who dare to teach and to
to acknowledge the courage and inspiration of
persist in their best hopes for children.
and endless
I am indebted to my first colleagues: their guidance, modeling,
Naomi'Gutheil,
hours of conversation and relief. In particular Corinne Price,
Juana Culhane, Ann Green, and Rose Thompson.
Greenfield Center
I am especially grateful to the founding members of the
opportunity to
School and Northeast Foundation for Children for the
construct and grow together:
children and
To Chip Wood, for his vision, his leadership, his trust in
and
teachers, his sometimes booming voice, and his always yearning
learning self.
play; for
To Jay Lord, for his effusive energy, affections, and capacity to
strengths of others;
his noticing and attention to the very best efforts and
and of me.
for his ceaseless support and encouragement of my work
beautiful, safe, and fun;
To Marlynn Clayton, who makes a classroom
gentle joy to
who brings structure, the richness of activity and a
and say what
childhood; and who is not afraid to mean what she says
she means.
Greenfield Center School
I wish to give thanks to all my colleagues at the
whose ideas and passions infuse this book. Particularly:
closed doors.
To Ellen Doris, who helped me see birds, and for opening
To Terry Kayne, whose infectious kindness matters.
To Debby Porter, who is ever inventive and committed.
vii
7
viii
Acknowledgments
To Bob Strachota, who teaches pride and poetry to sevens.
To Mary Beth Forton and her extraordinary appetite for learning.
To Timmy Sheyda and his delicious room-smells of cooking and paint.
To Paula Denton and her unabashed promotion of the academic
curriculum.
I also want to acknowledge the teachers at the Savin Rock Elementary
School (West Haven CT), who openly and enthusiastically share their work
with me, and have allowed the use of so many quotes and photographs for
this book. Especially, I want to thank the initial Drop-Out Prevention Team:
Joan Bomadier, Pamela Daddio, John Deppen, Rosa lea Donahue, Jan Doyle,
Patricia Fusco, Catherine Iaccarino, Dawn Jordan, and Deborah Roth. I
appreciate the support of Prinicpals Peter Florio and Bill Fournier.
I am indebted to the many people who have edited and worked on this
manuscript:
To John Clayton, who edited the first drafts. His skillful editing, patience,
vehement criticisms and compliments made it happen.
To the deep and loving reading by friends and colleagues
Zina
Steinberg, who littered the manuscript with corrections, references, and
good ideas; Jane Lazarre, who often gave me both right words and the
stamina to go on; Jay Lord, who knew how to untie the knots and find
the flow.
To Apple Lord, who took the pictures, documenting the essence of the
book with her photographs.
To Jan Doyle, who took the wonderful cover photograph.
To Steven Finer, who sifted the text for errors.
And I am deeply indebted to Al Woods for his insights on how to tidy
and clarify, and his determination to bring this manuscript to
publication.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the many teachers I have met at workshops,
and recently in the Washington D.C. Public Schools, who have the courage to
defy the overwhelming odds facing some of their children. They counter it
with their own hopes and powerful caring, which promises an ongoing
revision of this book.
Foreword
This is one teacher's story. It is largely anecdotal and personal. Yet it is more
of a search for
than a compendium of experiences. It is an outgrowth
explanations.
uncertainties. I
In the course of writing, I struggled with doubts and
and ability
questioned my credentials and authority. I doubted my perspective
paraphrasing the ideas of
to convey that perspective clearly. After all, I was
other teachers who shared
mentors and authors; I had been given so much by
writer or
their wisdom through conversations. I had little training as a
academic. Certainty and contradiction kept a steady pace.
uncertainty
However, there was also another, less personal, source of the
classrooms
and doubt. Teaching is by definition an uncertainty. We leave our
what we forgot. Our
still "running the tapes" of the day, wondering who or
papers to correct, plans
shoulder bags are heavy with the past and future
crammed full of
for the next day. Our heads are stuffed with children,
pumped up with
problems to resolve and next steps to identify. Our bodies are
single moment.
the success of the day or pressed down with the failure of a
that those
I know teachers who drive children to the eye doctor to make sure
butter and
glasses are repaired; teachers who keep special stashes of peanut
outings to
crackers for the ones without breakfast; teachers who provide extra
A friend recalled the
museums or camps to extend horizons in one more way.
went
need to periodically bunk children in her own house when their parents
on overnight drinking binges.
children fail. They
And even with the most loving care and the best teachers,
teachers and go their own, sometimes
mess up, they defy parents or
"no-fault" insurance isn't
self-destructive, way. There are no assurances
only partial
available. Despite tireless efforts and exceptional talents, we have
by definition,
control over the results that are our children. Teaching is,
uncertainty.
through the
I attempt with this book to reconcile these uncertainties
places the
ordering of my experiences, an ordering which, by necessity,
The theories
integrity of theory against the immediacy of the classroom.
children learn and how they develop.
concern what is known about how
with honesty, to
I hope with this ordering to confront my own uncertainties
ethical behavior.
share my struggles, and to pass on an affection for moral and
ix
9
Section
I
Everything
I See You, I See
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