Building Student Interactions Through Morning Meetings
Building Student Interactions is the first theme of our professional learning structure, called Effectively Designed Instruction (EDI), and is the focus of all of our elementary school teachers this first trimester.
We know that students learn and retain more when actively involved in the learning process. But getting and keeping students engaged for an entire unit, lesson, or activity can be problematic in today’s classrooms. In this post, I focus on how our elementary teachers are building student interactions through a daily routine called morning meeting.
By focusing on building student interactions early in the school year, we believe students will interact more in class, have more opportunities to build relationships with other students, and be actively engaged in their learning. Morning meeting is certainly not the only way to do this, but it is a great way to allow all students to feel important, encourage respectful listening, help regulate emotions, and boost empathy and teamwork.
Morning meetings are one component of the Responsive Classroom approach. If you are unfamiliar with this, Responsive Classroom is a student-centered approach to building classroom community, and setting children up for social and academic success.
Each morning, students and teachers gather together in a circle for twenty to thirty minutes and interact with one another using the four purposeful components of morning meetings. These four components are:
- Greeting: This is where 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. (Examples of activities could be reciting a poem, dancing, singing, or playing a game).
- The last element is the Morning Message: Students read and interact with a short message written by their teacher. The message is crafted to help students focus on the work they’ll do in school that day.
I am fortunate to see how our teachers lead their morning rituals every day. While some of our teachers have been doing a version of morning meetings for years, this is Garnet Valley’s first year in making this ritual a part of every elementary classroom everyday.
As we all know, when students feel safe, included, and part of something more than themselves, it changes their whole persona. Morning meeting does just that, and it adds the ability for teachers to reinforce and model active listening and speaking skills.
Bringing this ritual to our school district was the work of our three elementary principals, Dr. Penning, Mrs. Allen, and Mrs. Jones. Based on the social, emotional, and academic impacts they witnessed due to the pandemic, they saw morning meetings as a vehicle to strengthen all three of these areas for our students.
The pandemic and virtual learning left students isolated and less connected to their school community. They were struggling to be known and to interact with others. Building classrooms where students belong, feel safe, and enjoy learning was critical as students returned to in-person school. The process of bringing morning meetings to Garnet Valley started last year when our elementary principals read the Morning Meeting book and offered professional learning opportunities for those interested. From there, groups of teachers participated in a four-day summer institute offered by responsive classroom. Thirty of our elementary teachers were trained. They, in turn, provide turnaround training during all in-service days for the remaining teachers.
According to our principles, beginning each day with a morning meeting allows our schools to build student interactions in a positive way. Students know one another’s names. They have learned about one another through sharing and fun activities. And classes have been able to develop cohesion through the activities. The morning message allows students to understand what they will be learning during the school day and allows for a seamless transition from the meeting circle to the academic day. There has been laughter and smiles, and the structure of this time easily allows for academic skills to be infused.
I witnessed firsthand how effective this routine is in building student interactions first thing in the morning. Ms. Volpone, a 3rd-grade teacher at Bethel Springs Elementary school, began her class with students saying hello to each. On this particular day, to add some variety, they did it in Italian. One by one, students greeted each other; The morning meeting started with “Ciao, John” from one student, then “Ciao, Clare,” “Ciao, Vardann,” and so on. Then students shared about their favorite candy as other students made connections. Next came the activity. Ms. Volpone chose “Gone Camping” as her morning meeting activity this morning. Here students were prompted to do one of 4 things based on the directions given by the teacher.
When instructed to “Go on a Hike,” students walked around the classroom. When instructed to “Build a Bonfire,” students had to work in groups of two, where one student would sit or kneel and move their arms like a fire, and the other students would stand by them and rub their hands together like they were warming up by the fire. When “Building a Tent,” students worked in groups of 3, where one student would duck down while the other two stood by them and touched both hands together to form a “tent” over the first student. “S’mores,” the 4th activity, was my favorite to watch. When S’mores was called, students needed to work in groups of 4 and smush together like a S’more! The game’s goal was to find the correct number of partners and do the right actions. If students didn’t find the correct number of partners or didn’t do the proper action, you are out. The last student standing wins!
Being able to witness elementary students having fun while learning, listening, and working together, made my entire day. If you have questions about morning meetings or just want to discuss different ways to build student interactions, let’s connect. Because if you teach kids or if you support those who do, we’re in this together. There’s no reason to go at it alone.
