Two Notes, One Song: The Harmony of Responsive Classroom and PBIS

In response to the VBCPS Strategic Framework Compass to 2020: Charting the Course, schools throughout the school division are adopting Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS), a systemic framework for fostering positive social and emotional outcomes for students.  Some elementary teachers are using components of The Responsive Classroom to support the PBIS framework by teaching, practicing, and reinforcing behavioral expectations in order to enhance academic and social outcomes for students. What does this look like in a school where teachers are tasked with the implementation of both? In an interview, Rachel Bucher (Bayside Elementary School, fifth-grade teacher) articulates the consistent notes that create harmony between PBIS and a responsive approach to instruction: language, ownership, and relationships.

Mrs. Bucher, how do PBIS and Responsive Classroom harmonize within your classroom?

Consistency of language is a big part of this. Both incorporate a positive learning environment that emphasizes diversity and differences. Together, they allow students to feel safe and successful. As a school, we developed B.A.R.K. expectations – how we will Be ready to learn, Act responsibly, Respect others, and Keep safe in the cafeteria, hallways, restrooms, recess, busses, and classrooms. As a class, we revisited the B.A.R.K. expectations and co-created our own Room 30 Creed around the same expectations. It works well, but there is a need to revisit it frequently. Occasionally, we bring that into the Morning Meeting, and it is always part of our daily dialogue. During Morning Meeting, we will reflect on behaviors in a “Think Tank” format. The kids are aware of the expectations they did not meet because our daily dialogue reflects the expectations. When we have a whole-class issue, we have a discussion in Morning Meeting and create a mind map to set some goals. We ask, “What are we seeing?” and “What can we do?”

Relationships are also key. Students are safe and have become more comfortable working with each other because they have already said hello and have had appropriate physical contact through a handshake or high five. Their presence is validated. Students collaborate, give eye contact, and use respectful body positioning to welcome the thoughts of others and respectfully converse about their ideas.

It sounds like student voice is valued in your class. In what ways have you fostered student ownership through opportunities for student voice?

I often allow students to share plans, goals, hopes, and dreams so that they have a chance to be expressive and respond to others’ beliefs. We also set goals around behavioral expectations so that everyone feels safe and invited. We check in on goals and revisit them. I let students come up with their own goals because it is more powerful for them. Students vote and give input into how we handle issues that arise. For example, we had a group of students who were not following our B.A.R.K. expectations in the cafeteria. As a class, we asked, “Can we find some leaders in our class to help?” “Can we use any of our universal signs?” It’s helpful to have student involvement and to see them rise as leaders.

I spent time talking to students in Mrs. Bucher’s class to find out, from their perspective, how the positive and responsive approaches to instruction have impacted them. Their message was clear – the harmony between the PBIS framework and the Responsive Classroom approach to Mornings meetings hinges upon relationships.

• In Mrs. Bucher’s class, we get to hear about others’ days, greet people that we don’t usuallytalk to, and make new friends. We know each other more and come together. In the end, I feel focused. – Autori
• I feel like people want to get to know me in the class. Morning Meeting helps us feel refreshed and like we are known. It’s great! – Jacob
• There are so many good parts about Morning Meeting and this class. It’s hard to choose. But, I would say that shaking hands with everyone gets me off to a good start. It’s great! – Eli
• When we greet each other each day, we get the chance to boost each other up in the morning. It’s fun doing that. It makes us feel happy and energetic. – Michael

I observed Mrs. Bucher to find out how she harmonizes language, ownership, and relationships within her school’s PBIS framework and Responsive Classroom’s Morning Meetings. On this particular date, students greeted one another with a “Good Morning” before Mrs. Bucher asked them to pair-share to unpack the meanings of the criteria for successful learners: participants, productive, collaborators.

Then, using a color-based grouping strategy, Mrs. Bucher tasked heterogeneous groups of students with developing plus-delta charts to name specific ways in which the class demonstrated each criteria of successful learners when they are in the library. To close Morning Meeting, Mrs. Bucher affirmed the specific reflections of student groups and told them that they would revisit their plus-delta charts the next day in order to set some class goals for successful learning. Mrs. Bucher later explained to me that she selected the sharing activity and group activity to support class-wide needs she saw emerge during a recent trip to the library.

 

 

 

If you are a school in which you operate under a PBIS framework and/or integration of the Responsive Classroom approach to learning, reflect on the following:

• In what ways do you and your students consistently incorporate consistent language into Morning Meetings as you work to define behavioral supports that enhance students’ academic and social outcomes?
• In what ways do you provide students with opportunities to make decisions, set goals, and reflect in order to improve the learning environment?
• How are relationships fostered in ways that support student safety and buy-in?

For more information on the relationship between PBIS and The Responsive Classroom, check out this article.