CIVIL DISCOURSE
Grade 4
MO R N I N G M E ET I N G
B
efore young students can fully grasp the concept of civil discourse, they must learn the Core Skills that lay the foundation upon which civil discourse can be built. For many Lower School students, this begins with Morning Meeting. In fourth grade, the Morning Meeting is an established routine, and the students can count on beginning their school day in the same way every day. Under the Responsive Classroom (RC) model, there are four primary components of the Morning Meeting, each of which are aimed at increasing a student’s sense of belonging, significance, and fun: a Greeting, Sharing, an Activity, and a Morning Message. Grade 4 teacher Whitney Earhart shares, “Throughout Morning Meeting, children are practicing active listening, waiting their turn, and respecting others. Although it takes a lot of time to plan a different meeting for each day, the sense of community this practice creates is invaluable. If students 10 | ENSWORTH ENSIGHTS
feel heard and valued, they are more likely to engage in academic activities, to take risks, and to collaborate with their classmates.” Every child being acknowledged and spoken to at the outset of the day is a tenet of Responsive Classroom, an approach that many Lower and Middle School teachers employ in their classrooms. RC encourages frequent reminders about the expectations of the Morning Meeting process, such as how to practice being a considerate audience and how to project and share so that everyone can benefit from one another’s contributions. “When contributing to one’s community experience is a consistent expectation,” says Grade 4 teacher Sarah Bryant, “there’s an inherent sense of security. Within this framework, students feel as though they belong to a learning community and that they are valued by its members. Thus, the need to prove oneself gives way to more open communication and connection.”
