Formative Culture: Begins With...Morning Meetings?

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How A Formative Culture Can Begin With Morning Meetings

"There is something very special about the entire class gathering together while we talk and start our day," Sara Wolfe, 2nd grade teacher at Cooper Academy shared about the value of the daily meetings in her classroom.
"I have not always done morning meetings, but I have grown as an educator the past two years by using them. By holding morning meetings, I have been able to form very personal relationships with my students, and create a positive classroom culture by being responsive to my specific students' needs."

You see, what is unique about the formative culture created in Mrs. Wolfe's classroom is that feelings are formatively assessed first. Assessed before content is ever considered. It is this "assessment" that drives the next steps of this teacher.

In our most recent visit, students provided caring compliments to one another and posted them to the "caring compliments board". Students shared a variety of compliments. One student helped another who fell into some mud at recess. Put simply, the student shared that it made her feel good to do that. Students even facilitated the discussion, calling others to join them at the front of the room and to share.
Mrs. Wolfe explained: "I saw my students needed help with using nice words towards their peers, and technique to make friendships in a positive way. So I introduced the 'caring compliments board'..." The sense of community, trust, and pride created by this were evident from the moment we walked into her classroom.

Student Facilitators of Learning

The student pictured below is named Augustus. His charge was to read a book to his classmates about helping. Even more than that, Mrs. Wolfe empowered him to become the facilitator of learning. During the student-led discussion, one student defined helping as "if something spilled, I could pick it up." After, Mrs. Wolfe modeled giving caring compliments by complimenting Augustus' courage to read the book to the class. And how did that make Augustus feel? "Amazing," according to Augustus.

This all sounds great, but there is just not enough time in the day...

Formative assessment of feelings is powerful, but for those who are apprehensive about finding time in the day for morning meetings, don't fret. Academic discussion also occurs during this time.

As Mrs. Wolfe shared, "Content can be integrated into morning meetings seamlessly. As an educator, I think about what my students need both academically and socially. For example, right now we're learning about communities in social studies. And socially, my students need support in treating their classmates with respect. As we sing songs about friendship, participate in 'caring compliments', and talk about our good decisions in morning meetings, I'm also constantly bringing the social studies vocabulary into our discussion, including citizenship, citizen, and community."

Soon after vocabulary is introduced, "...they are using academic language in their [students'] morning meeting talks." In this way, the teacher is able to integrate both students' unique ideas while helping them practice with new academic vocabulary.

The Moment That Melted Our Hearts

During the visit, we had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with William. Let us tell you - it was a real treat!

William shared that in morning meetings, "we give caring compliments or we learn about things." When we asked him if he thought about morning meetings throughout the day, he responded excitedly with, "YES! I gave someone a caring compliment in math and recess."

He was incredibly well-spoken and brave throughout our interview, but what we were most impressed with was his response when we asked if morning meetings also helped him with what he is learning in school:

"YES! In math..." explaining that sometimes he has to do really hard problems, like 6+4+5+8. We thought he was going to continue that morning meetings are what give him the courage to do these problems. Instead, he said that although that's sometimes the case, but really, because of morning meetings, he feels his classmates offer to help him more in math.

Our hearts melted like a popsicle on the 4th of July.

To be transparent, although we had the privilege of visiting Mrs. Wolfe's classroom on two separate Fridays, we wish we could start every day this way! Thank you to Mrs. Wolfe and her amazing 2nd grade students at Cooper Academy for letting us join in this experience.