Morning Meetings: an aside

After experiencing some great morning meetings in my college cohort, I wanted to briefly visit this and share what I think and feel about morning meetings.

Question: What are morning meetings?

My personal opinion: Morning meetings are essential to community building in a classroom.  These are 30 minute meetings in the morning with the whole class in which students greet each other, share some news/opinions, participate in an activity/game, and discuss any pertinent information related to the day ahead.  This is an opportunity for students to learn about each other and themselves and bond with one another.  It sets the mood for the day: today will be a great day!

Another view: I was given a great opportunity to listen to a presentation by an area school's principal, Sylvia Allan, who does morning meeting with her entire school once a month.  Here is her outline for morning meetings that she set up when she was a teacher:

A view from CHILDHOOD EDUCATION article "Like Being at the Breakfast Table" The Power of Classroom Morning Meeting:

The outline

1. Create a bright, cheerful message that welcomes/greets students and includes some information related to the day ahead; can include some form of practice/review related to core content
2. Greeting: use a variety of activities that gives students the opportunity to practice verbal and nonverbal communication skills while saying hello to everyone
3. Sharing: not "show-and-tell", but gives students the practice of face-to-face communication; the person sharing tells a brief statement that introduces their news and the other students are to ask 3 questions about that news; these are "opportunities to develop and practice skills of listening, presenting to a group, taking turns, formulating relevant questions, and taking different perspectives" (p 145)
4. Group activity: a game or activity that allows students to practice some skill(s) like conflict-resolution, collaboration, communication, etc.
5. News & Announcements: brings students back to the message of the day

The Rationale

1. Walberg and Greenberg (1997): classroom social environment has a significant effect on student attitudes, productivity, engagement in learning, and academic achievement (Bondy, p 145)
2. Morning Meeting helps students develop cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self-control (Kriete, 1999) (Bondy, p 145)
3. For learning to take place, learners need to feel safe; emotion is tied to cognition because emotions drive attention and create meaning; Morning Meeting creates that safe environment that promotes learning
4. "Morning Meeting helps prepare children for responsible citizenship" (Bondy, p 146)

Students' Views

1. Favorite part of the day!
2. Fun!
3. Get to know classmates and be known by classmates!
4. Helps us learn!

A Message from Roxann Kriete

The time one commits to Morning Meeting is an investment [that] is repaid many times over. The sense of belonging and the skills of attention, listening, expression, and cooperative interaction developed in Morning Meeting are a foundation for every lesson, every transition time, every lining up, every upset and conflict, all day and all year long. Morning Meeting is a microcosm of the way we wish our schools to be-communities full of learning, safe and respectful and challenging for all. (p. 4)

In my cohort, we have a morning meeting each Monday at the start of our class.  We write a brief response to a prompt, sign up to share in relation to the day's topic, share and ask questions of each other, participate in an activity, and then discuss ways that activity could be applied in our own classrooms some day.  I think everyone feels lighter and brighter after our morning meeting.  I know I do!  And if adults need that, then think about how much more our students will need it! That is why I believe morning meetings must be included as part of the daily routine of any elementary classroom.

If you want to learn more about morning meeting, check out this book! The Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete (via Amazon.com)

Resource
Bondy, E., & Ketts, S. (2001). Like being at the breakfast table: The power of classroom morning meeting. Childhood Education, 77, 144-149.