ATHOL — In Lindsay DeLorme’s First Grade class at the Athol Community Elementary School (ACES), students are part of an engaging and collaborative classroom. DeLorme gets to know each of her students and creates a sense of belongingness for them in her classroom. She creates a welcoming and warm environment where students bring their own knowledge and experiences into lessons to build connections and further develop deep learning and with their classmates.
No matter the subject, DeLorme includes every child in activities and discussions by making sure each student connects personally to the lesson and is challenged to extend their thinking. She does this by practicing the “Warm Demander” technique highlighted by Zaretta Hammond, author of, “Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.”
DeLorme communicates personal warmth towards each child using this technique through simple non-verbal means like a smile, a firm but kind tone of voice, and communicating a culture of high expectations. DeLorme raises students up by believing in and supporting them, as needed. Students believe in and rise to the high expectations. These techniques are critical for a child who is learning and achieving in the fast moving 21st century.
On this particular day, children were encouraged to take a seat of their preference either on the rug or in a chair before the lesson began. Ms. DeLorme then opened by using the previous day’s lesson about animals surviving in the wilderness as an entry point to the current day’s lesson. She asked the students open-ended questions about animals and how the animals survived, encouraging the children to use their critical thinking skills. The children were engaged in the lesson and after the discussion from the prior day’s lesson, they read and discussed a book about animals in the wilderness.
Utilizing the Warm Demander method, DeLorme encourages her students to strive to work at their top potential in an open and responsive classroom environment with a compassionate teacher who shows each student she believes in that potential.
This is just one method our ARRSD teachers are using in the search for students’ deeper learning.