Case Study 13A

Integrating Six Developmental Pathways in the Classroom: The Synergy between Teacher and Students

James P. Comer, Larissa Giordano, and Fay E. Brown

Development and learning are inextricably linked. By integrating development with academics in the classroom, teachers can open up a world of opportunity for building relationships between and among students, parents, and teachers. When these relationships thrive, so does the learning. When in the process students are helped to better understand their own resultant development, they can also begin to understand that of their peers. With a better understanding of behavior, they can be held accountable for their actions and are more likely to take responsibility for their own learning. As this capacity grows, students tend to worry less about “why” certain things are happening or about what decisions they need to make or should have made. Greater awareness about their development and acceptance of responsibility remove a major roadblock to learning, which then allows them to focus more on what is being taught.

The integration of development and academic learning occurs best in a culture of belonging, trust, mutual respect, and collaboration, which taken together form the basis of a prosocial context for school experience. All of the stakeholders in a school, those with the greatest authority taking the lead, must intentionally create these conditions in order for the school to be a vital, dynamic place for effective teaching and learning. The Comer School Development Program (SDP) serves as a framework that, when implemented effectively in schools, helps to bring about those favorable conditions. This chapter presents a brief discussion of the model.*

The School Development Program Framework

The implementation of the SDP framework is guided by our theory of dynamic interaction: positive interactions between children/students and their caretakers in a supportive environment lead to powerful emotional attachments that enable students to positively identify with, imitate, and internalize many of the attitudes, values, problem-solving behaviors, and expressive ways of their caretakers, and enable the caretakers to help make the development-driven energy of the students available for play, work, and learning.

The framework has nine elements: three mechanisms or teams (governance and management, parents, student and staff support); three operations (comprehensive school plan, assessment and modification, staff development); and three guiding principles (no-fault problem solving, consensus decision making, and collaboration).

The governance and management team is selected by, and is representative of, the stakeholder groups—educators, parents, support staff, and community partners. It establishes the school goals and creates a comprehensive school plan that addresses both academic and social issues. This team and plan provide direction and drive school activities. The parent team supports activities created in the plan. The student and staff support team provides services that promote development, desired behavior, and learning for students, staff, and parents.

The nine elements systematically pull all the many activities that must go on in a school together in a coordinated way and focus them on the critical needs of students—development and learning. Through ongoing assessment and modification of program outcomes and consistent practice of the guiding principles, representative governance helps all the stakeholders experience a sense of ownership, belonging, and responsibility for producing good outcomes. This helps to minimize relationship and behavior problems. The framework and processes encourage school community members to carry out effective problem solving and promote creative expression and growth of students, staff, and parents.

The relationship elements of the overall School Development Program framework are used to improve classroom climate, culture, and support for development—“Comer-in-the-Classroom.” The following case study demonstrates how a teacher uses the Comer-in-the-Classroom elements of the School Development Program framework to improve her classroom culture and climate and effectuate significantly positive outcomes for her students.

One Teacher’s Experience

Nathan Hale is a pre-K–8 school located in New Haven, Connecticut. It serves approximately 550 students, 61 percent of whom are designated as students eligible for free or reduced-cost meals, and 9 percent of whom are designated as students with disabilities. The race/ethnic breakdown is as follows: 13 percent African American, 31 percent Hispanic, and 54 percent White. The school has made improvements in different areas within the past three years but made adequate yearly progress (AYP) for the first time last academic year, 2009–2010.

On the first day of school, I (the second author) was amazed by the twenty-seven young fourth graders in front of me. Not only did they seem self-motivated and very bright, but they were respectful and helpful and very willing to please. As the weeks passed, they were still very bright, but some were no longer willing to please, never mind be respectful. This bothered me immensely. As a teacher, I felt that it was my duty to teach and nurture these students and build relationships both with and among them so that they could better understand themselves as young people and one another as classmates. Some of my students began acting as if they were the center of the universe and no one else mattered. I could tell that something was bothering them and that they were taking it out on each other by teasing. They were probably hurting inside and wanted everyone else to feel the same way, including me. And I confess that their lack of respect toward me was making it difficult for me to want to help them—a feeling that made me both angry and guilty at the same time. I knew I needed to do something fast.

In October, the Yale School Development Program (Comer Process) started conducting a series of workshops at our school. The workshops introduced the concept of developmental pathways—physical, cognitive, language, social, ethical, psychological—which deepened my understanding of development and connected it to academic learning. The process also introduced the integration of the guiding principles of collaboration, consensus, and no-fault problem solving in the school and classroom. Not only did the Yale professionals provide workshops for the administration and faculty, but they also conducted workshops for the parents to help them understand how to support the development and learning of the children at home. With this new information and my administrator’s support, I embarked on executing a plan for improving the overall climate of my classroom, with a specific goal of improved prosocial behavior.

Comer-in-the-Classroom: Getting Started

October–November

I began first by examining my own strategies of teaching and management by completing the SDP’s Teacher Development and Instructional Strategies Survey (TDISS). This survey measures several variables including teachers’ perceptions of their classroom practices, professional expertise, and teacher–student relationships. After reviewing the data, it became clear to me that my classroom management was too loose and inconsistent. Based on that observation, I started keeping a daily personal reflection log of the positive happenings and shortcomings of the day. I realized that although the students were learning, they were capable of so much more if I would give them more responsibility, have more confidence in them, and take more risks in challenging them to achieve. In other words, I needed to improve my expectations for my students. Furthermore, I noticed that I spent a great deal of time planning and mapping out objectives, big questions, and activities and too little time observing what actually unfolded in the classroom, where teachable moments were sometimes overlooked because of my rigorous adherence to my plan. I concluded that without becoming rigid I needed to be more structured and consistent with my expectations, and more observant of student needs and teaching opportunities. The structure and clarity of expectations allowed me to gradually release the responsibility for learning to the students and created a stronger, trusting relationship between us.

Given the valuable lessons I learned from completing the survey and engaging in further self-reflection, I thought the students could also benefit from doing some self-reflection. I provided an opportunity for them to complete the SDP’s Student Development Survey (SDS). This survey measures students’ opinions regarding various aspects of themselves as individuals, as learners, and as members of a social community. It examined not only how they felt about themselves, but how they felt others viewed them (e.g., “When I get angry, I can calm myself down,” “My friends like me”).

Before administering the survey, I read the questions to the students and asked them to think about what the questions were asking and to be honest with themselves. I told them that they did not have to share their answers with me if they weren’t comfortable, but also that the purpose of completing the survey was not only for them to understand themselves better, but for me to better understand them in an effort to help meet their needs. Students therefore were given a choice, but they felt comfortable with me reading their answers because they wanted to reach out for help. Some of them were as unhappy with the peer relationships in the classroom as I was with my management. By completing the survey, students learned about themselves, and I learned much about them as individuals and as a class of learners. This insight led to change in how I conducted the classroom, which in turn made the management smoother because the students knew I cared, and the instruction was more closely related to them as learners. As time passed, I noticed the direct impact of my understanding and integration of the developmental pathways framework in every aspect of my teaching and overall classroom functioning. For surveys such as the SDS that do not present any psychological risks to students, we have passive parent consent; however, I also meet with parents and share with them many of the activities we do in our classroom regarding the integration of the developmental pathways, including the completion of the surveys.

Comer-in-the-Classroom: Moving Forward

After completing the survey process, which included my explaining the purpose for which they were taking the survey, I provided an overview of the three guiding principles and the six developmental pathways. Regarding collaboration, we talked about the importance of working together as members of the class to keep the room clean and tidy, restacking materials after we have used them, and being mindful of how we treat one another as a larger group and when we work in small groups. As we discussed consensus, we talked about the need for being in agreement, especially regarding how we would treat one another in the class and outside the class. We emphasized the importance of respect and integrity of self and respect for others. In terms of no-fault problem solving, we focused on tone of voice and choice of words, discussing how they can inflame or diffuse a situation. We also discussed that as a class, when we are faced with a problem, we would do our best to not focus on blaming one another, but to try to find the best solutions to the problem.

After explaining the developmental pathways, I instituted what I called their “pathways journals.” In these journals, students could record their learning about each of the pathways and also reflect on their growth along each pathway. We inserted our completed personal surveys in the opening pages and then separated the journals into chapters based on each of the pathways. I also included a section titled “Please Help Me,” where students were encouraged to write about any issue of concern. They needed to identify the problem, explain it in terms of the pathway to which it was connected, and then propose a solution for solving that problem. Initially, I intended for it to be a chance for the students to write to me and I would respond in writing, but as I read a few of the journal entries and noticed some of the issues the students divulged, I knew they needed a more immediate response. I then decided that I would invite students to have lunch with me in the classroom to discuss their concerns and help them problem solve. This one-on-one lunchtime strategy proved to be very effective. Also, rather than simply reflecting in their journals once a week on Friday mornings, students often asked if they could write in their journals first thing in the morning before the teaching began, if there were issues they needed to “just get out of the way.”

It is important to note that with twenty-seven students in my class, it was not possible to meet with all of them in a week or in a month. Actually, not all students indicated the need for help in any given month. Also, as the students wrote in the “Please Help Me” section of the journal, I was walking around noticing some of their entries and paying attention to body language. Some issues were taken care of at the moment of need rather than waiting until lunch. For example, one student had had an argument with her mom that morning and was allowed to call home to reconcile. Another student was writing about feeling anxious about the writing prompt that he knew he needed to take that afternoon because he “hated writing.” I was able to take this child into the hallway for a pep talk. I was surprised that he hated writing because he was clearly a good writer. He thought he didn’t measure up with the other students because his style was so different; so I was able to assure him that his style was different, but that’s what made it so great.

Some issues that could not be addressed in the moment were discussed over lunch. Students were invited to have lunch with me either as individuals or in groups of twos or threes as the situation necessitated. If students expressed similar concerns or were involved in an issue with the student who wrote about the concern, I would meet with those students at the same time.

A More In-Depth Look at the Pathways

Over the next couple of months, in an effort to integrate the pathways in an in-depth manner in my instruction, I focused on each of them through children’s books and excerpts from chapter books in which the message, theme, or characters reflected one or more of the developmental pathways. We focused on one pathway per week. Because the pathways are interconnected, in many cases all six were evident in the selected text, but we focused on one at a time until the students themselves began seeing the integration of all the pathways within the lives of the characters or message of the book. We started with a discussion about the particular pathway and connected it in terms of its relevance to our lives. Following the discussion, we read the text, stopping along points where the students noticed evidence of the pathway in a particular part of the text. After reading the text, students then shared their ideas about how a character was developing along that pathway or grappling with an issue along that pathway. The students then offered suggestions about what a character could have done to promote healthy development.

As a follow-up activity, students then had to write a reflection sheet that demonstrated their understanding of the pathway just studied and how it was relevant to their lives. They were also encouraged to include in their reflection if it was an area in which they could use more support. Throughout the week, students became increasingly verbal across the curricular areas about where they saw a pathway being developed or needing support, both within the curriculum as well as with what was happening within their own lives, in and outside of school. They were eager to share the stories with me and the class, and sometimes they added comments and suggestions in support of each other’s development, such as, “I noticed that you are having difficulty with your language pathway because you don’t always listen to what I am saying, and that makes me feel bad. You are a good friend, though, so I wanted to tell you and help you, because I have also done that but am trying to be a better listener.” Or, “If you would only have more confidence in yourself, you would notice that you would make a great leader because you think so creatively.”

January

When we returned from winter break on January 3rd, we shared some of the experiences we had during our time away. It was refreshing to see how, without prompting, we all seemed to share by focusing on our development along the six pathways. I then gave students some time to reflect in their journal—to write about any experience they chose and explain how it strengthened them as an individual or created a challenge for which they might need support in handling or resolving it. After giving the students some time to reflect, we talked about resolutions and goals. We spoke not only about how each student had grown along the pathways both socially and academically, but also about how there is always room for growth. We then discussed the importance of goals and goal setting. Given that this was January, when most of us focus on our “New Year’s resolution,” we talked about resolutions or promises to promote continuous self-improvement. I encouraged the students to examine themselves, focusing on their strengths and seeing if they were able to recognize personal weaknesses along the pathways that they could work on improving over the next few months, or areas in which they felt that I could provide support to help promote their development. I reminded them that I would be doing similar reflections, and that whatever they identified, it should be personal to them, with a goal that they could easily accomplish.

February

With February came Valentine’s Day, or how I explained it to my students, “a day to express your feelings of friendship.” I encouraged the students to not wait for this day to express their feelings, but to always use their language pathway to share feelings that boost the social, psychological, and ethical pathways, both for the person sharing and for the person receiving the compliment.

We began the day by reading the story of Amos, a mouse, and Boris, a whale, who develop a lifelong friendship. Amos, who is mesmerized by the sea, takes a boat trip on a sailing vessel which later capsizes in the rough seas. Boris comes to his rescue and brings Amos safely to land. Years later, Amos spots Boris washed up on the sand along the shore and despite his size he is able to help Boris back to his home in the sea. Despite their differences and years of separation, Amos and Boris know what it means to be a good friend. We discussed each character in terms of the developmental pathways, particularly the social, ethical, and psychological pathways. Then linking text to real life, we talked about what makes a good friend and how to be a good friend. We focused on important characteristics or qualities that ensure lasting friendships or promote healthy social relationships.

To further the conversation, each student was given a large construction paper cutout of a heart and a sheet of labels with each student’s name. I then asked them to identify two specific positive qualities for each person in the class. Students then circled the room placing their label on the person’s heart. The labels had items such as, “I like your sense of humor,” “You have a great smile,” “I like working with you in our group,” and “I’m glad we’re friends.” This activity allowed each student to receive fifty-four positive comments that they could take home and share with their loved ones and that they could have as something tangible to revisit on days when they might feel that peer relationships were challenging.

March

The activity in February helped to decrease students’ nervousness and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty that seem an inevitable part of the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) done in March. In preparation for these tests, I allowed students some time to talk about their test anxiety and to offer suggestions and kind words to one another. While we continued with our structured learning routine of the day, we also integrated some test-taking skills and a review of what we had been learning that year. We integrated the six developmental pathways in our discussion and reflection sheet as we shared what we were going to do to help promote a healthy mind and body to better stay focused on those tests. For example, students talked about getting more exercise and fresh air to reduce stress, drinking plenty of water, and getting the appropriate amount of rest (physical pathway). They shared that they were going to think critically when reading and problem solving or perhaps reread a text for deeper understanding (cognitive pathway). Some gave “good luck” notes to friends (social pathway), and I reminded them of the confidence I had in each of them that they would do well and had them promise that they would keep positive thoughts throughout the tests, knowing that they had the confidence to do well (psychological pathway). Students felt more prepared and confident knowing that they had the knowledge about the content and the support of their teacher and their classmates while they took the tests.

The Tests Behind Us, the Year Continues

As the CMTs came to a close and nerves began to ease, I noticed that among a few students there was somewhat of a reversal of the growth made over the previous months, particularly along the social, ethical, language, and psychological pathways. A few of them seemed to be behaving as if they were taking charge of each other and of the class community without regard for anyone’s feelings. This seeming reversal was a bit surprising to me, but then I remembered a few important principles about development. For example, development is uneven and continuous; and very importantly, at this age the brain is still developing, which can account for why students from this age into their late teens seem to be inconsistent in controlling their emotions, impulses, and judgments. I also thought of the principle of no-fault problem solving.

This was early April, so we came together as a community and talked about our intolerance for teasing and for any behaviors that might feel like or sound like bullying. We talked about some of the behaviors of a bully as well as what being bullied looked like and felt like. Again, we examined ourselves along the six developmental pathways to reflect upon what happens in our language, our physical reactions, our cognitive thinking, our social behavior and interaction, our psychological mind-set, and our ability to make ethically sound decisions. I allowed students to revisit their “hearts” from February and reminded them to use their “Please Help Me” page in their journals to reach out to me so that I might know how to work with them personally to help them resolve conflicts or any other issues they were grappling with on a personal level.

May

In May, as a class we continued reflecting and, where needed, correcting past poor decisions; and although there were still two months of learning ahead, we began to focus on the positive outcomes of the year and took time to discuss how each of us had grown along all of the pathways. Each morning following math journal, a student’s name was randomly chosen from my “take-a-turn” jar, and that student received the credit he or she deserved during a brief morning meeting that focused on how the selected student had demonstrated improvement along certain pathways and how that improvement was also reflected in his or her academic achievements. Many times that student would also take a minute to comment on how he or she still needed support or needed to improve along a particular pathway. The other students often commented on my comments or chose to mention specific positive details about the student of the day. This additional aspect of the student-to-student communication made it much more powerful than simply teacher-to-student feedback.

June

As the year began to come to a close, I allowed the students to again complete the survey they had completed in late October. After the self-reflection and the completion of the survey on their own, it was time for me to read the items aloud to tally the responses. In October during the first administration of the survey, I gave the students the option of putting their heads on their desk as I read the items aloud to tally their responses. They all selected to put their heads down. This time, however, the students did not feel it was necessary to put their heads down. They were proud and comfortable with how they felt about themselves, their friends, their teachers, and the school. And yes, their familiarity with having completed the questionnaire a few months earlier might also have contributed to their level of comfort sharing their responses openly. But for me as a teacher, it was enlightening to hear students stick up for one another as they raised their hands and noticed how others raised their hands to answer questions about feelings of belonging. This sharing made an enormous impact on the students and on me as their teacher to see their growth, not only in the results of the data but more importantly in the relationships that were formed and nurtured. Students were better able to understand each other because they understood themselves better. This understanding was evident in their reflection sheets about what they had learned about the pathways that year, and how this learning had helped them become better students and strengthened their confidence as individuals in and out of the classroom.

During the last week of school, I gave students the opportunity to create memory books in which they reflected on their fourth-grade school year. As I read some of their entries, I was impressed and delighted that many of them mentioned the six developmental pathways as an integral part of their learning. Following are a few examples:

My most memorable day was when my teacher gathered us on the rug to reflect on how each of us had grown and improved along our pathways. I felt so proud to be a part of such a smart class. Listening to her compliments about my specific strengths like how responsible and ethical I am in my decision making made me feel so good. The other students even chimed in and encouraged me too! I had no idea that I had such a positive effect on people around me. I realized then how important it is to always be aware of my development because it’s not only about me but about my relationships with others.

My most memorable day was when the teacher was discussing feelings and how important it is to love yourself in order to love others. On my survey, I noticed I was choosing “never” a lot when it came to if I liked myself and if I found it easy to make friends. When sharing our surveys with the class, my classmates were very supportive in telling me, “That’s not true, we are your friends and we love you. You should love yourself too.” This made me feel very proud of myself and more confident in who I am inside. I will never forget that day when my friends really helped me to find myself, because I started the year feeling very lost.

My favorite thing about school this year was being able to express myself and learn how to not be afraid of who I am. I am able to concentrate on my work. I am learning so much more now because I am not preoccupied with how I look or whether I have designer boots on. I finally have confidence and know that others believe in me too, especially my mom. She has really noticed the difference and hugs me all the time.

Selected Examples of Student Success Stories†

Allejah

One morning, while entering the classroom, I could tell right away that something was bothering Allejah. I thought it might be a good idea to make a quick change to my lesson plan and allow for five minutes of reflection in the pathway journals. As I circled the room, I peeked at Allejah’s entry in the “Please Help Me” section and noticed her eyes welling up with tears as she wrote. She was writing about needing help with her psychological pathway. I asked her to join me outside for a quick talk. She shared with me that she had an argument with her mom that morning and was feeling upset about how she left it, as she jumped out of the car for school, slamming the door behind her. Tearfully she told me she was afraid her mom didn’t know that she was sorry and that she loved her. Feeling empathy for Allejah, and knowing how her state of mind might impact the rest of her day, I allowed her to use the phone to call her mom. I connected her with her mom and allowed her two minutes for her conversation. She returned to the classroom with a smile and whispered “thank you” to me as she passed. Having resolved that issue, I knew she was ready to start the day.

Jordan

It was Friday morning and Jordan was very excited, not only because it was Friday, but also because it meant that she had something positive to record in her pathways journal. Her journal was often filled with situations in which she needed support, but reflecting upon the week, this time she couldn’t wait to get started. Seeing her enthusiasm, I circled to her desk to take a quick peek at what she was writing. She was writing about her development along the cognitive pathway. Specifically, she was pleased with her growth in writing. I had individually conferenced with her earlier that week and commented on how much improvement I saw in her fluency, organization, and elaboration in her writing. I told her that it was proof that if she believed in herself, took time to use the writing planner, and wrote about what she knew with feeling, her narratives would read more fluently and she would be proud of her work. Thursday she shared her story with the class about the day her baby brother was born. This was unusual for her because she often rejected any type of sharing of her work. It was the class’s responsibility to note what was positive about the piece and what needed improvement. As she finished reading, the class was quiet for a second before applauding her. Although there were comments about grammar or sentence structure or using the words I or said too often, the overwhelming response was that Jordan did a terrific job in helping to create a picture in the listener’s mind about what happened and what she was feeling the day her brother was born. Proudly, Jordan had noted in her journal that she was becoming a better writer—something that she had always thought was her worst subject.

Taylor

Another Friday morning I was circling the classroom as the students wrote in their journals. I saw that Taylor was trying to cover a bit of what she wrote under the “Please Help Me” section. I noticed that it involved her language pathway, but she was a bit embarrassed to let me see it at that moment. Respecting her space, I continued to circle the room, stopping by students not seeming to mind my presence. As we lined up for lunch that day, she asked if I could write back in her journal that day.

Over lunch I opened up to that page in her journal and read her entry. There, she indicated that she was having trouble with her language and psychological pathways because she gets nervous when the teacher calls on her and often doesn’t want to answer in front of the class. This revelation surprised me, given her strong academic record. Although a quiet girl, it was something I should have picked up on earlier that week when I asked her to explain to the class how she solved a particular open-ended response to a math word problem. She was the only one in the class who got the correct answer. In response to my asking her to share with the class, she quietly said that she was not sure and couldn’t really remember. Sadly, I had embarrassed her. She did know the answer, but now all her other classmates probably thought she was dumb, since she could barely speak. She wrote that when the teacher calls on her she gets nervous and goes blank. She mentioned that she often felt different from the other students and felt it was hard making friends because of her shyness. Rather than writing back, I asked her to bring her lunch upstairs and eat with me. First, I apologized to her for putting her on the spot in front of her classmates, and then we discussed some strategies to help her build self-confidence and maintain friendships. I reminded her that although scary, it can also be rewarding to share what you know with your peers, as long as it’s in the right context and is not condescending. Within the next couple of weeks, Taylor was like a new student—actually a bit more talkative than I had hoped, but she was developing into a leader.

Malcolm

Struggling with issues along his cognitive pathway—math and reading—Malcolm tried to cover it up by acting as if he didn’t care so that others wouldn’t see him as not being smart. It didn’t seem to require much in terms of triggers for him to act out in anger. He behaved as if he did not care about any of the other students or teachers because he was just “too cool.” When I introduced the idea of writing in the pathways journal, he initially rebelled against it, but after a couple of weeks of noticing the acceptance and changes in the other students in the classroom because of their writing and sharing, he eventually began to write. It was also clear to me that his psychological pathway needed attention because it was affecting his social and cognitive pathways. I knew that the key was to work with him in a manner that would not allow him to feel like he was being targeted. So, through a variety of whole-class lessons on accepting oneself and activities aimed at building peer relationships such as the aforementioned Valentine Heart lesson, Malcolm began to settle down and open up. In one of his journal entries, he shared that he started to feel better about himself as he understood that others did not see him as he saw himself. He also came to understand that it was okay to ask for help. Because of his positive changes, his grades improved, as did his friendships.

I tutor students during part of my summer break, so after the close of the academic year, Malcolm’s mom asked me to tutor him in math that summer. It was wonderful to work with him one on one and see the changes that were evident in him. I saw a boy that did care and wanted to excel and one that learned that it’s not “uncool” to be smart. What touched me most was that on my first day of tutoring, as I entered his kitchen in July, I noticed the Valentine heart displayed proudly on his refrigerator.

What I Learned through This Experience

When integrated consistently throughout the curriculum, the guiding principles of collaboration, consensus, and no-fault problem solving and the six developmental pathways framework help to make significant changes in the functioning of a class and in the outcomes—for the students and the teacher. The plan I implemented in my classroom not only helped to reduce conflicts among students and helped to improve their prosocial behavior, but it also impacted their learning in ways that surprised me as I watched them take risks in their learning. Not only did their confidence increase, but so did mine as I watched my fourth-grade students develop into a community of learners.

Although this was not my first year teaching, it was my first year teaching at this school, and I felt it was my best and most productive year as a teacher. Although there is always room for growth, I felt satisfied with how I was teaching and with how the students were learning; and my “teacher passion” really came out as I reviewed my own pre- and postsurvey results and reflections and saw my growth as a teacher. I learned that trust thrives only when the students know that the teacher is on their side, and that when the students know they are cared for, they believe in themselves and want to live up to the expectations they have for themselves as well as those set by the teacher. This has been especially evident in my classroom in math, science, reading, and writing. The students tracked their growth in their data folders, which contained their assessments based on daily instruction, Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) scores, district assessments, and Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMT). Our fourth-grade class had outstanding results on those mastery tests, especially in the area of writing.

Yearly, as August draws to a close and teachers are scurrying to get their classrooms in order, many will wonder what is going to work for the group of children that will soon be greeting them. In the past, my behavior management methods varied per different group. But, having implemented “Comer-in-the-Classroom” last year, I knew that I could think about classroom behavior and management differently. I knew that although the students change and their needs change, the developmental principles remain the same. Thus, the focus did not need to be on a particular management method, but on finding ways to support the development of each student using the Comer program guidelines.

So, I began the new school year with a newfound confidence. Welcome letters were sent out to the parents the second week in August in which I introduced myself and gave them a preview of the upcoming year. I provided an outline of the three guiding principles and the six developmental pathways as the method that would be used to foster students’ development and guide the instruction. Parents were also asked to fill out a “Getting to Know Your Child” survey and to return it on the first day of school so that I would have an insight into what the parents’ expectations of their children were for the upcoming year and an insight about each student who would be before me. It was a great way to get to know the students and build relationships with the parents, whose support would be needed throughout the year by both the students and me. I know that every group of students is different. I am not perfect, and I’m not looking for, nor expecting, perfect students; however, I feel more prepared than at any other point in my teaching career to handle the challenges I will face and to appreciate the surprises and the wonder of what makes every student a gift and a promise.

Lessons Learned from Larissa’s Experiences

Larissa’s experiences underscore the old axiom that teaching can be the most frustrating and simultaneously the most rewarding of any career. Now more than ever, our schools need great teachers, but too often many of those teachers enter the classroom without preparation that is grounded in child and adolescent development principles and practices. Without such preparation, when they are faced with the challenges that students can present, some may become overwhelmed into making decisions that are not necessarily in the best interests of their students. But all is not lost, because as explained by Larissa, her in-service professional development experiences provided her with knowledge, strategies, materials, and on-site support that helped to awaken her passion as a teacher, increase her sense of efficacy and confidence in the classroom, and, perhaps more importantly, helped her to better understand and thereby truly teach her students.

But the lesson continues because she didn’t accomplish all the changes by herself in a vacuum. She had the support of her school community, especially her principal. Her principal explained to her that the school would be implementing the Comer Process, a different way of doing business. The process involved the practice of shared leadership and the empowerment of all staff; the use of the developmental pathways framework to plan and provide support for children’s learning and development across the curriculum; an emphasis on relationship building in the classroom, throughout the school, and between school and home; and the collective and concerted effort of every adult connected to the school to work in support of improving the life trajectory of every child that enters through the schoolhouse door. Larissa’s classroom was nested in a school in which all the stakeholders believed and practiced these aspects of the School Development Program model. As a case study, her examples provide the kind of details we hope will be beneficial to all teachers, particularly those who are just starting their journey.

*For detailed information about the School Development Program, visit the website at schooldevelopmentprogram.org.

†Pseudonyms are used to protect the students.