Responsive Classroom (RC) and Developmental Designs for Middle School (DDMS)
How did the Responsive Classroom begin?
In 1981, six public-school teachers in Greenfield, Massachusetts, brought together by a vision of making elementary and middle schools better places for children, founded the nonprofit Northeast Foundation for Children (NEFC). In 1997, Origins, a Minnesota nonprofit educational organization dedicated to building strong, inclusive learning communities, became a regional center for the Responsive Classroom, NEFC’s powerful set of approaches that help schools become caring places where all students can succeed.
How did Developmental Designs for Middle School begin?
In response to the particular needs of middle level students and their teachers, administrators, families, and communities, Origins and NEFC have over the years tried to offer versions of the Responsive Classroom that would meet those needs. Finally, in 2004, Origins became the national center for our middle level work, which was named Developmental Designs for Middle School to distinguish its differences from the Responsive Classroom approach. The two sets of strategies, DDMS and RC, are based upon the same fundamental philosophy of education, but they focus on the developmental and school structural requirements of middle school and elementary school respectively.
What is the Responsive Classroom and Developmental Designs philosophy?
NEFC and Origins help schools become communities where children feel understood, safe, valued, and respected, and where they learn to value and respect others. Educators who understand child development are more likely to make classrooms responsive to children’s physical, emotional, social, and intellectual needs at each stage of development.
Children attain the greatest cognitive and social growth when they learn to care for themselves, each other, and the school environment. Daily experience in the classroom has taught us to integrate academic and social learning throughout the school day, nurturing students who are informed, ethical problem solvers and engaged learners. We encourage teachers to provide ample opportunity for students to explore subject matter so that they can construct their own understanding independently and through frequent social interactions. We believe, along with many teachers and theorists, that how children learn is as important as what they learn.
What is the Responsive Classroom and Developmental Designs approach?
The approach of both integrates what students need to learn with what we know about how they learn. Teachers adjust the approach according to each child and each group of children while striving to help the children attain maximum competence in academic and social skills by:
teaching respect and caring as the basis for interaction so that everyone feels significant and included
identifying, with students, clear, meaningful boundaries for behavior so that everyone feels safe
structuring opportunities for children to explore their environment and learn to take care of it
valuing and displaying children’s ideas, creations, and discoveries
enabling children to experiment, practice social and academic skills, solve problems, and make fruitful mistakes
asking and encouraging thoughtful questions which can have more than one answer
observing children as they work and assessing their work in terms of developmental milestones
involving parents and guardians in their children’s education
emphasizing cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control throughout the teaching day
How is the Developmental Designs approach different from that of Responsive Classroom?
Developmental Designs specifically addresses the developmental issues of young adolescents, such as identity-formation; groups and sub-groups; coping with change; emerging sexuality; role and goal confusion resulting from the influence of popular culture; trust; and efficacy. Cognitively, young people are growing into the capacity for abstract, conceptual thought. But physically, emotionally, socially, and culturally, they are struggling with conditions that tend to distract them and limit their capacity for rational decision-making. We must structure their school lives to help them stay the course through this difficult bridge time into late adolescence and adulthood.
Although relationships are important to all children, young adolescence is a time when the importance of peer relationships becomes paramount. Developmental Designs provides structures that help guide students through the confusions, competition, and conflicts among them. It provides ways to use students' intense focus on peers to support rather than interfere with academic learning.
The pacing is also different. For middle school teachers, Developmental Designs offers a two-step approach to comprehensive school-wide renewal that fits the middle school environment. In DDMS1 we focus primarily on building the climate crucial to the success of adolescent learners. Once that climate has been established, DDMS2 focuses on instructional approaches designed to engage young learners in the required content areas. Within a supportive community, students are able to explore and construct their own understandings without losing self-control or confidence.
Developmental Designs also emphasizes a team approach to implementation, because students move from teacher to teacher. Middle school staffs need a high level of cooperation and shared vision, philosophy, approach, and language to succeed with their students.
What is the research basis for the Responsive Classroom and Developmental Designs approaches?
There have been numerous research projects on the principles behind the RC and DDMS approaches, as well as research directly on the effectiveness of the Responsive Classroom. See All Articles and Research
How does Origins make Responsive Classroom and Developmental Designs ideas and strategies available?
Building Academic Communities Through the Arts(BACTA)
What is BACTA?
Fueled by many years of teaching the arts to children and adults, Origins created a weeklong workshop wherein teachers learn how to integrate the arts into everyday classroom learning. Through practical curriculum structures and hands-on experiences in visual art, movement/dance, storytelling, poetry and singing, BACTA offers instruction that aims to engage learners, boost academic performance and build community. See BACTA for more information.
Institute Weeklong Workshops
Is graduate credit available?
Graduate credit is available for the weeklong workshops (not One-day Workshops), at additional cost. Two semester credits through Saint Mary’s University of Winona, Minnesota or Hamline University, St. Paul, require full attendance at the workshop, daily journal-style reflection on how the content of the workshop can be used in the participant’s classroom, and a 5-page paper, submitted on the last day of the workshop.
Three semester credits through either of the same universities include a practicum component, in addition to full attendance and the reflection process. The practicum involves preparing an action plan during the workshop week and having it approved; implementation of the approaches presented in the workshop; communication with an Origins adviser; and a final report, due December 1, on the project.
What are the hours of the Institutes?
Check-in on Monday is 7:45 – 8:30 a.m. and sessions run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday through Thursday, sessions run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
We sing from 8:10 to 8:30 a.m., Tuesday through Thursday.
Friday, sessions begin at 8:10 a.m. and the workshop concludes at 12:30 p.m.
Is food provided at the Institutes?
Yes. A continental breakfast is served daily and a catered lunch is served Monday through Thursday.
How are participants grouped?
Because children’s developmental realities are so important to education, workshop participants are grouped according to the ages of the children they work with. Administrators and specialists who work across grade levels may specify the level they wish to be grouped with.
Are any scholarships available to defray tuition costs of weeklong workshops?
A limited number of partial scholarships are available to teachers of color. Contact Origins to learn more.
Pathways to Training and Implementation: On-site School Services
More detailed answers to these questions appear in School Services.
Where should a school start when investigating whether Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs is right for them?
Here are a few of the different possible beginnings.
Hold an on-site 90-minute Overview for a school's entire staff:
This presentation gives educators a glimpse of the philosophy and practice, providing enough information to begin the conversation of whether or not RC or DDMS is a good fit for you. If a school's location requires an overnight stay for the consultant, we recommend scheduling a One-day Overview.
Host a One-day Overview at your school site for the whole staff: The staff learns the basic principles and practices of the RC or DDMS approach, and they learn some practical structures for integrating social-emotional learning into academics. As educators use what they have learned in their classrooms, the school can explore and discuss investing more deeply in the approach.
Send a team of teachers to a One-day Overview training off-site: The team can report back to the whole staff and begin the process of decision-making about adopting the approach.
Send a team of teachers to visit classrooms implementing RC or DDMS: The team can report back to the whole staff and discuss what they experienced.
Can we offer a One-day Introductory Workshop at our own site?
What are the next steps for schools that have had the One-day workshop?
There are no other single days of training besides the One-day. The next step to continue training is to attend a weeklong workshop, either at an Origins-hosted Institute during the summer or at a workshop on the school site.
If I want my whole staff trained should I have an on-site weeklong workshop or send all the teachers to an Institute?
There are advantages to each. The price per person is the same either way. The on-site advantages are that during the workshop you can discuss how everything applies to your school. Also, it is convenient and sometimes less expensive because of travel costs to have the consultant come to you. An advantage of Institute training is that teachers have the opportunity to exchange ideas with a variety of teachers at the same grade level. Also, Institutes are divided into separate sections wherein the training is focused at the developmental level of the participants’ students. (This last factor is not an issue for middle-level educators.)
What support can Origins give us after a weeklong workshop?
Origins can provide on-site support for the implementation of the strategies learned in the workshops through coaching, mini-workshops and other services. See the External Support section of School Services for more information.
Educator Resources
What books would you suggest I purchase to start a library that supports the Responsive Classroom, Developmental Designs for Middle School and/or Building Academic Communities Through the Arts approaches?
Can I submit an article for publication on the website or in the Origins newsletter?
We welcome articles and ideas for articles from your teaching practices and/or school leadership experiences. Please contact Origins at School Stories.
Can you suggest funding sources for Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs workshop tuition or on-site support?
Many schools use state, federal, and philanthropic funds designated for violence prevention, character education, and instructional improvement to pay for professional development in the Responsive Classroom and Developmental Designs approaches. See Funding Sources for more information.
Can I receive support from Origins for grantwriting to fund Responsive Classroom or Developmental Designs at my school?
We can provide supporting text and research for grant applications. Please contact Origins at (612) 822-3422 or by email.
Responsive Classroomand Developmental Designs for Middle School
How did the Responsive Classroom begin?
What is BACTA?
Is graduate credit available?
More detailed answers to these questions appear in 
What books would you suggest I purchase to start a library that supports the Responsive Classroom, Developmental Designs for Middle School and/or Building Academic Communities Through the Arts approaches? 
