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The Effect of Morning Meetings on Students' Communication
The Effect of Morning Meetings on Student Communication Introduction A holistic approach to teaching requires that educators draw attention to, and nurture, emotional, social, and academic proficiencies. In a classroom where students' social and emotional domains are regarded with importance, students feel that their voices are heard and that their opinions and ideas are taken into consideration (Halaby, 2000). In such environments, students have freedom to participate in engaging communication with classmates who support their learning within that academic community. Lacking opportunities to voice their concerns or ideas to classmates and teachers, students become disengaged with the subject matter and disconnected from the classroom community (Allen-Huges, 2013). Bruce, Fasy, Gulick, Jones, and Pike (2006) and Allen-Huges (2013) have conducted studies on the development of students' social skills and the creation of a sense of community in the student-centered classroom in the elementary grade levels. These studies focus on students' affective development. When students are exposed to effective modeling of social skills by an educator, and provided opportunities in the classroom to practice those modeled fundamental communication skills, social skills improve. Allen-Huges (2013) revealed the importance and benefits gained by students when teachers deliberately set aside time for students to converse about themselves. Allen-Huges (2013) and Halaby (2000) shed light on the social and academic gains made by students when elementary teachers consciously designate classroom time, plan and continuously carry out exercises that focus on building students' social skills and nurturing a sense of community in the classroom.
