The Power of Morning Meeting

I read The Power of Morning Meeting by Elizabeth Bondy and Sharon Ketts. This article appeared in the Wisconsin Teacher of Mathematics in Fall 2007. A third grade teacher incorporated morning meeting into her classroom and found that her students scored higher on all sub-tests of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The teacher was believing in the power of morning meeting and the environment that it created for the students that led to student success. Many students pointed out that morning meeting "created a welcoming and stable environment that helped [us] learn." Students became like a family, they were willing to help one another more, and this was seen in all subjects.
The author also noted that when students entered the classroom upset, worried, or with something else on their mind, the morning meeting environment helped them to get ready for the day and prepare to work. She pointed out that this impacted reading scores as reading was after morning meeting and it led to students be ready to work. I am curious if this really had a direct impact on her students' reading scores?
Research has consistently shown the need to develop a caring community; the social environment has a significant impact on attitudes, productivity, achievement, and student motivation within the classroom. If learning is to take place, students need to feel safe and accepted. Morning Meetings helps students to feel a sense of belonging, while knowing they can feel safe.
The author also noted that morning meeting created opportunities for students to become more responsible for their schoolwork, homework, as well as with each other. Before implementing morning meeting, this teacher needed to be in control of everything. Throughout the process, she realized that students gained more responsibilities and it also improved social skills. Students became more "assertive" which she points were due to their participation in the sharing and activities with morning meeting.
I have been implementing morning meeting for the past few years. I would agree with some of the points the authors make in this article. With time being so valuable, I have gone away from implementing it every day. I have been pondering changing my schedule around to allow more time for it each morning. This past week I have made a decision to make a change in my classroom. Starting next week, March 5, I will make an effort to get back to what I did earlier in the school year of implementing all components of morning meeting. I have had many shy and quiet students begin to take risks and share more of their thoughts with others during our sharing component. My math, writing, and reading times will all change. It may be difficult to make the adjustment at this time of the year, but I feel it could benefit my students more in math and reading.