Products, Projects, and Performances for the 21st Century ELA Classroom

Relationships are at the heart of high-performing classrooms, and unconditional positive regard (UPR) is a key strategy used to develop strong, positive relationships. Bringing UPR into classrooms and schools will give teachers more time to teach and students more time to learn. The authors demonstrate how to build a classroom full of respect, empathic understanding, compassion, fairness, trust, patience, and self-control that are all key components of UPR and necessary for authentic, culturally responsive classrooms. The authors also provide doable strategies and activities to implement and nurture each of these components, so the teachers can bring unconditional positive regard into their classrooms and the wider school community to enjoy high-performing classrooms.