Schools

Merrimack School Board Implements Social-Emotional Curriculum

Starting next school year, all elementary schools in Merrimack will implement social-emotional curriculum to help ensure longterm success.

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Liz Markhlevskaya, Patch StaffVerified Patch Staff Badge

MERRIMACK, NH — Starting next school year, all elementary schools in Merrimack will start implementing the social-emotional curriculum in kindergarten through fifth grade. The School Board approved implementing the curriculum during Monday's meeting, after hearing positive results from the pilot program at the schools. The curriculum is expected to not only raise academic achievement, but also to give students skills that will help them further in life.

The social-emotional curriculum teaches self-awareness, responsible decision making, social awareness, relationship skills and self-management through various interactive activities such as games. Staff in all of Merrimack's elementary schools will now be undergoing professional development to incorporate this curriculum in the classrooms. The School District will also work on communication with parents to help ensure that the lessons are being re-enforced at home.

"Students today have deficits of basic social skills, the ability to resolve conflict and being able to successfully self-regulate," said William Morris, vice-principal of James Mastricola Upper Elementary School during Monday's meeting.
He said that through analyzing data, and talking to teachers and parents, school officials are seeing that students tend to be missing basic skills such as conflict resolution. He said by learning the social-emotional skills, students will be better prepared as they step into middle school and high school and forward into the adult working world.
Some of the students have not been taught to make eye contact while greeting someone — it's a basic skill that they still need to learn, and a considerable portion of the students are missing that component, said James Mastricola Upper Elementary School Principal Marsha McGill. On Monday she spoke in favor of implementing the curriculum for all elementary school students.
"It's needed. I have no other way of saying it," said McGill. "The kids do not wake up, from the day they are born, knowing these skills. They have to be taught. And the classroom teacher is the ideal person to do this… throughout the week they are reinforcing these lessons."
The pilot study of the curriculum came about through the School District's Mental Health Committee, which had created a subcommittee to study the best ways to teach the soft skills to the young students. The subcommittee began meeting in 2016, analyzing research data and the various methods of teaching that would be fitting to Merrimack's schools.
On Monday, the School Board heard testimony from some of the school staff and students who have already been working on the curriculum. The students gave good reviews on the lessons. One lesson included coming up with an idea of a "movie starring yourself." In another activity, students made necklaces by choosing their own beads, showing that everyone is unique in their own way. During a self-confidence lesson, students wrote down what makes them feel good about themselves and whom they admire. In a lesson on communication, students learned how to turn negative comments into a positive dialogue.
McGill said that one of the keys to the curriculum's success is repetition. School staff will be reinforcing each learned skill throughout their time with the students, so that the lessons stick.
"Research says that the brain development requires frequent looping," she said.
The School Board approved implementing the social-emotional curriculum in a unanimous vote on Monday, as part of its consent agenda.

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