Our social and emotional curriculum is integrated into all subject areas to foster a school community that shares common core values, is kind, empathetic, cooperative, unified, and spirited.

Strong Social Skills Support Strong Learners

Teachers have long known and researchers are now confirming that social skills are not just something to be taught so that children behave well enough to get on with the real business of schooling. Rather, they are intertwined with cognitive growth and intellectual progress. A child who can listen well, who can frame a good question and has the assertiveness to pose it, who can examine a situation from a number of perspectives will be a strong learner.

Morning Meeting is a daily ritual and part of our social and emotional curriculum. It provides a forum in which social and emotional skills can be practiced. It is not an add-on, something extra to make time for, but rather an integral part of the day’s planning and curriculum.

Social Emotional Learning in Practice

Riverview has adopted the following Responsive Classroom Guiding Principles:

  • The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.
  • How children learn is as important as what they learn: Process and content go hand in hand.
  • The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.
  • To be successful academically and socially, children need to learn and practice specific social skills. Five particularly important skills are Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy, and Self-Control (C.A.R.E.S).
  • Knowing the children we teach-individually, culturally, and developmentally is as important as the content we teach.
  • Knowing the families of the children we teach is as important as knowing the children we teach.
  • How we, the adults at school, work together is as important as our individual competence: Lasting change begins with the adult community.

Teachers lead students in a daily gathering that uses a consistent format for friendly greetings, sharing of news, having fun together, and warming up for the day of learning ahead. The purposes of Morning Meeting are to: set the tone for respectful learning; establish a climate of trust and build relationships; create a sense of belonging; make students feel significant; have fun; merge social, emotional and academic learning.