Tag: Montessori

going out

~ keystomontessori ~ Leave a comment

“Let us take the child out to show him real things instead of making objects which represent ideas and closing them in cupboards.”  Maria Montessori (1948).

Dr. Maria Montessori believed strongly that elementary-aged students were suited to learn from outside experiences and that the classroom did not only have to be inside four walls.  By linking the upper elementary classroom to the world beyond its walls children are provided with the opportunity to mesh concepts into real life.  Learning to operate in the real world is an explicit goal of Montessori.  “Going out” is the term Montessori used to describe leaving the classroom for hands on experiences in the real world.  Going out relates to the “acquisition of culture”.  Montessori believed that the elementary-aged child was especially developmentally  suited to learn from activities outside the school building, in the thick of the society, the culture, and the natural world.

Sometimes children learn information and procedures in school but cannot see how they are relevant or can be applied outside of the school context.  Going out allows learning to be directly connected to the context from which it arises and finding real life applications.  The classroom environment is perfect for introducing students to concepts and ideas for students to then initiate their own projects and research based on his/her interest.  Bringing in living creatures to study and take care of in the classroom environment, builds an appreciation for living creatures.  Using real maps for a geography study of a child’s town or city or country provides the opportunity to work with items used in real life.  Learning to follow written directions, finding your way around a new town, and reading a map are all skills that can be utilized outside of the school environment.  A going out experience to find a location, predetermined and studied on a map, links the classroom to the world beyond.

Leaving the present moment for a different time opens up the imagination.  Through the study of history and cultures, students are able to use their imagination to transfer back to another time period. Historical studies can be linked to a field trip to a site or location that was studied.  A while back, a group of students at the Cornerstone school were interested in Vikings.  After 7 -8 months of work, they planned a trip up to Newfoundland, the location of where the Vikings first landed.  The trip was guided by an adult but the planning and administration of the trip was carried out by the students.  Although the classroom part was memorable, there is no comparison to actually going to see the site of the Viking landing.  

In geometry, learning about the Pythagorean theorem by using hands- on materials, and then going out to plot out a garden, is a direct link from inside the classroom to a useful project outside on the school grounds.  In math, a study on percentage can lead to a field trip to a store that is having a sale and figuring out what savings is offered.  A trip to a Spanish restaurant to practice ordering in Spanish allows that knowledge to be used as well as having students figure out the percent tip to be left for the waiter.

A bake sale for a fundraiser can provide all different kinds of skills to be utilized both in and out of the classroom.  A shopping list must be formulated and the shopping done.  While at the store, the students can shop for bargains on products they need. Grace and courtesy in the classroom hopefully will be transferred to the outside setting as children interact with the public.

The kingdoms of life are another unit of study that can then be transferred to the outside world.  Collecting pond water and using a microscope to see the protista, collecting fungi and classifying them, studying plant life with an expert in the field, growing seedlings inside and transferring them to a garden are all good links between the two environments.

Children in both Lower and Upper Elementary take class trips during the school year to educational sites as extensions of their learning experiences in the classrooms and to foster community building. 

Going out is driven by the child’s personal interests and goals as they become more independent.

Planning a going out experience should be child led, including figuring out where to go, how to make practical arrangements, what to bring, how to learn from the experience, what interview questions to ask, and how to call and make reservations.  These are small group “field trips.”  Going-out guides the children in developing life skills that facilitate transition into the world as young adults. The children involved organize the event from start to completion. They use the resources of the community in preparation for the going-out experience. They initiate the research, make the needed phone calls, set appointments if necessary, obtain and arrange drivers, and complete the appropriate paper work (forms, permission slips, etc.) This trip into the community can provide the information they need to complete a research project or provide the real life experience that truly demonstrates life skills. Upon returning from the trip, they can present their experience and findings to the class.

The Upper Elementary classroom has no walls.  Each and every subject matter can be linked to the real world.  The world is open for exploration. With freedom to travel down any road the child decides to take, the experience will be his to explore and create through books, travel and hands-on learning.  Through self-created projects, learning in context is so important for children.  So much more knowledge is acquired when the subject matter is self-directed.  Montessori believed in the acquisition of culture, and what better way to receive that culture then by seeing and experiencing all that is out there.

it’s not just the beads

~ keystomontessori ~ Leave a comment

There’s an expression I use in reflecting about teacher education, and how adult learners engage with Montessori – “where do the beads go?”.  For me, it indicates a level of concern that new teachers have with the didactics of teaching, how the manipulative materials “work”, the what-goes-where-how-do-I slide-flip-turn this bead bar, this grammar symbol, this circle inset, etc….  It’s important work for sure, and I would never diminish the drive and intention for new teachers to gain a facility and then confidence with the materials, especially those that dominate the Elementary Montessori classroom, 6 -12.  

And yet, in my over 30 years of teacher-education (yes, I am THAT old), I’ve found that the truly gifted teachers must also have another quality. An understanding of the greater context, the greater tapestry upon which the curriculum and concepts are woven.  This is much more difficult (I would hazard the word, “impossible”) to teach an adult learner.  Also in my experience, it’s revealed fairly quickly, in a presentation, in observing the teacher practicing with fellow students, the language they use, the questions they ask, in observing them in a classroom with children, the language they choose, the respect they give, naturally, to their children. There’s a sense of humor, there’s a healthy dose (just a soupcon) of well-intentioned self-deprecation, and a strong sense of taking the work very seriously but themselves, not so much.

the power of three

~ keystomontessori ~ Leave a comment

When Montessori schools are tasked with parent education for their community, inevitably there are choices to be made regarding content.  Time is finite and precious when it comes to asking families to attend events at our schools.  With requisite parent conferences a few times a year, a “child shares their work” evening, a back-to-school night, and a myriad of performances or art shows or concerts, the calendar fills up with remarkable speed and density.  To which topics do we give priority?  The prepared environment? Essential.  Demonstrations of the materials? Very important!  Spotlights on Arithmetic or Cultural, or Geometry or Language?  Those topics will ground the parents in the curriculum.  But what about the Great Lessons?  It would be so very helpful if our parents were that well-informed, but short of requiring them to read articles and manuals, (perhaps we could quiz them later!), what do we present and what do we not present? While the examples above represent valuable concepts and information for parents to understand, there are less obvious but equally essential components of our classrooms, of our schools, that would benefit everyone if families could assimilate them into their knowledge of Montessori. One of which is the importance of the three-year cycle, academically, socially, and emotionally for the child.

Dr. Montessori’s understanding of the Planes of Development was predictive of so much science that we would come to understand years after her death.  It’s gratifying to be involved in Montessori in this time period as virtually every educational or even neurological study done in the last twenty-five years supports what she proposed well over a century ago.  We structure our environments around these planes of common characteristics, the rising and ebbing of sensitive periods and child development.  We understand that children move through these periods of their lives regardless of whether or not they are fortunate enough to be in a Montessori classroom; we can provide the very materials each child needs to fully engage with those developmental areas most appropriate. There is a rhythm to the three-year cycle, a scope and sequence that moves our students from concrete ideas to abstraction. It is an uninterrupted chain of presentations that engages the child seamlessly to understanding, and this is true for every area in the curriculum. In September, children moving up to the next level find themselves the youngest in the classroom. They adapt themselves to their new environment, new friends and teachers, new expectations, but they do so following a familiar path. These are not new kingdoms moving from Primary to Lower Elementary, LE to UE, and Upper Elementary to the Junior Class or outside our school. 

There is also an underlying rhythm that moves the community through three years together. My role as the youngest in the room is the proverbial “learning the ropes”, but three years later I am the wise elder at 6 years old, 9 years old, 12 years old, or a graduating Junior. Children are well-aware of these evolutions; at our school any self-respecting five-year old understands that they are now “Stended Day”, not quite able to wrap their tongue around the word, “extended”.

For Montessorians, I would posit that the three year cycle is akin to Dr. Montessori’s Three-Period Lesson.  From a teaching aspect, it forms the structure around any single lesson, the familiar “This is….”, “Show me….”, and “What is…….?” construct. This is a triangle, this is a square, this is a circle. Show me the square.  Show me the triangle.  Show me the circle. What is this?  And this? And this?  The Three Period Lesson, we would argue is of crucial importance to our lessons. But we can take this same form and extrapolate to something much larger.  The First Period is one of taking in information. In many ways, this serves as an apt description of the first year in any one program level. The Second Period, our Show Me stage, is one where the child engages with concepts in context, they are given information in a manner that references past knowledge, which is a fair understanding of the second year student’s experience. Finally, the child arrives at the Third Period, the Third Year, the culmination, the collecting and discrimination, the synthesizing and internalization that marks both the lesson in microcosm and their classroom experience in macro.

My work as an Admissions Director at this long-established (nearly 40 years old) Montessori school in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire, includes tours for applicant families that are more parent education about Montessori than anything specific regarding the Cornerstone School.  Among the many salient points regarding this  pedagogy, I always stress the importance of the three-year cycle while also stressing that each program builds upon the previous, and that the greatest benefit gained from a Montessori education is when a child can move from program to program.  The program levels are not islands, but one comprehensive curriculum.  I know I’m not alone in this effort and that our teachers are reinforcing the same message. And still there are parents who consider opting out after the second year of Primary or the second year,  (usually 5th grade) of Upper Elementary.  We can clearly understand the financial stresses of our constituent parents, and that a 12-plus year commitment to an independent school tuition is out of the question for many families, especially those with siblings. This should be fully acknowledged, and there are many families who commit to the three years of a Primary program, knowing that they will be elsewhere for first grade. This is appropriate, and such a gift to invest in the child at 3 – 6 years old, rather than just at 18.

The third year at any level in a Montessori school brings closure, academically, socially, and emotionally. Every curriculum area is written and presented knowing that the abstraction, the internalizing of concepts, awaits the child in that culminating third year. Further, to rob the child of being the wise elder, the responsibilities that come with that stature, will also diminish the child’s educational experience.  Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the heads of schools, admissions directors, guides, and experienced parents to educate families about the importance of “finishing a cycle”.  How else are they to know?  Trained Montessorians with years of experience can sometimes forget that what we take as evident is to most of our families a mystery, an unseen component in the great work that engages their children every day, including the power of that third year.  Let’s shine the light here, too.

The Prepared Environment

~ Keys ~ Leave a comment

One of the key components of any Montessori classroom is what we refer to as the “prepared environment.” In fact, Montessorians use the terms “classroom” and “prepared environment” interchangeably. At first glance, we might dismiss the term as being too obvious. Isn’t every classroom a prepared environment in some sense? But as we discover more about the inner workings of the Montessori pedagogy, we find that the term is a rich and many-layered description. We can think of it as having three main components: the classroom materials, the adults (or “directresses” and “directors”), and the other children in the space. Physically, the classroom is arranged to be conducive to the children’s independent, self-directed work. We notice low shelves, inviting materials, and work spaces both on the floor with work mats and at tables for both group and individual use. The hands-on materials are designed to meet the learning needs of the children in the relevant age group and are presented in lessons and then placed in the environment in a logical and sequenced manner. The adults in the classroom are well educated in the didactic use of the materials as well as in child development, and they actively support a classroom culture of challenging work, movement, and independent work. Lessons in responsibility, in grace and courtesy, and in sharing become part of the fabric of this environment, prepared to best suit a child’s learning.

The prepared environment describes a classroom that has been laid out carefully and methodically to maximize the independent and spontaneous work of the child. The pedagogy is based on the foundation that children move through the different stages of development as part of their natural growth. They will independently acquire what they need if they are presented with the appropriate concepts, at an optimum age, with manipulative materials. Any effective environment for children needs to be set up in such a way that the children can access the materials, which are laid out in a logical manner, with a maximum amount of independence and a minimum amount of adult direction. Further, the classroom must be beautiful and peaceful in order to better allow each child’s energies to flow without obstacles or distraction.

The Montessori materials themselves, as part of the prepared environment, also have a strong role to play. Besides their pedagogical function (hands-on, self-correcting, isolation of concept and difficulty), they too are objects of beauty. Montessori believed that working with quality materials, such as tongue-and-groove boxes, wood and glass pieces, and beads, is a crucial element to a child’s learning that would be diminished if the materials were rendered in cheaper plastic, shabbily made, or easily broken.

Of course, we can also see that the term “prepared environment” must refer to more than the tables, the desks, the rugs, and the Montessori materials, to include the rest of the children in the classroom, the teachers, the daily schedule, etc. Thus, the role of the “teacher,” which is better translated from Montessori’s Italian as the “guide, directress, or facilitator,” is less to talk at children than to prepare a classroom environment that will best facilitate a natural process already present in each child.