Maria+Montessori

Hey Ladies so these are just the notes that I am going to use for my presentation part of the project. I will make a new page that is what I think should go on the handout! Maria Montessori (August 31, 1870- May 6, 1952) · Born in Chiaravalle, Italy. · Age 13 attended all boy school in hoped of becoming an engineer. · Was the first woman to Graduate from the University of Rome La Sapienza Medical School, becoming the first female doctor in Italy. (became intrigued with trying to educate the “mentally retarded” or “unhappy little ones”) · 1896 gave lecture at the Educational Congress in Torino about the training of the disabled. · Italian Minister of education was in attendance, and was impressed by her arguments. (This same year he appointed her as director of an institution called Scuola Ortofrenica, for the mentally retarded) · Her first success was to have several of her 8 year old students apply to take the State examinations for reading and writing. The “defective” children not only passed but had higher than average scores. (The first Montessori Miracle) · January 6, 1907 she was asked to start a school for children in a housing project in Rome called “Casa dei Bambini” or Children’s House. · 1917 intense interest in her method in North America · 1939 Maria was invited to India, she conducted 16 batches of courses called the Indian Montessori Training Courses. · 1949 she left India to head for the Netherlands. She appointed Albert Max Joosten as her personal representative in India. · 1952 Maria Montessori dies in the Netherlands after a lifetime devoted to the study of child development. · Her Success in Italy led to international recognition and for over 40 years she traveled all over the world, lecturing, writing and establishing training programs. · Most of her early work was focused on Women rights. She later stressed the benefits of Education to defective children. · By her death she was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize three times. ( To the person who shall have done the most or the best work for [|fraternity] between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.) ·  Primarily applied in [|preschool] and [|elementary school] settings. · Philosophy: Montessori schools pride themselves on seeing and meeting the student’s personality and intellectual needs, rather than viewing them as part of a classroom process. The students are encouraged to teach and to help each other. Built upon the idea that children develop and think differently from adults; that they are not merely “adults in small bodies.” The Montessori method discourages traditional measurements of achievement (grades, tests) on the premise that it damages the emotional inner-growth of children. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  That children are capable of self-directed learning. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  That it is critically important for the teacher to be an "observer" of the child instead of a lecturer. This observation of the child interacting with his or her environment is the basis for the continuing presentation of new material and avenues of learning. Presentation of subsequent exercises for skill development and information accumulation are based on the teacher's observation that the child has mastered the current exercise(s). <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  That there are numerous "sensitive periods" of development (periods of a few weeks or even months), during which a child's mind is particularly open to learning specific skills or knowledge such as crawling, sitting, walking, talking, reading, counting, and various levels of social interaction. These skills are learned effortlessly and joyfully. Learning one of these skills outside of its corresponding sensitive period is certainly possible, but can be difficult and frustrating. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  That children have an "absorbent mind" from birth to around age 6, possessing limitless motivation to achieve competence within their environment and to perfect skills and understandings. This phenomenon is characterized by the young child's capacity for repetition of activities within sensitive period categories, such as exhaustive babbling as language practice leading to language competence. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  That children are masters of their school room environment, which has been specifically prepared for them to be academic, comfortable, and to encourage independence by giving them the tools and responsibility to manage its upkeep. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  That children learn through discovery, so [|didactic] materials with a [|control for error] are used. Through the use of these materials, which are specific to Montessori schools (sets of letters, blocks and science experiments) children learn to correct their own mistakes instead of relying on a teacher to give them the correct answer. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  That children most often learn alone during periods of intense concentration. During these self-chosen and spontaneous periods, the child is not to be interrupted by the teacher. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  That the hand is intimately connected to the developing brain in children. Children must actually touch the shapes, letters, temperatures, etc. that they are learning about--not just watch a teacher or TV screen tell them about these discoveries. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore; mso-ansi-language: EN; msoansilanguage: EN;">·  Montessori classrooms provide an atmosphere that is pleasant and attractive, to allow children to learn at their own pace and interact with others in a natural and peaceful environment. In the ideal classroom, children would have unfettered access to the outdoors, but this frequently is impossible, given modern-day limited space and cost considerations. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore; mso-ansi-language: EN; msoansilanguage: EN;">·  In response, Montessori teachers stock their classrooms with nature shelves, living plants, and small pets, or perhaps a window-sill garden, allowing children to experience as much as possible of the natural world, given modern constraints. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore; mso-ansi-language: EN; msoansilanguage: EN;">·  In the elementary-, middle-, and upper-school years, Montessori schools ideally adhere to the three-year age range of pupils, to encourage an interactive social and learning environment. This system allows flexibility in learning pace and allowing older children to become teachers, by sharing what they have learned. ** Areas of the Classroom ** <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">In the Montessori Curriculum, there are 6 overall areas: **<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Practical Life ** <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">This area is designed to help students develop a care for themselves, the environment, and each other. In the Primary years (ages 3–6), children learn how to do things such as: pouring and scooping, using kitchen utensils, washing dishes, polishing objects, scrubbing tables, and cleaning-up. They also learn how to dress themselves, tie their shoes, wash their hands, and other self-care practices. They learn these practical skills through a wide variety of materials and activities. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Although caring for one-self and for one’s environment is an important part of Montessori Practical Life education in these years, it also presumes to prepare the child for more: The activities might build a child’s concentration as well as being designed, in many cases, to prepare the child for writing. For the first three years of life, children absorb a sense of order in their environment. They learn how to naturally act a certain way, by absorbing it. In these ages, 3–6, the children are learning how to both build their own order and to discover, understand, and refine the order they already know. The practical life area teaches language in many forms. Fine motor skills used in the pencil-grip help the child develop that particular grip, in order to later more easily use a pencil. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Strong concentration and attention to detail are typical traits of Montessori-schooled children. Practical life schooling in the elementary years and in the high school years involves many of the same skills, but also begins asserting a greater drive towards community-service-oriented activities. **<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Sensorial ** <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">All learning first comes through the senses. By isolating something that is being taught, the child can more easily focus on it. There are many different [|Montessori sensorial materials] designed to help the child refine the tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory senses. For example, colors are taught with color tablets. The color tablets are all alike, except for one detail — the color in the middle. It helps avoid confusion for the child, and helps him and her focus specifically on: //What is “blue”?// <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Exact phrasing of identifying terms is important, thus, an //oval// is not an “egg shape”, a //sphere// is not a “ball”. The Montessori method greatly emphasises using the correct terminology for naming what we see. This is readily apparent in the sensorial area, because, it regularly overlaps into the mathematics area. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The red rods used in the sensorial area schooling are a direct link to the segmented rods used in mathematics taught to one-through-ten year-olds. The pink tower has a connection to units and thousands that the child learns later, in the 3-6 curriculum. Even the trinomial [|cube] will be used in the elementary years to figure out complex mathematical formulae. **<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Cultural ** <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">This includes studies of the world and other cultures. Montessori children achieve early understanding of the concepts of //continent//, //country//, and //state//, and the names of many countries of the world. Montessori method schooling implements include colored maps, to assist the children in remembering continents, countries, and states. More important, the goal is acquiring an understanding of the world’s other cultures and what they offer. When a student learns the map of Asia, pictures, stories, and facts about Asian countries, open many learning opportunities to the child, providing a real sense of the world, and //how// it is different — even in the same area. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">For the elementary years, an in-depth cultural curriculum is implemented. Children begin learning the capital cities of the different states, and begin learning about governments. The Montessori teacher is present as a guide — to help draw-in different aspects for the child to explore and research — rather being the source of all the information. A focus on appreciating and enjoying other cultures is a core part of the cultural curriculum. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The child is free to direct his and her interest in geography, and to expand it via the many other opportunities for learning in different areas of the subject. For example, a boy might decide to study the history of his city, which might begin with early settlers. People might have settled the area because it was near a river. That information might lead the boy to widen his study to include the natural life surrounding the river, and how that might have helped the settlers. The growth rate of the area, in different times, might also be included and presented as a graph. In one cultural lesson, the child, therefore, might include mathematics, science, history, and geography in one study. **<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Science ** <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The science curriculum takes advantage of the child’s natural questioning and draws a curriculum for the 3–6 age range. Early-childhood age children are very detail-oriented. They know what a bird is. At that age, they want to know the body parts of a bird. They want to know the life cycles of different animals. They begin to //observe// the parts of a plant, and ask: //What are those long things coming out the middle of a flower?// **<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Language ** <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The language curriculum, especially in the early years, includes everything — from vocabulary development to writing to reading. Children learn basic letter-sounds through the use of sandpaper letters; the letters are cut from sandpaper and glued to a wooden board. The child’s tracing the letter implements tactile learning of //how// the letter feels. The children can also //feel// if a mistake was made, because of the different texture of the sandpaper from the wooden board. They begin constructing words with a moveable alphabet of wood or plastic letters, before they can actually //read// words. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Composition, grammar, story-writing, and reports are focused upon in the elementary years. Grammar is taught with hands-on materials. In a 6–9 age range classroom, the child learns about nouns, verbs, adjectives, articles, prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, pronouns, and interjections. The children use grammar symbols for each part of speech. They place the symbols upon a particular part of speech in a sentence. They are: <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">In the 9–12 age range classroom, focus is also placed on learning gerunds, abstract nouns, and advanced grammar concepts. The materials are similar to the parts of speech symbols used in the 6–9 age range classroom, but there are additions to them. **<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Mathematics ** <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Children go from a concrete understanding of mathematics to an abstract understanding of mathematics via mathematical //concepts//. For example, telling the difference between 1, 10, 100, and 1000, because they have felt it many times. Originally, they felt it in the pink tower, when they were three-year-olds, and, later, in the mathematics materials. The concepts of //squares// and //cubes// become concrete in their use of the Montessori Bead Cabinet. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">As mentioned, the sensorial area leads very well in to the mathematics area. A girl who attended a 3–6 age range Montessori classroom, likely worked with the educational material named the //trinomial cube//. Having worked much with it for several years, when she was 3–6, then extensively in the 6–9 classroom, she might be ready to assume another, //abstract// phase of the trinomial cube. So, rather than working with it as a concrete sensorial material (matching colors, shapes), the girl might be intellectually ready to use it as an abstract material, from the mathematics area, for understanding that: (a+b+c)³ = a³+3a²b+3a²c+b³+3ab²+3b²c+c³+3ac²+3bc²+6abc Later, she then could solve the mathematical equation to learn the cube of a+b+c with different variables, an example of //how// sensorial area materials overlap into the mathematics area.
 * __ TIME LINE __**
 * __ Montessori Method __**
 * __ Premises __**
 * __ Classroom __**
 * 1) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Noun — large black triangle. A triangle is used because it represents a very sturdy object and something that is concrete.
 * 2) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Article — small, light blue triangle.
 * 3) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Adjective — medium-size, dark-blue triangle. The triangles are used with articles and adjectives because they are part of the noun family.
 * 4) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Verb — Red Circle. The red circle is used because it represents action.
 * 5) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Conjunction — pink line. A pink line represents a ribbon that ties the ideas together.
 * 6) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Preposition — green bridge. A green bridge is used because a preposition connects two nouns, bridging their relationship.
 * 7) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Adverb — smaller orange circle. Since the adverb is related to the verb, it also is a circle.
 * 8) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Interjection — a golden object, like an exclamation point or key hole.