How The Montessori Method Allows Elementary Children to Reach Their Academic Potential
In
my research paper I am exploring the maturation of elementary children and how
that connects with school. Do kids all
mature at the same time? Even though
kids are in the same grade does that mean they are really the same age? Does it make a difference what age a first
grader is? And I combine this idea with
exploring the Montessori Method and how it better addresses the concerns that
are around an elementary child’s development rate. So other questions I explore are the labels
that are put on children from slow to behind to average to smart and
bored. How does the Montessori Method
address this issue compared to a traditional environment? What are elementary children’s dispositions
when it comes to education? Are they
like teenagers where you may have to pull teeth to get them to do their school
work, or are they like a person who has just gotten their dream job where they
are learning and growing every minute and the excitement and energy that comes
from that? Another question I explore is
how elementary children deal with leading their own education path in the
Montessori Method verses the traditional method of students being guided and
directed in their lessons.
I
wrote about several concepts in my vignette draft that are different aspects
for the above questions. One major
heading was about an elementary child’s maturity curve and how that shows up in
a traditional classroom and then how a Montessori classroom functions and deals
with the problem. The problem begins by
the fact that first graders are not all the same age. A first grader can have a birthday in august
or September and turn seven at the beginning of first grade. On the other hand another first grader may
have an April or May birthday and spend most of their first grade year as a six
year old. These two kids while in the
same grade are really six months apart which at the age of six and seven is a
large period of maturity and growth. So
in a traditional classroom the second first grader, the younger one, may not be
as mature yet and begin to be labeled as slow or behind, when really their just
not as old yet as the older student who may get labeled as ahead, or smart, or
maybe even bored. Montessori addresses
this concern by creating classrooms that have first through third graders in
the same classroom therefore allowing kids to mature at their own rate without
labeling them or comparing them so much with kids in the same grade.
The
second concept was talking about the Montessori Method and how it is taught and
the contrast between traditional and Montessori. Traditional teaches allot of memory work
while Montessori teaching more underlying concepts. An example is how the alphabet is taught,
where in traditional school the letters are memorized and in Montessori they
only learn the sounds of the letters and may not know what they are
called. Montessori is student driven
learning relying on the child to push their education interests where the
teachers observes and helps verses in traditional school the teacher is the
main driving force of all education in the classroom.
The other concept I introduced was the multiage classroom concept and went into a little more depth on the dynamics that is has. There is more cooperation then competition along with less labeling of whether a student is smart or not.
The link below is a video showing the Montessori classroom and many of the aspects of the method.
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