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Montessori Today, Chapter 7: Freedom and Responsibility — Student Work Journals

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The Montessori teacher’s specific responsibility is to aid human development through awareness of the children’s needs at each stage of self-formation. Through this approach to their education, the children can pass onto each successive plane of development well prepared for the challenges ahead. —Lillard, p. 114 Work journals in the Montessori elementary classroom can be a hotly debated topic. What do they look like? Who is responsible for them? Who decides what work is included? Somewhere along the way, we have lost the meaning of the work journal and turned it into a work plan . Keeping a journal involves more than a student making a list of what he has accomplished during the day. It provides him with an opportunity to reflect on what he has learned. Written after the fact, a journal shows the reader where the student has been instead of dwelling on where he must go. As such, the work journal is an assessment tool rather than a planning tool. Studying Montessori Today, Chapter 7: ...
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Circle of Inclusion: The Development of Organized Work Patterns in Children

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In a previous blog , we discussed the value of inclusion and how Montessori’s tenet of following the individual needs of the child makes it inherently inclusive. The Circle of Inclusion Project (University of Kansas) and Raintree Montessori (Lawrence, Kansas) listed 11 specific ways in which Montessori education addresses the needs of all children, including those with disabilities. Included in this list is “ The development of organized work patterns in children. ” In today’s blog, Michelle kindly shares her classroom experiences to provide real-life examples of how Montessori meets that specific goal. Carrie entered my Montessori upper elementary classroom as a sixth-year student. Brand new to Montessori and unsure of what to expect, Carrie was quiet and, as one might expect, spent a great deal of time observing her new surroundings and friends. It did not take long for Carrie to settle in to her new environment, making friends and learning the routines of the classroom. She appeared...
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Music Education in the Montessori Early Childhood Environment

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Dr. Montessori determined that young children experience a sensitive period for music development between the ages of 2 and 6 years old. There are many benefits to developing a child’s musical ability. In addition to fostering a love of music and the arts, developing musical abilities builds skills related to math and language. It has been shown that music development helps children build pattern recognition and spatial reasoning, both of which are important math skills. Current research also shows that music skills share neural pathways with language development. Building music skills helps develop auditory abilities and phonological awareness, which are necessary for reading development. As well, children who are actively involved with music from an early age are more likely to speak clearly and develop a strong vocabulary. Speech functions are also improved though music. For instance, singing has been known to aid children who have speech impediments such as stuttering. Music Educat...
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