How to Prepare Children for the Montessori Literacy Curriculum
The proven methods used by educators on the preparation of literacy curriculum for children in Montessori schools were found very effective in establishing literacy among the students. And, to promote literacy among the students is the main goal of the Montessori curriculum worldwide. But first, what is literacy? Literacy has been described as the ability of a person to write for knowledge, to think critically and to write coherently. Indeed, it is a long intellectual process of learning and gaining meanings from printed materials. Similarly, books, reading materials and language games are very important elements for the literacy development of every child. The ability of children on reading, writing, speaking, thinking and reasoning is very good foundation to get them prepared to a more complex learning process in the world of literacy. In this connection, Dr. Maria Montessori, the Italian both physician and educator, as well as the founder of the Montessori School, embedded important principle to hundreds of Montessori schools across the globe. Dr. Montessori strongly believed that the children have the natural ability towards learning and advancement. Until now, this learning principle of Dr. Montessori is still used by many Montessori schools in the globe. This is the reason that all schools under her name have adapted a literacy curriculum that based on the self-education and self realization theory; which turned out very efficient and effective in the brain development and early learning process of the pre-school children. (http://www.answers.com/topic/maria-montessori)
Furthermore, the Montessori curriculum system is based on the belief of the educators that children has their own unique creative potential, and drive to learn; therefore they have the right to be treated individually. The school uses “didactic apparatuses” to work on the hand and eye coordination, self-reliance and sensitivity of the pre-schoolers to premathematical and preliterary training. Furthermore, the two essential components of the school’s system are self-motivation and auto education they instill to the preschoolers, in order to prepare them for a more multifaceted world of learning. As you can notice, Montessori educators try to upgrade the traditional system of being active teachers to a passive class. In the contrary, Montessori schools provides the children a total freedom to explore on everything which include games and toys, household utensils, plants and animals that are actually cared by these children. Through giving them enough time to develop individually their motor abilities, as well as their sensory, and intellectual capacities. This only teaches the preschool children to discover new ideas while they enjoy doing the various activities in school. Correspondingly, the school believes that the recognition of multi-faceted pathways to literacy, such as the use of hands-on learning the stages of cognitive development in children, the link between children’s emotional development, and their ability to learn in the most advantageous way lead to better learning results among the children. Moreover, Dr. Montessori truly considered the first six years of life of the children as the most important foundation for them to develop their other skills.
(http://www.childventures.ca/curriculum.php)
In addition, Montessori schools do practice of focusing their attention to the children’s impulsive behaviors. This is to gauge what must be a proper learning approach to make, in order to teach them efficiently and effectively. Likewise, educators are also given the opportunity to work out on the flaws of each child. Montessori educators believe that the more they could recognize the individual’s weaknesses of the children, the more they could determine what each child needs to make the greatest progress in their learning process. Montessori’s children, as the products of the school’s excellent literacy curriculum, learn fast and most of them are fascinated by numbers even in an early age. The children respond quickly in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, skip counting and even have gone increasingly to a more advance and abstract mathematical concepts. In the same way, Montessori preschool children readily show early interest in literature, history, geography, natural science and geometry. As a matter of fact, children read and do advanced mathematics in Montessori schools, because they acquired the skills and ability of advanced learning through correct setting and learning opportunity during their formational years. Hence, Montessori’s underlying teaching principles are based on the child’s natural curiosity to learn and their enthusiasm to gain new knowledge and skills; which deeply associated with appropriate freedom in exposing them to a wide range of learning materials and experiences. Educational activities allow children to make their own choices and decisions, as well as it guide the children to achieve their learning goals. And, the goal is always to develop self-confidence and promote independence among them.
(http://www.montessori-icme.com/method.html)
References:
http://www.answers.com/topic/maria-montessori
http://www.childventures.ca/curriculum.php
http://www.montessori-icme.com/method.html
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