Montessori Classroom Analysis

Parents want the best for their children, and picking where to place them in school is a serious challenge for most. Imagine you are a student again: you walk into class this morning, and instead of seeing desks, you see a class divided into different areas and a big open space. The teacher walking around says good morning to you, and students are scattered around working where it pleases them. It is your responsibility to put away your things, and get started. There is no reason to be nervous, but excited, because what you learn today is up to you, and you have the freedom to choose how you want to spend your time. Do you remember the last time that it was your choice to pick the material you wanted to study, rather than sitting

One technique effective teachers use is the placement of students in separate groups based on their level. This technique provides the more advanced students with harder work that pushes them, and has intermediate students practice familiar material. This gives the teacher the opportunity to help the students that really need the attention to learn what they are struggling with. In the Montessori class, students work at their own pace on a variety of activities before moving on to new and harder material, which makes the system completely individualized to each student. Teachers play an important role in the orchestration of the day, and according to the article, “Authentic Montessori: The teacher makes the difference,” written by Alexa Huxel, “an essential element of authentic Montessori is respect for the child through the provision of a prepared environment that allows children to make choices while encouraging and supporting independence, curiosity, intrinsic motivation, and movement” (2). The teachers are a facilitator to the classroom. They explain how to do the assignment, and leave the student to figure out how to do it on their own before reviewing the finished work. Many of the activities are hands on and stimulate learning with visual aids. By letting the students work on their own, they develop many skills that would not otherwise be

The environment allows all seven learning styles (visual, aural, verbal, kinesthetic, logical, social, and solitary) to help the students excel with various activities. The class setting is informal, and accepts interaction among students. The socialization between the children encourages them to work with partners, and go to each other for help. Students determine what they want to work on, which benefits them in the way that they shall never be left without a task to complete. The classroom is obviously child-centered, and by the nature of the setting, it builds a close community among the children. By working together they learn to respect each other and help one another. The teachers lead by example, so anything they do must not be done in convenience for them, but rather how the students should actually behave, and how to properly complete classroom chores. The children are taught to be independent in almost all that they do from the start of the day, and as said by Anu Karna in her article, “Why Montessori?” “We ideally would not shelter our children forever, but instead raise them so they can survive independently of us” (4). The class is extremely organized, and everything has a place where it belongs. Children are taught to put everything back the way they found it when they are done after using an item for part of a lesson. Teaching the