Sowing Seeds

Image by Lukas from Pixabay 

Today, I spent the afternoon harvesting this year’s crop of garlic.  Lifting each individual bulb from the soil gave me time to think about what an interesting season we are in.  It is a time of polar opposites. Just as the crops are being harvested and the earth begins to settle in for a rest, Montessori classrooms are abuzz with activity, tilling the soil and sowing seeds. It is a time ripe with possibility and newness. One of our top priorities right now is getting to know who our students really are – even our returning students who often come back with whole new dimensions after the summer break.

By now, you have probably rolled out your best repertoire of getting-to-know-you activities. Outwardly, the social dimension of the classroom is starting to find an equilibrium. It is time to see how we can produce the richest conditions for the seeds we sow.

Preparing the Intellectual Soil

Every fall, one of the first tasks is to assess children’s skills. As Montessorians, we care most about the child’s processes for learning and working. We know that if the process is solid, the product will be fine. And so, we assess children in small groups or individually through low-risk introductory activities or mini-lessons. Observations we make during assessments provide a wealth of information, well beyond the knowledge of who can successfully and accurately complete a given task.

These observations reveal children’s process, not just their product. We see who is confident and who is timid; who is excited and who is fearful; who really needs the social support of a buddy and who prefers to be a Lone Ranger. With small group assessment, we can often discern the difference between summer rust and concepts that never fully landed. If we are lucky, we may even get a glimpse of how a child best processes incoming information! (Using visual, auditory, or kinesthetic processing).  All of these position us to be more effective with future lesson selection and delivery!

Tilling the Social Field

We can learn a great deal by observing the children’s interactions at work and during social times. The difficulty is that when those opportunities arise, we are often deep in the process of giving lessons or other tasks that take a priority.  It can be helpful to give the children a collaborative task just to provide an opportunity to observe their social interactions. 

For example, ask the children to line up in order from youngest to oldest. The natural organizers will kick into gear revealing their individual leadership style. But look also for the child who stands back to watch, stepping up at the end to quietly take their place with minimal social engagement. Look for children who seem to be unsure about being separated from their best friend, even for a short time.  Watch for those who respond better to being shown what to do that being told what to do. 

Of course, elementary children will need to see some purpose to this activity! So, it is well to have something in mind as a follow-on.  For example, break the line at the midpoint to create 2 lines – one led by the oldest child and one led by the child whose age is just below the median.  Using these lines to pair children up for an activity ensures mixed age pairings. But the real benefit is giving you time to observe their social process.

Once the pairs have been created, give them some simple, relevant, collaborative task to complete.  It could be something artistic, like making posters for parent back-to school events or creating an emblem that represents the classroom.  It could have an academic bent, like creating an acrostic poem using each other’s names, or choosing a book to read aloud together. Almost any task that gives you another opportunity to observe children interacting engaging socially will do.

Designing an Enticing Garden

Not every child is going to be passionately drawn to every lesson that we deliver.  Sometimes we must entice the child, to “fan the flame of interest”, so that even those less-favored activities become intriguing at some level.  A reluctant reader who is captivated by dragons may be willing to read books or cards that are about reptiles. And they might be quite excited about the prospect of a lesson on the Snake Game. 

We can hope that when children spontaneously reveal their passions/obsessions we are observant enough to take note.  Or we can design an activity for the express purpose allowing children to reveal what most excites them.

My favorite activity for teasing out passions is asking children to imagine their perfect school.  It could be a school that focuses on academic learning.  But it might be a school that teaches people how to design rollercoasters. Or how to become a chef, a zoo-keeper, or a horse-back rider. Or absolutely anything else that they can imagine.  What kind of school would that be?  What so captivates their imagination that they want to master it?  If the child were to grow up to be a teacher at that school, what special subject would they teach?  The answers to those questions will doubtless reveal at least one of each child’s deeply held passions. 

The mechanism by which children respond to that prompt will vary according to writing ability, of course.  Older children can journal about the school, detailing what its daily schedule would be like.  Younger children can make a list of things the school would teach. Or they might create a sign that shows the activity schedule for the day.  Pre-writers can dictate their answers to an older child (perhaps their partner from the social activity of lining up by age!). 

Some years, I have extended this activity on a different day, encouraging children to depict their school.  Some will choose to draw what the building entrance would look like.  Others will draw what the classroom or the lessons would look like.  One year, a 9-year-old in my class drew an intricate map of the entire campus, complete with classroom space, stables, riding corrals, and a swimming pool.  (Her obsession was quite evident from that activity!)

The Common Thread: Observation

The common thread that these three aspects of preparation have in common is observation.  It is so easy to get so busy with documentation at the beginning of the year that we forget (or tell ourselves that we haven’t time) to observe. Objective observation is unequivocally the sharpest tool in our Montessori educator’s tool kit. When we observe, we become more effective in our lesson choices and in our interventions. And we become the scientist that Dr. Montessori called us to be. 

Reflection for adults

How do I feel about my progress on this year’s journey of getting to know each child in my class? Can I name a strength and a challenge for each child academically and socially?  Can I name at least one passion/obsession for each child?

How have I used objective observation to guide my choices of what will best develop each child? How can I use my observations to more intentionally guide my choices in the coming week?

“… the teacher must learn, not to teach, but rather to observe. This fact not only constitutes a revolution in the form of the school, but is also, I believe, the beginning of a science of education, a positive science. All positive sciences spring from the observation of natural facts.”

Maria Montessori, The 1913 Rome Lectures