Wednesday, March 26, 2014

GWR: Literacy Rich Environments



Rebecca Katzenmeyer was our final speaker. She is a Montessori teacher. They use very little technology in the classroom.

She talked about Montessori. She was the first female doctor in Italy and focused on pediatrics. This was a big deal at the time, and needed permission from the Pope to practice medicine. That lead her to advocate for women's rights. She was forced into exile for opposing the Italian government. She studied teaching up until her death at age 81.

The environment of Montessori were designed with specific guidelines. She used calming colors and not things that distracted the child. Things were neatly arranged and like a spa and not like a traditional classroom. It needs to be safe, healthy and clean. Calm and kind adults serve as adults. The activities are accessible and are arranged from simple to complex. A variety of living and nonliving things serve as a point of interest. Any child that is in this environment can travel from city to city and have familiarity.

How do they prepare for literacy?
They set up the environment to teach themselves to read. Who taught us how to speak? We learn this from our environment. They give them a lot of different vocabulary.
They introduce scrubbing and polishing. They all help prepare for writing.
They use sound cylinders for shaking and listening.

They have “I spy” baskets. This is what they use in place of the tech gadgets. They use them to think more precisely about things. It allows them to take ownership of these materials.

They develop writing before reading, and they separate the materials. The materials are specific in the classroom. The three materials they use are metal insets, sand paper letters and the moveable alphabet.

They also use the whole word approach. They feel like they are reading but they are really matching pictures to words.