MONT 520 - Montessori Elementary Language Arts & Cultural Curriculum

This course approaches language as a collaboration of children and adults in a reading-writing Montessori elementary community. Within the Montessori curriculum-rich environment, adult learners are introduced to strategies for the development of the whole range of literacy skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. The reading component of this course is holistic, combining traditional Montessori phonics lessons with a whole language approach within the context of children’s literature and the Montessori elementary cultural subjects. The writing component of the course is centered on Process Writing, a non-Montessori approach that matches Montessori principles. Both reading and writing are reinforced by a grammar component consisting of traditional Montessori presentations on functions of words (parts of speech) and sentence analysis. The course is rounded out by writing-related skill lessons on Spelling and Handwriting. The cultural studies part of the course consists of lectures, demonstrations, experiments and simulations. In History, instructors present methods for aiding children in their construction of the concept of time and its graphic representations. We present and model chronological and topical approaches to show the unfolding of the history of the planet and its inhabitants. The Geography course consists of lectures, demonstrations, experiments and simulations. Geography presentations introduce fundamental concepts in physical, political, cultural and economic geography. A “creation” theme on the formation of the planet is the foundation for introducing the physical sciences. In Biology, teachers learn how to engage children in organizing and classifying information concerning the kingdoms of life. Interdisciplinary studies, under the rubric of Cosmic Education, are used to tie together zoological, botanical, geological and cultural studies and help children orient themselves in the universe, historically and taxonomically. The course stresses the “interdependence” of seemingly unrelated processes, thus revealing the underlying links within the physical, biological and cultural character of our world.

Credits: 3