Equipment and learning aids

Although it might seem that Montessori pedagogy is unrestricted, there are several

rules that need to be observed, which concerns also the equipment. Order is one of them, because classroom that is tidy and neat helps children feel secure and that is

why all aids have their own place and cannot be put somewhere else after using them.

In the classroom there is a place, namely two shelves, where children find all different kinds of English learning aids. They are all familiar with them, because they are regularly used during lessons. This prevents from the “I do not know what to do with it” situation. Moreover, tasks are almost always clear, because they are based for example on simple assembling of colour matching cards, rhymes or fitting pieces of jigsaw puzzle (Appendix A). The didactic material they work with is always

For example the children used cards in order to make a big picture of a Noah’s Ark.

Most of them were enthusiastic about it, because they like animals and nature.

The unique aim of this exercise was that it linked their knowledge from history with English. In Another lesson they played a game - an English version of “Člověče,

nezlob se” made by their guide in order to practice current vocabulary.

Most of the time the pupils are not pushed into a predetermined action but they have

always an option, which fits them the best, to choose. In order to enable children to choose, the aids are clear and simple so that children know how to use them.

A complicated aid could lead to misunderstanding and children might not be able to use it properly. The first thing that leads to proper understanding is that all learning aids are firstly presented by a guide to the whole class and they do the tasks at least once together. The other thing is that most of them are tangible, so the children know that for example a small piece should fit into a bigger one or if there is a question, there will be an answer always on the other side or if they should make a word from two different pieces, together it will have a same colour. Children also have to be very careful and they have to treat the aids mindfully. They are very well aware of the fact that other pupils will use the aids later on and thus the material does not have to be damaged. One of the English language teachers told me that most of the material she uses is created or bought by her. She told me that she buys for example regular English materials and modifies them so that she could proceed according to particular Montessori principles in order to be in conformity with Montessori pedagogy. I noticed that most of them were written by her. She uses a lot of different colorful patterns and diagrams, written mostly on a common sheet of paper by hand.

Examples of activities:

Children practiced the verb “to be”. The guide put a pattern with conjugation of

“to be” on the carpet and children got other cards from her. There was a pronoun

or a verb or a noun on each card. Their task was to put cards in the right order in order to make a whole sentence. Specific of this activity was the fact that each

word class had its own color. Because children saw word and color order of a sample sentence, copying of the right word order was definitely easier for them.

The advantages of activities like this are that children can always change their mind or correct mistakes and they physically “build” a sentence. Moreover, memorizing is easier for them when even “tiny” movement is connected with a word.

Another interactive activity concerned practicing “have/has”. Children were sitting in a circle and in the middle of it there was a bag with different real small objects,

e.g. a doll, a piece of Lego, a key, a crown etc. The task for the children was to take one thing from the bag and to say for example “I have a doll”. Afterwards, a child took a hand of his or her neighbour and together they said “We have a doll”.

These concrete actions helped pupils realize the difference between singular and plural of the verb “to have”. Moreover, the fact that they could touch and hold a toy might have contributed to remembering. As a change, the teacher modified the activity. This time she tied two children´s hands and again they had to take out

a small object from the sack and they had to say again “We have a doll”.

It was really fun for the children and I noticed that even though they made mistakes at the beginning of the activity, there was a sign of a big progress at the end.

5.2 The role of a guide

In the Montessori pedagogy a guide has a function similar to a role of a teacher at a traditional school. It is similar because their role is to guide children through the process of learning, however, the children in Montessori school themselves

coordinate it to a large extent. During English lessons guides differed from common teachers in many aspects such as:

Guides did not use frontal teaching, but they, most of the time, sat with the children on a carpet, because sitting at the same “level” induces a good stress-free atmosphere

(Appendix B). The guides in the classes, that I observed, were always next to the children on a carpet and when the children were doing some activities, they continuously checked up on the progress in all working groups.

Montessori classes usually have two guides. One functions as a “main” guide, who gives children instructions and the second one has a role of an assistant. Moreover,

an assistant is there for disabled children or for those, who just need help or more time for finishing a task, because Montessori system is open for inclusion. Nevertheless the maximum number of disabled children is two; therefore children are used to them and do not look at them as strangers. Also during my observations there were two guides.

The presence of them enabled children to apply, to a certain extent, an individual

approach. Nevertheless children were independent and used to solving majority of tasks on their I observed that during activities, such as puzzles, dominos or exercises

with solutions at their disposal or matching exercises they did not require an assistance of a guide. The guides just explained what to do and helped children only if needed.

The guides spoke very clearly, they did not shout at children and thus create a very calm yet working atmosphere. They did not want children to feel stressed.

Therefore they also did not use a common system of assessment. Children´s work in Montessori is evaluated but no one has a “label” of a good or bad pupil.

The most important criterion for evaluation is how children felt while working on a task, how they themselves see their results. For example if children worked on an exercise of ten sentences and they only finished six of them, a guide did not

punish them but asked how they worked on the task, what was difficult, what was interesting etc. Generally, if a child is not satisfied with the result he or she is used to suggesting a “plan” for improvement. A close relationship between a guide and children is also demonstrated in a way of addressing each other. Children addressed their guides “you” in the second person singular (or call them by their first names

which is unacceptable at the traditional schools, it is even considered as rude).

For example a boy in one class asked the guide for help: Katka, could you please check it up for me?” The children were not afraid to ask, because they were never punished for mistakes. If they made a mistake, they were given a space for correction. Guides did not tell them a right solution, but children challenged their mind and tried to correct

themselves without help. For example I saw a situation when a guide checked an exercise for a little boy and she said:”I see one mistake. Can you find it?” This little

boy went through the exercise again and found the mistake. This “action” made him rethink his action and at the end of this task he learned from the mistake.

The guides always want to be in a close contact with parents, who take part in the functioning of the school. Since children do a lot of projects, they often help them with things, which they are not able to do by themselves. For example in one English class the children were asked to suggest a topic for a school project. The children themselves found out that they want to do a school musical called “The Little Prince” and one of the fathers, who is a singer of a popular group, composed music for them.

Another father helped them with set pieces. This example shows that parents are interested in their children’s school work and they are willing to help. Another example that I observed during an English class was a task that required a firm concentration from the children, which was for some of them quite demanding. A guide told me that she has one boy in a class, who has study problems, so in this case she contacted parents and offered them some extra work for their son. The parents welcomed this help since they considered this extra work for their son as useful for his future progress.

As the guide mentioned, they were in contact with her and informed her about their son’s achievements.