I have had people ask me why we “do not do worksheets.” I want to share why we use worksheets sparingly in the Montessori classroom. Dr. Montessori found that the younger the child the more concrete their thinking. As we know, babies do not gain object permanence until approximately 9 months of age. Isn’t this the ultimate example of concrete thinking? They need to see something in order to know it exists. As children grow, their ability to understand object permanence grows. One must then reason that children, who just a few years ago could not fathom the existence of something not in their line of sight would find it difficult to learn, absorb and retain complex concepts such math, language, science, etc. written on a piece of paper. At this young age, if one only learns these subjects on paper, this will not be a complete understanding, but rather an understanding of the concepts as flat as the paper on which they are written.
The Montessori Method starts with the concrete, moving to abstraction as the child becomes ready to absorb it. This allows the children to use the concrete learning as a foundation for understanding the more abstract concepts. This is not to say that worksheets may never be used…The children are welcome to do their math work using manipulatives for understanding and then record their work on a sheet that has the problems printed on it.
In many cases worksheets have a large amount of material on them in order to facilitate repetition and subsequently bring about memorization. In the Montessori classroom fewer repetitions are needed in order to gain fluency of a specific concept because these are broken down into sequential steps for better understanding. In the elementary classroom, the children need only do 5 problems at a time and will walk away with a greater understanding than if doing 3 times as many problems on paper alone. Children may choose to do more problems for the pure joy of deepening their understanding. This scenario is one that brings happiness to the heart of the teacher who sees the children developing their love of learning.
-Daniella
The Montessori Method starts with the concrete, moving to abstraction as the child becomes ready to absorb it. This allows the children to use the concrete learning as a foundation for understanding the more abstract concepts. This is not to say that worksheets may never be used…The children are welcome to do their math work using manipulatives for understanding and then record their work on a sheet that has the problems printed on it.
In many cases worksheets have a large amount of material on them in order to facilitate repetition and subsequently bring about memorization. In the Montessori classroom fewer repetitions are needed in order to gain fluency of a specific concept because these are broken down into sequential steps for better understanding. In the elementary classroom, the children need only do 5 problems at a time and will walk away with a greater understanding than if doing 3 times as many problems on paper alone. Children may choose to do more problems for the pure joy of deepening their understanding. This scenario is one that brings happiness to the heart of the teacher who sees the children developing their love of learning.
-Daniella
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