Sneha Posted July 31, 2018 Posted July 31, 2018 How we added the Montessori Curriculum We added the Montessori framework to Tapestry so that Montessori settings all over the world would be able to share what children accomplish in Montessori settings with relatives in a more informative and thorough way. The areas are split as Practical Life/AEL, Sensorial, Literacy, Mathematics, Cultural/KUW. Within these areas, we have created sub-areas for practitioners to easily be able to locate which activity the child has completed and link it efficiently to the observation. Each activity is also linked to an informative description about what the aims/outcomes of the activity in question were and how the child was presented the materials. The descriptions have been added to accomplish two things; a) Reduce the time a practitioner would take to explain the activity before writing the notes for the actual observation of the child. b) Inform parents and other relatives about the purpose of the Montessori activities and what the children can and have achieved as well as what the relatives can do to follow up the activity at home. Activities that have Three-Period Lesson (3PL) introductions are also given the option to specifically select which variants you have introduced. As an example, for the ‘Sandpaper Letters’ activity, you will be able to specifically choose which 3 sounds you have introduced during the presentation- such as; a (at), b (bat, c (cat)... and so forth. Thus providing the most informative and specific descriptions for Montessori activities and the ability to track what exactly the child has been covering! Refinements Similar to EYFS, you also have the option to add ‘refinements’ for each activity. You are able to rename these or alternatively use the Tapestry defaults; Introduced/spontaneous use, Working with guidance, Completed Independently. The refinements then enable selected analysis and snapshot screens already active on Tapestry to view children’s progress and overviews of activities in Montessori areas as well as the coverage of activities within each area of learning. Links to EYFS We have also linked each activity from the Montessori areas of learning to the EYFS Development Matters statements that we felt were age appropriate for each activity and/or best match the outcomes of the activity. These have been added as suggestions as we do of course also encourage practitioners to choose what they feel is the best statement/age band to select for each activity. Tutorial here. Next Steps The next steps leading on from Montessori activities are suggested according to which activity we felt was most appropriate to introduce next. These were selected and cross referenced across all areas of learning according to the skills the child has needed to acquire prior to carrying it out OR what the natural progression of activities was. Montessori Activities Overview The activities overview screen can be found by going to Tracking > Montessori. This screen will show you the number of assessments made during a selected period for each activity. These can be filtered according to area and sub area and can be viewed on an individual or group basis. You can also export the results from this page as a CSV or PDF file. Tutorial here. Summative Assessment screen The summative assessment screen can also be found by going to Tracking > Montessori. From this screen, you are able to manually add assessments and refinements for Montessori activities without having to add a full observation. You will also be able to view the progress the child is making for each activity from one period to the next. Tutorial here. We hope this article has been informative and summarised how and why the Montessori framework has been added!
Recommended Posts