Blog Post 4: Klarissa Guillen
🥔Couch Potato Homework Blog🥔
Blogger: Klarissa Guillen
Typing from: My Mac book & on the living room couch w/my dogs :)
MARIA MONTESSORI!!!!
From all of the readings and the videos in my head I kept thinking about my girl Maria! I say this because she truly has helped guide a lot of the teaching framework that I use at school. I teach at a half Montessori and half CPS school where we need to use both traditional teaching along with Montessori methods. Metacognition is defined in the "what is metacognition?" article as thinking about thinking, the monitoring and control of thought. It was also categorized into three parts: metamemory-metacomprehension, problem solving, and critical thinking. The Montessori method is based on educational theories centered on self-regulation, deep reflection, and independent error correction.
A lot of what I read and saw crossed in my mind with a lot of what I have learned to adapt in my own teaching at my school with my students. This way we can choose to let loose of the control in the classroom so that our students can do the activities on their own. They must be aware of what it is they are learning but also bridge their learning with what they know. In this the struggle and frustration is what is the best part we hope our students can get through. When we give "challenging" work to our students, whether that be literacy in an aspect we must also remember that we as the teacher need to give them tools to. utilize to get through the struggle.
I added quotation marks to challenging because I don't think there is ever anything challenging for us or our students. These things we label as challenging are just things we may or may not be familiar with. To connect this to apprenticeship, when we as educators show our students how to work through struggle we are allowing them to pick up problem solving tools to navigate through the frustration. In Montessori training and method we always want to make sure our students have their own Intrinsic motivation. This is where your students have the internal drive to engage in an activity for its own inherent satisfaction and enjoyment rather than for any external reward or separable consequence!
I'd like to see if any of you have any connections to the Montessori method and maybe Maria can help you out too if you haven't used these before! I definitely also want to encourage you to incorporate some if you can!
Hi Klarissa!
ReplyDelete"we must also remember that we as the teacher need to give them tools to utilize to get through th struggle" struck me to the core!
I liked that you also clarify that you do not want to measure the idea of "challenging" I think this contributes to something some might add a part of "the secret handshake" where students that are already familiar with academic expectations are at an advantage with what is expected from them
I need to look into the Montessori method into my consciousness to really grasp into how to help my student critically think in history!!!! I think it is so important, as you mentioned, to give them the skills. How would students know what I am looking for in thinks like critical thinking if I am either not giving them the tools they need or I am approaching it so narrow minded and archaic mindset?
Hi, Klarrisa.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your connection between the Montessori method and metacognition, especially the idea of letting students work through struggle instead of immediately stepping in to help them. I think it’s easy as a teacher to want to make things easier for students when they are frustrated but giving them the tools to figure things out on their own can help them become more confident and independent learners. I also liked what you said about calling something “challenging” just because it is unfamiliar. That really made me think about how the way we frame something can affect how students see it.
I really liked how you connected metacognition to the Montessori method, especially the idea of allowing students to become more independent in their learning. I agree that students need to be aware of what they are learning and have opportunities to connect new information to what they already know. I also liked your point about struggle. Sometimes as teachers, we may want to immediately help students when they are frustrated, but allowing them to work through that struggle can help them develop problem-solving skills and confidence.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of giving students the right tools instead of simply giving them the answer stood out to me. I think this connects really well with apprenticeship because teachers can model how to approach a problem, and then gradually give students more responsibility to figure things out on their own. This can also help students develop intrinsic motivation because they are learning to recognize their own progress instead of depending only on grades or rewards.
Your post also made me think about how difficult it can be to find the right balance between letting students struggle and stepping in when they genuinely need support. How do we, as teachers, know when a student's struggle is helping them become more independent and when that same struggle has gone too far and is preventing them from learning?