News

Hands-on learning

September 11, 2008

Riyan Patel, 3, carefully wiped the green leaves of his tiny cactus plant with a damp sponge.

“Do you want to water it now?” teaching assistant teacher Kim Andersonasked as she handed him a yellow plastic watering can.

Across the room, Evan Beck, 4, practiced addition. “I’m counting butterflies,” he said proudly, as he sorted the tiny plastic creatures.

At a kid-sized table, Lauren Robins, 4, and Brayden Crowder, 5, drew simple portraits of each other with felt-tip markers.

“That doesn’t look like me!” Lauren proclaimed as she eyed the purple drawing.

It’s all great fun at the Spears Creek Road Child Development program. But it’s also learning the Montessori way, the newest innovation in early childhood learning for Richland 2.

The magnet program for 60 pre-school and kindergarten students, located in a cluster of portable classrooms just behind Pontiac Elementary, opened its doors Aug. 19.

While the philosophy of hands-on learning was already in place, this is the district’s first foray into a school that is entirely devoted to the Montessori Method, said lead teacher Sabina Mosso-Taylor.“We really, really passionately want each child to succeed,” said Mosso-Taylor, who oversees early learning centers at Spears Creek and 10 other elementary school locations.

The Montessori Method, developed by Italian educator Maria Montessori in the early 20th century, is aimed at inspiring creativity and problem-solving among children, who are placed in multi-age groupings.

Parents and teachers work together in planning the child’s curriculum, which also focuses on peaceful social interaction. No grades are given; instead, a portfolio is developed for each child.

Montessori programs are growing in popularity across the state, according to Ginny Riga, a S.C. Department of Education associate hired earlier this year to help develop and sustain the programs.

There are nearly three dozen programs in 14 districts statewide, some that have operated for more than a decade.

“I kind of see our state on the cutting edge,” said Riga. “It’s just a positive approach, just the word of mouth makes people say I want my child in that program.”

Most are “school within a school” concepts such as the Spears Creek program. But there are four schools, including Brockman Elementary in Richland 1, that operate solely as Montessori schools.

“It is becoming a real option for people as a public school choice,” said Riga, a former Brockman principal. State school superintendent Jim Rex sees Montessori as an important part of the expansion of public school choice, she said.

The group of 60 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds at Spears Creek will progress to first, second and third grades together at Pontiac Elementary, where they will function as a “school within a school,” Mosso-Taylor said.

That is exciting for Pontiac principal Beth Elliott, who said she is eagerly awaiting the “passing of the baton” as the children grow and move from the “portable village” into the Pontiac classrooms.

For now, the youngsters think rolling out individual cream-colored mats and pouring out blocks or handling manipulatives is simply part of the day’s play.

In one of the three classrooms, teacher Kim Moses and her assistant are constantly moving about the room, guiding the children toward discovery of a math fact or an alphabet letter.

When Moses gathers the children in a circle to read a book, they explore the nature of friendship with the exploits of Lilly, Chester and Wilson, three favorite literary characters.

Now, she said, the children are in the early exploration stages of classroom learning, but “toward spring, they will be a lot more independent,” said Moses, who supervises 17 children in her classroom.

She is in the midst of year-long Montessori training, along with teachers Lyndsay Curtis and Tammy Frierson, and Mosso-Taylor, who is also earning a doctorate in early childhood education at USC.

Mosso-Taylor says the multi-age groupings allow for reciprocity of learning, with the older children helping the younger kids, and vice versa.

“They are all working on their own level wherever they are.”

The State
By CAROLYN CLICK
cclick@thestate.com
Reach Click at (803) 771-8386.