Tools used to Assess your Montessori Student

In traditional public schools, testing is the required norm. Some classes test the children every week, and all kids must take standardized assessment tests periodically to determine their progress. Everything is different in a Montessori classroom. While each child is being continuously monitored and assessed, the methods used are far more subtle, and often subjective, focusing on the skills of the individual child rather than trying to fit the child into age-specific standardization.

Standardized Tests

Some Montessori schools use standardized testing as well as other methods. This practice is more common in public Montessori schools, or privately operated schools which transition children into public education as they get older. Some of the data collected in these tests can be used to improve the Montessori system, but individual progress carries more weight than standardized questions.

Daily Assessment

Assessment takes place continuously in the Montessori classroom. Guides observe the activities of children and offer assistance or suggest other methods as children require it. Teachers also speak with children regularly, allowing the guide and student to look at the individual’s progress and plan future activities accordingly. Where a public school teacher may know that the class is on page 247 of a textbook, the Montessori guide knows that your child is learning to master a particular concept or skill. The key is that the children in the class are working at their own paces, and they are not all on the same page.

Self-Paced Learning

Montessori learning encourages the children’s natural inquisitiveness. Because the kids are allowed to learn at their own paces, each student may move about the Montessori classroom and various activity centers as they learn new skills. Since this follows a more natural pattern of learning, many children are able to absorb subject material faster.

All Children are Special

Maria Montessori believed that all children are special. Each one has unique talents and is able to grasp different concepts more quickly than others. In the Montessori classroom, this allows gifted children and challenged learners to work together in the classroom, advancing at their own pace, without becoming separated from their peer group. In addition to allowing individual advancement within the classroom, this also allows interaction between children, benefiting those who are having more trouble and creating a sense of self-worth for the children as a group.

Montessori schools teach the same kind of information, in approximately the same age-groups, as traditional schools. But the methods used to do that are much different, focusing more on personal achievement, hands-on learning, and social responsibility. Both methods attempt to provide children with a well-rounded education, but the approaches used by each are like comparing apples to oranges.  Schedule a visit at the Montessori School of Flagstaff Westside Campus today to learn more about the tools we use to assess students.

Comments are closed.