Saturday,
December 01, 2007
The
ANNOTICO Report
It
seems obvious, that kids would be more involved with projects that they choose,
rather than those foisted on them. Right ??
Teachers Swamp a Parley on Preschool
By ELizabeth Green
Staff Reporter of the Sun
November 30, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/67258
At least 10
Nearly 900 people
will crowd the 92nd Street Y to learn about Reggio Emilia " named
after the small Italian town, population 140,000, where the approach was
developed and that is known for its fine wines and parmigianas "
and hundreds more are scheduled to tune in to the 92nd Street Y's first major
Internet broadcast of a conference.
Unlike many
foreign countries,
Reggio eschews
traditional lesson plans and instead
encourages 4- and 5-year-olds to develop their own projects.
About 500
Americans visit Reggio schools in Italy every year to marvel at these projects, and a traveling
exhibit of the projects has been making its way across the country. The
The director of
By giving
children more time
to do longer projects and allowing them to dictate their own
curriculum, the Reggio method brings out the best in them, she said.
At her school, she said, children have created a life-size penguin; several
robots, and a model of the
"The idea is
not to just splash something off and bring it home to mommy. Rather, most of
the work is considered work in progress," she said.
One of the more
recent robot projects is an instructive example, she said. After many months
spent building a robot it was more
like an elaborate clubhouse, with a door students could enter to get inside and
pictures of themselves posted on its walls the Christmas break arrived. To prevent a
janitor from disturbing the project, the children taped up a hand-made sign:
"DO NOT DISMANTLE OUR ROBOT." When teachers came in the next morning
to find the robot destroyed into a pile of cardboard and wire, Ms. Mandelbaum said the children had a different reaction.
"The children
in practically one voice said, 'We'll build it again!'" she said. Then " demonstrating all that they'd learned, Ms. Mandelbaum said " they proceeded to build it
again in just two days.
Officials at the
Italian Cultural Institute suggested to the
Several public
schools also follow the Reggio approach, a Department of Education spokeswoman,
Maibe Gonzalez-Fuentes, said, and representatives
from some schools are attending the conference. P.S. 321 in Brooklyn uses the
technique, as does the American Sign Language School, where teachers have come
from across the country to observe the way the school uses Reggio.
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