Mary W. Douglas

January 21, 2013

Explain some forms of language assessment that you use with children?
In the Montessori classroom, assessment occurs in 4 ways.

* The Montessori three period lesson. * 1st Period: I (the teacher) show and name a new concept.
Example: “These shapes are congruent.” * 2nd Period: I then (at a later time) ask the student to show a particular concept. Example, “Show me the congruent shapes.” * 3rd Period: Finally, I ask the student to recall the concept.
Example: “What are these shapes called?”

* The materials are self-correcting which shows my students when they have made a mistake so they know to go back and try again.

* There is an isolation of difficulty in the lesson sequence that allows me (the teacher) and the child to assess understanding of complex processes from the beginning to the end.

* Eudsoft Unit Testing. Edusoft is a Benchmark Assessment Program that East Baton Rouge Parish School System utilizes. The tests content is aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Each unit test has both multiple choice and open-ended items.

How do you work to meet the language goals of all the children in your class individually?

Individual learning takes place within the Montessori environment. The Montessori classroom is prepared with a wealth of materials selected and designed to meet the needs of the children individually. This allows each child to learn at their own pace.

What techniques or strategies do you use to encourage language development?

The Three Period Lesson is a teaching technique used to give formal vocabulary lesson that encourages language development.

1st Period – Introduction of the names to be learned.
2nd Period – Practice associating the names with the objects.
3rd Period – Confirmation that the names have been learned.

How might you instruct a child whose native language is something other than English?

In the classroom there is usually an assistant that speaks Spanish. Some of the children can speak English also, so I post class guidelines in Spanish and English.
I also post feeling charts that comes from the social-emotional lessons from Second-Step Social Emotional posters. Labeling each center in Spanish and English along with the pictures helps the children that speak Spanish to feel at home in the classroom.