Reply to Montessori parents: how do you know kids are on track?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a great question and should be a useful conversation.  We are at LAMB, with both lower elementary and primary students, and while I know my kids are progressing, it is an adjustment to not see grades on their quarterly reports.  I am not suggesting however, that I want them to get grades and there are benchmarks and assessments that they take.  For instance, they use one of the reading programs (A to Z? perhaps) that LAMB administrators believe has the best match to a Montessori curriculum and the reading levels do match up to a grade level. The kids read at their own pace and choose from a selection of books in the appropriate level.  They have small reading groups that you can participate in once you reach a certain level, but the kids are at a vast spread of reading levels between 1st - 3rd grades that it doesn't come across as differentiated learning.  [b]I am still working to understand how math is assessed because it is very different in Montessori,[/b] but they do have to Master skills before they can move on to the next skill.

Looking forward to following this thread.  I am thrilled with the Montessori system, but there is more I can learn about it.  [/quote]

Confused about this -- the math concepts taught in elementary are no different from traditional school.  If your kid is an elementary student they can tell you about learning division, long division, long multiplication, fractions etc.  My 1st grade lower elementary student is doing long division and long multiplication and learning about fractions (multiplying, dividing, equivalency etc).  She has a great understanding of the decimal system and does simple math in her head almost instantly.  I don't know what 1st graders are doing in other schools (or what other kids are doing in her class) but to me that sounds pretty advanced for a six year old, so I'm convinced she's "on track" without feeling the need for reports, tests or comparisons to her classmates.[/quote]

Not to burst your bubble. I used to think that way until I heard teachers give us parents a little more detail on how math is acquired and assessed. Not saying it is here but what you describe could be a child taught a lot of arithmetic but not truly having developed a numbers sense. Or put differently: Anyone can teach a willing 6-year old how to do long divisions, doesn't mean he/she understands it; he/she just knows the right steps in the right order. So, as a parent you feel no worry because it looks so darn advanced. Meanwhile, another third grader's parents are wondering what to make of their child's is revisiting counting by numbers. Which of the two should be more worried? Not so intuitive but some will argue you should be the one worrying because that third grader is developing a better "numbers sense", which will provide a better foundation for advanced math come middle and high school. It's not trivial. This debate is at the heart of sometimes heated discussions about the Common Core.[/quote]

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