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Lisa

Bassett
Dr. Holcomb
Curriculum Development
March 20, 2014

Montessori and American Secondary Music Program


Montessori is one of the many approaches to education found around the

world. It was developed by Maria Montessori. The Montessori program outlines


developmental planes starting from zero to twenty-four years of age. Montessori
schools in the United States exist only for the preschool and elementary levels.
There are many elements of that style of learning that can be incorporated into the
average American public school, and particularly in a secondary school music
classroom.

Before looking to incorporate something into an educational curriculum,

understanding it as an independent entity and how it functions is critical. The


Montessori Method of educationis a child-centered educational approach based on
scientific observation of children from birth to adulthood (American Montessori
Society). What this means is that students at a Montessori school would not sit in a
desk, in rows, with textbooks open in front of them listening to a teacher drone on
about a given topic. Instead, the students would be actively engaged in an activity or
task that would allow them to explore the topic in a physical, hands on way.
Montessori is an approach that values the human spirit and the development of the
whole child physical, social, emotional, cognitive (American Montessori Society).
What this means is, in a Montessori school, the focus is on not only the academic and
mental growth, but also more interpersonal and personal development of a student.
In the Montessori classroom, students do not just work independently, but with
others, some older, some younger. They are grouped together in what are called
planes. These planes are broken up into four sections. Zero to six years old, six to
twelve years old, twelve to eighteen years old, and eighteen to twenty four years old.
Each plane is unique with its own set of goals based around the developmental level

of the student (What is Montessori Education?). In these planes all students in that
group are in a classroom together. So not only are they learning together, but they
are also learning and teaching one another. In any given plane, an older student may
help a younger student with a concept they have already mastered. Not only does
this help the younger student learn, but the older students knowledge is being
reinforced by assisting the younger student. The two are also building their social
skills at the same time. A large portion of what a Montessori education does, is
encouraging a student not only to work with one another, but to facilitate more than
one area of growth or subject at a time. For instance, a student might have a
question in a math classroom, but will ask the question of the teacher in French in
order to work on both his math skills and his foreign language communication skills.
Many secondary music classrooms are like the Montessori Plans, because many
places the Choir, Band, Orchestra, and sometime even general music, are a
combination of many grade levels, all working together to learn and grow. The
students who have been in the ensemble longer tend to lead the newer members,
and help them out. In ways,,, Montessori is like Critical Pedagogy. Both are student
centered learning, in which the students learn from doing and from those
experiences learning. Critical Pedagogys reciprocal teaching is seen in Montessori,
not just between students and teachers, but in Montessori between younger and
older students.

Upon first glance a secondary Montessori classroom would look very similar

to an average secondary school classroom. In the best-practiced Montessori


secondary classroom an observer would see, a student-centered classroom with a
versatile set-up were students can work as individuals or in pairs/groups.
Additionally, the curriculum is developed by the teacher to encourage convergent
and divergent thinking, through multi layered projects that can interconnect with
other subject areas, for instance you could incorporate math when talking about
pitches and partials. If you take a string that is X length and plays pitch C when you
cut it in half you get pitch G, when you cut it in half you get pitch E, how long would
the string be? A teacher could make a whole lesson using the harmonic sequence
and determining the lengths of the string at various points. A Montessori Classroom

would use a variety of assignments and assessment techniques, and packets of


projects to engage the students. The focus of the classroom is that of service
learning supported by instructional lessons (Donahoe 16 17). Many of these
components can be found in both a well run Montessori classroom, as well as a well
run traditional classroom. Montessori teachers are specially trained to be
Montessori teachers. Secondary teachers are prepared in Montessori teacher
education programs in many areas that build on Montessori practice with the
younger child. This includes executive functioning, self-reflection, time
management, the advanced application of the three-period lesson, and, eventually,
long-term planning and implementation of projects (Danahoe 17). In addition to all
of this training a Montessori teacher must constantly be addressing the numerous
needs of adolescents through guidance, acting as an adult guide through these ever
changing times of social and physical growth. One of Montessoris big focuses is on
students as a community and instilling in them respect for both teachers and
students, and cooperation with all, which comes together to create a strong sense of
community (Danahoe 17-18). A Band, Orchestra, or Choir is just another type of
community in which the students must learn to function as a unit to create music
which requires them to support each other as well as respect them as they grow and
learn together. Montessori classrooms are constructed around projects, that are the
students lessons, that aim to actively engage students in their learning, and not
have them sit quietly and passively learn from a teacher or a book. Instead of
teacher lecturing students on the I, IV, and V Chords and their functions, students
could do work with an Ipads Garageband, and take a folk melody they already know
and figure out sonically when those chords fit, and how sometimes two people can
come up with different answers and why they both might work. What sets
secondary Montessori classrooms apart is the core philosophy and the spiral
curriculum. For secondary levels this is called Erdkinder.

The twelve to eighteen year old plane is also known as Erdkinder. Erdkinder

is German for Land Children (Association Montessori Internationale). In the regular


American School system, this plane encompasses sixth to twelfth grade, roughly the

entrance to middle school through to high school graduation. This time corresponds
to adolescence for the students.

Adolescence is an age of great social development, an age of critical thinking

and re-evaluation, and a period of self-concern and self-assessment. It is a

transition from childhood to adulthood with the corresponding physical,

mental and sexual maturationAbove all adolescence is like an odyssey an

arduous yet exciting adventure where the adolescent tries to find his or

her place in the world (Association Montessori Internationale).

Throughout these years, the goal is for the student to discover and come into their
own person, and figure out how they fit into the greater society. As part of the Land
Children phase, it is also encouraged that students spend a period of time in the
country, away from their environments and families. During this time, students
study civilization from its origins in agriculture. Students are encouraged to open a
shop where they can sell the products they produce, as a study in economics, in
addition to their other studies, of math, language arts, history, science, and times of
personal reflection (Montessori At The Secondary Levels). While these years are not
as precisely planned as the earlier ones, the main focuses are still on the students
social, mental, and personal growth. These years encourage the student to become
less dependent on the parent as preparation for independence as well as
encouraging them to foster skills they will need as an adult. Learning music and
fingerings on an instrument is a rather independent task, especially when students
reach the secondary age. Many times music students parents will not have
instrumental backgrounds, and even if they do, they cannot learn the notes,
fingerings and rhythms for the student, that practice must be done by the student,
and so independent learning is found through practicing their personal instrument
because they cannot rely on their parents.

Music is a fundamental part of the Erdkinder curriculum., The Erdkinder

curriculum would encourage self-expression through music, art, public speaking,


and theater (Montessori At The Secondary Levels 150). What is unique about most
Montessori Schools is they also acknowledge the importance of music as a way to
increase academic grades. There have been several studies, including one done on

three, four, and five year olds that found that students who received musicenriched
Montessori instruction had higher levels of mathematics achievement than students who
received traditional Montessori instruction (The Effects of Music Instruction on learning
in the Montessori)*. After these initial findings, the test was expanded to a 3-year study to
see if the positive effects would continue. The result of the test was that all the children in
the Montessori music enriched programs fell into the 90-99 percentile on the math test
(Test of Early Math Ability). Another study done by Dr. Jean Houston of the Foundation
for Mind Research found that children who did not have the availability of an arts
program were damaging their brains. This damage was due to the lack of engagement of
their nonverbal modalities which help students learn skills like reading, writing, and math
(Roehmann & Wilson). Even with all of these studies, many public school are driven so
by test results that music programs are pushed aside.

In most American public schools the official curriculum is made around the

Common Core Standards, and the standardized tests given by the state. Many times
the skills focused on in the Montessori Erdkinder plane are part of a teacher, or even
a schools, unofficial, or even hidden curriculum, but they are very rarely talked
about or focused on in the public school. The main complaint of the upcoming
generations is that they are narcissistic, focused on the extrinsic, rather then the
intrinsic, and that they cannot communicate properly with the people physically
around them. Why if these are the concerns of so many, are they not being
addressed in the school system, where they are supposed to learn the knowledge
and skills they will need to succeed in the world around them? Many of these things
could easily be addressed in the school system, especially in music classrooms,
however, more often than not, the music class is focused more on the performance
at the end, instead of the skills needed to cultivate their students as better
musicians. The benefit of that education, and its applications outside of the music
classroom itself should never be over looked.


* musicenriched is a grammatical error found in the original source itself,
reproduced here to maintain the authenticity of the quote.

An example of a middle school level Montessori lesson, is brought out from

what traditionally in an American public school would take place in a science


classroom as lecture and listen style lesson.

The class is gathered at one end of the gym, the children are walking around in a
tight little cluster, beating time to a deliberate drumbeat. Suddenly, the beat
quickens and the children begin to spread out across the gym. What are they
studying? Energy transfer! Next, the students are water molecules being heated by
a uranium bundle in a nuclear power plant. (When water is heated, each molecule
moves more quickly and further apart from the others, a change in movement that
was signaled by the drum.) Later in the lesson, the children shuffle along the
floor, representing electrons moving along power lines. Then they pretend to be
atoms joining together and breaking apart, chanting a rap about the pros and cons
of various energy sources, all of this to musical accompaniment (Hoffman).

Think about how many different skills were worked on in this lesson. Students were able
to experience and further their understanding about energy, molecules, and electrons,
they also were given a physical work out, and they worked on their visual spatial skills as
they (hopefully) did not run into one another. On the musical front they worked on
moving to a steady beat, listening for changes in rhythm (when the drummer changed
speeds), reacting to changes in music, as well as rapping (or even composing if the
students wrote the rap themselves) over a given beat. That one lesson managed to
encompass not only a lot of information, but also covered three areas of academics in a
normal secondary science lesson.
Montessori Schools are not just about incorporating several classes or lessons
together but also about students working together to learn. Perhaps in a choral classroom,
instead just popping in theory lessons as you went, you set aside one day a week (or
every other week depending on the frequency of the class meetings) for students to work
in a modified Montessori Fashion to learn/teach each other various skills. Instead of
having a traditional choir rehearsal on Mondays, you gave the students theory projects.
For instance, one day you could have the third year choir students help the first year
students to do the first project in the packet, learning solfege, and then together they
could put solfege in their music. While you have the fourth year choir students help the

second year students learn to build and identify chords, this latter exercise being a
refresher and reinforcement of those chords that the fourth year students will need when
you challenge them to write a song together using any and all available instruments, and
music software as tools. This would move along throughout the year with students
moving forward as they are ready with skills, as well as learning how to apply them not
just to their choir music, but also to songs they might already know.
The pure Montessori style of education may not be for all students. It may not be
practical or affordable to take students away from their families and communities for a
long period of time to live in the country. However, the studies that have shown the
positive effects Montessori style can have on its students. In addition, their support of
music as a vehicle for learning not just as a multi-subject learning tool, but also as a way
to help bolster academic success, which is so important to American secondary schools,
is great for any future educator. With all this, it should be clear why incorporating
elements and ideas from the Montessori Educational System can benefit your student
body as a whole.

Bibliography
Primary Sources
"Association Montessori Internationale." Association Montessori Internationale. Association
Montessori Internationale, 2013. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
Danahoe, Marta, et al. Best Practices In Montessori Secondary Programs. Montessori Life 25.2
(2013): 16-23. OmniFile Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Webb. 10 Apr. 2014.
Harris, Maureen. "The Effects of Music Instruction on Learning in the Montessori Classroom." Education News. American Montessori Society, 15 Aug. 2008. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
"Introduction to Montessori." Home. American Montessori Society, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
"Montessori at the Secondary Level." Montessori Programs n.d.: 147-73. Web.
<www.montessori.org/sitefiles/montessori_way_HS.pdf>.
Ginsburg, H. P., & Baroody, A. J. (2003). Test of Early Math Ability, 3rd Edition. Texas: PRO
ED.
Hoffman, J. (2003). Music, Math and the Mind. Todays Parent. Retrieved from
Www.todaysparent.com.

Secondary Sources
Copeland, Cheryl. "Teaching Music in a Montessori Fashion: A Vision Realized." Montessori
Life: A Publication of the American Montessori Society 17.3 (2005): 32-35. EBSCO Host.
Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
Holfester, Chris. The Montessori Method. Montessori Method Research Starters Education
(2014): 1. Research Starters Education. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
"Music and Montessori: An Interview with Erica Roach." Montessori Life: A Publication of the
American Montessori Society17.3 (2005): 36-39. EBSCO Host. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.

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