Reggio Emilia Approach

I really enjoyed reading about the “Reggio Emilia Approach” because it is something that I strongly believe in. I think that the best way to engage the students is to create a curriculum tha... See More

I really enjoyed reading about the “Reggio Emilia Approach” because it is something that I strongly believe in. I think that the best way to engage the students is to create a curriculum that derives from their interests. I thought it was so awesome how the whole lesson was based on the student's hypotheses and initial observations. The students may not have even realized that they were in the process of learning because they were able to explore their curiosity. I think it's incredible that kindergartners were able to learn about gravity, inertia, and centripetal force because these topics are so advanced. I definitely think the connection between learning about it and using manipulatives to represent it helps solidify their understanding. I incorporated similar hands-on activities into my own lessons and it proved to be very effective because the students were actively engaged and excited to complete the activity. I also tried to provide them with some freedom to create, in an attempt to model the Reggio Emilia Approach. I think the students really appreciated this because they were able to make their own discoveries about gravity and air resistance and there was no right or wrong way to do it.

Interesting Read

This article was an extremely interesting read. It explained the “Reggio Emilia Approach” and how it works in a kindergarten classroom. This approach consists of an unplanned curriculum in w... See More

This article was an extremely interesting read. It explained the “Reggio Emilia Approach” and how it works in a kindergarten classroom. This approach consists of an unplanned curriculum in which the students give the teacher the ideas and the teacher takes those ideas and creates long-term projects. In this specific example, kindergarten students were exploring forces and motion, perfect for further my understanding of my science learning-segment. It completely amazed me how capable these young students in the journal article are. With open-ended questions and the materials to succeed, the students were able to explore ideas in regards to different forces and create hypotheses and experiments that I would never expect a kindergartener to know how to do. This article proved to me that I will be able to do so much with the topic of force and motion and that my students will have much more knowledge than I am expecting. It also gave me great insight to how important creating an environment where students and teachers work together and co-construct knowledge and the curriculum. A classroom should not be a place where the teacher is against the students; instead it should be a fun and exciting environment where students and teachers work as a team to comprehend new concepts. I have already learned that my students are capable of teaching me just as much as I teach them and I will use this article to further create environments during my lessons where teamwork is encouraged and minds are constantly used to explore new ideas.