SoooooooooâŠ..
Iâm about to expose insider information here and let you in on one of the biggest secrets to Montessoriâs success. Once you know what Iâm about to share, you are hereby ready to start your own Montessori program*.
The secret sauce?
Self-correction.
When a work is self-correcting, a student gets clear, instant feedback on whether theyâve found the right solution or not.
What does this look like in the classroom?
Imagine a Hebrew-English matching game played between two students (weâve told you weâre into the value of collaborative learning havenât we?). The students are matching the Hebrew word cards to their English translations. When they are ready to check their work, they flip the cards over and see if the numbers on the back match, letting them know instantly if they are correct. Students donât need to rush to a teacher to âcheck their workâ. They check it themselves.
There are hundreds of examples of self-correcting works in our classrooms. All of them build confidence and autonomy, eliminate the crutch of traditional testing, and result in needing less external feedback.
Letâs look at a real-life example of the value of self-correction.⊠basketball (shout out to my brother Elias who has taught me all I know about the sport)**!
When you shoot a basketball, there is clear feedback if you got the ball in the hoop or not. You donât need someone hovering over your shoulder telling up whether or not you scored. You can see and adjust your shot slightly as needed. You still need guidance and coaching, but a lot is learned from the visual feedback of the activity itself.
Now if youâre still reading***, take a moment and imagine two very different scenarios.
Scenario one: You enjoy basketball, youâre not the best at it, not even second-best, but hey itâs fun and you spend your Sundays practicing. Eventually, you tone up your skills, and over a few months, you become a decent basketball player. You still arenât the best at it, but you are getting better, itâs great exercise, and itâs fun!
Scenario number two: You start off at the same level as above, you’re still practicing, but after a few days, your teacher hands out grades based on your performance. Your grade (in bright red numbers)?
62.
Now, how motivated are you to keep practicing?
And if you do, how much will you enjoy it?
Swap out basketball with math or science and require students to keep âplayingâ, only now with red numbers hovering over their heads. Is anyone starting to lose their motivation đ€?
The point isnât that you should be oblivious to your skill level. And everyone needs a coach (we still have teachers here ya know đ€). But by leaning towards self-correction, our students build independence and learn to grow from their mistakes on their own.
I have a lot more to say about self-correction and testing.
But maybe Iâll first let this sink in for yâall.
Looking forward to hearing your feedback.
Have a wonderful Shabbos,
Shmuel
*Oh wait, you donât want to start your own school from scratch? Well, whaddya know? Weâve gone ahead and done all the hard work over here already for you already đ. Reply to this email to schedule a visit.
** whatâs the point of writing a weekly newsletter if I canât give a shout-out to my little brother đŠ once in a while?)
*** Hey, itâs been a while since I wrote so Iâm making it up here đ.