Reggio Emilia
Implementation at Ludlow-Taylor
2009-2010 is a year of transition for the faculty at Ludlow-Taylor. Already we're adding concepts of the Reggio Emilia method into our early education teaching. Each month the faculty of the lower grades visits other sites to observe programs that use the Reggio Emilia method.
Example
Reggio Emilia takes a student's interest and expands it into the direction that the student chooses.
A regular lesson using pets as the topic
A teacher may create a word web with the word "pets" in the middle. The students provide the teacher with the names of different pets, and the teacher writes them on the word web. The teacher may continue the lesson by reading books about some of these different animals. The lesson may continue with the students creating their own book of pets and each day adding a pet chosen by the teacher to the book. The students will draw a picture of a pet and dictate a sentence about the picture, which the teacher would write on the page. After five to ten days, the lesson will end with the teacher perhaps bringing in a pet.
Same lesson using the influence of Reggio Emilia
Teacher will create a word web by writing the word "pets" in the middle of the web. Students will then give the teacher names of different pets that she will write into the web. The lesson may continue with students bringing in pictures of their pets to be placed on the web or the students may draw pictures of their pets to put on the web. The lesson could also continue with students taking turns to bring in their virtual pets (photo or stuffed animal) each day for perhaps a week at a time. During that week, the students will explore that pet in whatever direction they choose. For example they may focus on foods that the animal eats, creating a home for the animal, creating the animal's environment. The lesson may continue with the students creating a book about their pet. That pet book will contain the pets of the student's choosing using the visual material that the students have picked. The lesson could continue for several months and could even end with a Pet Show. All the students may bring in their pets and display their pets in different categories where the pets actually win prizes.
—example submitted by Ms. Campbell, Pre-K3 Teacher